I had been to Ida’s house once before. It was a few weeks after Mari had interviewed me. She wanted me to go with her to a party there. It was the first time I’d properly met her friends. I had seen them, of course, in school and around Fredheim, but they weren’t part of my group; but after that night, all of a sudden they were.

I had a football match the next day, so I stayed away from the booze, which was flowing freely. I really couldn’t stay late either. It was an important match against Ham-Kam, the top team.

Mari and I sent each other looks all evening, and it felt as if we both knew that something was going to happen later that night. When I had to go, she left with me, and the looks she got from her friends, the ones saying ‘we want to know everything’, only confirmed what I’d been thinking.

I walked her home.

There were a few drops of rain in the air that night, but it wasn’t cold. Thunder rumbled in the distance, with the odd lightning strike breaking through the dark clouds. It felt as if somehow the sky was reflecting the electricity between us. And somewhere along the road our hands met.

We stopped outside her house and talked for hours. Quietly, because we didn’t want anyone to hear what we were saying. And that’s where we kissed for the first time. A little, careful kiss to begin with, then more and more intense. My insides rose and fell on the swell, and as I walked home afterwards – a lot later than my coach would like – it felt as if my whole body was smiling.

I lay in bed thinking of Mari. I relived the kisses, the warmth of her body, her tender, sad voice when she said she had to go, as she should’ve been in bed a lot earlier. My dad’s going to kill me, she said.

Now, no one answered when I rang Ida’s bell. I stepped back and looked up at the windows. No twitching curtains. No sound from inside.

‘Ida?’

I coughed and tried again, a bit louder this time, before ringing the bell once more. I heard someone fiddling with an upstairs window lock.

Ida stuck her head out. Her eyes were red and swollen.

‘Hi,’ I said, a bit awkwardly. Ida didn’t answer, but her eyes darkened with anger.

‘Can I talk to you?’ I asked.

‘About what?’ Her voice was always a bit nasal, but it sounded worse now, coming from above my head.

I shrugged. ‘What do you think?’

She didn’t answer.

‘I didn’t kill them.’

‘And why should I believe you?’