I wondered if Yngve Mork had talked to her yet, or if she had volunteered to go to the station. I was about to ask, but she downed the rest of her glass and turned to mix herself another drink.

When Oskar rang the bell a little while later, Mum was all smiles again. I could tell she was tipsy. She met my best friend in the hall with a broad smile.

‘Oskar,’ she almost shouted. ‘How nice to see you again. How are you?’

I sent her a quick look that said ‘don’t overdo it, Mum’, but she clearly didn’t take the hint. She wanted to know what we were going to do now, what we were going to do later. I don’t know how many times I said ‘Mum’ in a sharp voice, but it didn’t stop her. I finally managed to drag Oskar away from her and down to my room.

For an hour or so we just ate crisps and played Call of Duty. It felt really good to do something ordinary and normal again. We stayed away from group chats though, as I didn’t want to communicate with anyone.

Oskar’s phone rang after we’d been playing for a while. He looked at the display, but decided to ignore it. ‘Just my Mum having a go again,’ he explained.

‘Having a go about what?’ I wanted to know.

Oskar sighed heavily. ‘With everything that’s happened, she … she thinks I should just stay home.’

‘She’s afraid.’

‘Yeah, and…’ He looked at me quickly, then back at the monitor.

She’s afraid of me, I thought. She’s afraid that I would do something to her son.

I couldn’t quite believe it. But then again, I couldn’t really blame her, either. According to a lot of people in Fredheim I was capable of triple murder. I thought about that for a second, about the things I’d said to my friends earlier in the day – about anyone being capable of killing someone. Was that really true? Could my mother, for instance, do that? Could Oskar? Could I?

I really didn’t know.

And that was maybe what scared me the most.

44

44

The largest conference room at Fredheim’s arts centre was equipped with everything a good police investigation required. A whiteboard, pens in various colours, a projector, monitors and, most importantly, a coffee machine that took capsules of various sizes and strengths, and that only needed a refill of water every now and then.