I had to ransack my brain. ‘If I remember correctly, it was something to do with Ansgar Tveiten being killed somewhere round here.’
She nodded. ‘It was near Bygstad, at the far end of Dals fjord. He was found by the water’s edge, half- dragged under an old boat-house.’
‘In 1973, I think it was.’
‘Could well be right. But the case was never solved. It was obviously quickly written off as the settling of a score inside the province’s criminal fraternity.’
‘Right. The main suspect, however, was supposed to have been a hard nut from Bergen. Someone by the name of Terje Hammersten. The name mean anything to you?’
‘No.’
‘He was Tveiten’s brother-in-law.’
‘Really?’
‘Tveiten was married to his sister. I don’t recall her name, but I can find out.’
‘Trude,’ she said. ‘Silje’s mother.’
‘My God! Are there any other connections? Where is this Trude now?’
‘I believe she lives in Dale. That was the last I heard of her. She’s supposed to have recovered, so they say, but there was never any talk of Silje going back… there.’
‘No?’
‘No. She never made a move in that direction, either. I mean… when her husband was killed, Silje was five years old and at that time Trude was totally unfit to take care of her.’
‘A strange coincidence.’
‘What’s on your mind now?’
‘Listen. This Terje Hammersten, in both 1970 and 1974 he was sort of living with Jan Egil’s mother. His real mother. Furthermore, he’s Silje’s uncle, who was under suspicion of killing her father.’
‘Yes, and so what?’
‘In 1974 Jan Egil’s foster mother, Vibecke Skarnes, was sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment for having pushed her husband down a staircase during a row. She’s been out for ages now.’
‘But has this Terje Hammersten got anything to do with that case?’
‘Not at all, as far as I know.’
She looked at me in desperation. ‘Now you’ve got me completely confused, Varg!’
‘Yes, but I can console you with the fact that I am no less confused myself. Now what I wanted to say was this… These two children, with their parallel fates, each end up on a farm in Angedalen… and today, at the police station here in Forde, where Jan Egil, from what I can see, is being charged with murder…’
‘But… do you think there’s some connection between all these events in Bygstad, Bergen and now Angedalen?’
‘For the time being I don’t think anything. But there are a conspicuous number of tangents meeting here, and the clearest of them all is Terje Hammersten.’
‘Right…’ She splayed open her arms. ‘Then I think you should tell the sergeant that.’
‘That’s what I’ve been thinking of doing, as soon as I’ve got my head straight.’
We sat in silence for a while. Then I changed the topic. ‘But turning to you… I think the sergeant addressed you as fru…’
She smirked again. ‘Yes, I suppose he did.’ After a short pause she added: ‘But I’m not any longer, even though I’ve kept the surname.’
I nodded. ‘Then we’re in the same boat, too. Unless there was anything more dramatic than a divorce?’
‘Not at all! No brutal death on my farm, Varg.’
She didn’t say any more, and I didn’t ask. From reception I heard a voice I recognised. Soon afterwards Hans Haavik joined us.
I hadn’t seen him for some years, and he had put on a few more kilos. Otherwise he was the same, though in a somewhat emotional state. ‘Hi, Varg… Grethe…’ He shook hands with me, and Grethe received a hug. Then he fixed his eyes on me. ‘This is one hell of a situation, isn’t it. Have you any idea what happened?’
I shook my head. ‘Nothing beyond the facts as they appear.’
‘And they are…?’
‘Well, I don’t know much more than what’s in the papers. But I went with them to get Johnny boy — Jan Egil — down from the mountain last night. For some reason it was me he had asked to talk to.’
He grimaced and nodded. ‘He must have had positive memories of you from the last time. I came as fast as I could after Grethe called me yesterday. But the worst thing of all, do you know what that is?’
‘No.’
‘I was here last weekend and visited them. I’m going to be regarded as a bloody witness in the case.’
‘You visited them?’
‘Yes. I don’t know if you remember, but Klaus was in fact my second cousin. I’ve always kept in touch with them. I’ve followed Jan Egil year on year, and it’s been a pleasure to observe his behaviour.’
I hurled my arms in the air. ‘And there was I… imagining I would have to travel round the district to make enquiries, but here we have the main man in our very midst. Come on!’
‘Well, what should I say? There was nothing to suggest that there was anything brewing. As you know, it was me who arranged for Klaus and Kari to take him, but you can imagine what I think about that idea now!’
‘Yes, but no one could guess that something like this would happen.’
‘No, and he settled in quickly here. I’m sure you remember. I brought him here myself, in September that year. Later I popped by at least once every six months, even more often in the first years, to see how things were developing. And it was all positive. Of course, it could be pretty isolated here, especially in the winter, and there weren’t that many children of his age around, either. But after a while a girl turned up in one of the neighbouring farms, and of course there were a few others, too. After he started school. But… well, I won’t hide the fact that he was a struggle for them. Klaus and Kari, I mean. He was a restless fellow. Hyperactive you would call him nowadays, with huge emotional problems. Not much surprise, of course, with the trauma in his past, both from the children’s home, if we can use such a sophisticated term for it, and from — well, you know. But it got better bit by bit, and now he had started upper school, a year behind, chosen his career path. Electronics, if I’m not mistaken.’
‘And so you visited them that weekend?’
‘Yes, I drove here on Friday after work and returned on Sunday night. I hadn’t been here since around Easter time, but I finally pulled myself together and, well…’ He opened his palms. ‘I’m glad I did now. In fact it was the last time I saw them. Kari and Klaus.’
‘And you didn’t notice any cause for unease, an atmosphere?’
‘No. Nothing.’
‘Did you spend the night there?’
‘Yes, I always did. The only thing I can say… Jan Egil was hardly there at all. He came home on Friday evening, but then he stayed in his room as soon as we’d eaten. Said he was busy with something. On Saturday he went to a party and didn’t come home until late. I heard him climbing the stairs.’
‘Party?’
‘Yes. At the youth club. Nothing more than that, I believe.’
‘And on Sunday?’
‘He had a long lie-in. Until twelve o’clock. After we’d eaten he was off again. But this time he went out. He was going to Silje’s, he said.’
‘On Sunday afternoon?’
‘Yes. And I didn’t see any more of him. I left at about eight, not to get back home too late, and by then he hadn’t returned. You can imagine the shock I had when Grethe rang me on Tuesday and told me…’
‘Yes, same here. But… did you see anything of Silje that weekend?’
‘Nothing at all.’
‘What’s the relationship between her and Jan Egil? Are they sweethearts?’
He rocked his head back and shrugged. ‘Possible. They’ve played together since they were very small. They went to school together, if not in the same streams. You’ll have to ask…’ He caught himself, and I knew what he
