The preliminary autopsy report came in a little later. Mari had died of asphyxiation, and she had also suffered three fractured ribs, not two, as the chief of the forensic team had first suggested.

There was another detail that struck Yngve as odd.

Mari had been beaten before she died. Not particularly hard, but hard enough for her to suffer a small rupture in her upper lip. It probably hadn’t been more than a punch. Afterwards the killer had put his hands around her neck and squeezed. Everything suggested that the murderer had become angry and then violent, and that he’d later regretted what he’d done. Nothing similar had happened to either Johannes Eklund or Børre Halvorsen.

Mari’s murder is the key to all of this, Yngve thought. It has to be.

Johannes Eklund’s autopsy report didn’t reveal anything they hadn’t already been able to deduce themselves. He had been beaten to death with a sharp, hard object, but so far they hadn’t had any solid leads about where his microphone case might be.

The man on the CCTV footage was still unidentified, but a lot of people still hadn’t been interviewed for the second time. Slowly, but surely, they were moving in the right direction. At least, that’s what Åse kept telling him.

Eighteen people – eighteen tickets from the opening night – were still not accounted for. They’d either not made contact with the police yet – perhaps because they didn’t think they had anything in particular to offer, and so were of little interest; or they were of interest, because they hadn’t hurried to help. That might mean they had something to hide, or they were protecting someone.

The hotline phone rang again. Yngve braced himself for yet another ‘valuable tip’.

He sat up straight, though, when the caller said his name: Ivar Morten Tollefsen. Imo.

After a pause, Imo spoke. He said: ‘There’s something I have to tell you.’

38

NOW

The prosecutor, Ms Håkonsen, is walking up and down in front of me with a glass of water in her hand. My own glass is empty, so I fill it.

‘So even though Ida Hammer had refused to meet you or talk to you, you still went over to her house?’

‘I did.’

‘Why?’

‘She’d been Mari’s best friend. I thought she could help me.’

‘And did she?’

I think about Ida for a second. I haven’t seen her in the courtroom. I know she had a rough time after Mari died, and after…

I clear my throat and say: ‘Well yes. And no.’

39

THEN