You must have heard of that one as well.’ He nodded, and I went on: ‘What I’m trying to say is… that this case may not be what it appears to be at first glance. That’s why it’s so important that we hear the version of events of all those implicated.’
‘Impli…?’
‘Yes, all of those who are involved in some way or other.’
He nodded heavily. I thought I could discern a first glint of understanding in his eyes.
‘So you tell me now… You do remember, don’t you… The last time I saw you was almost exactly ten years ago, when you moved here in 1974. To Kari and Klaus in Angedalen. You were well looked after, weren’t you?’
Again he tossed his head in that way of his. ‘They were OK.’
‘Yes? You were treated well in their house?’
‘They were OK,’ he repeated, as though I hadn’t heard the first time.
‘Good. You went to school. Now you’re starting the final years, I’ve been told. Electronics, right?’
He nodded. ‘… Lectronics.’
‘Right, but that’s fine, isn’t it?’
‘Yup.’
‘And then you got to know Silje.’
He didn’t answer.
‘How long have you known her?’
‘From — kiddies’ school.’
‘She’s a foster child too, isn’t she…’
He nodded.
‘So in a way you were in the same situation?’
He looked at me and tossed his head. ‘Mm.’
‘Did she become… your girlfriend?’
Again he went red. The corners of his mouth twitched, but this time it might have been a smile pushing through rather than anything else. ‘She is now!’
‘So when she went up with you to Trodalen yesterday, it wasn’t because you forced her?’
His brow darkened. ‘No! That’s lies, something the sergeant cooked up.’ Jan still spoke in dialect.
‘OK, OK. I don’t believe you forced her. I realised that as soon as I saw you. That she wasn’t a hostage in any shape or form, I mean.’
‘No! She wasn’t.’
‘Right.’ I waited for a bit, until he had calmed down. ‘But what she said up there…’
Again his eyes turned wary.
‘You heard it as well, didn’t you. It was me who did it, she said. Have you got anything to say to that?’
He pursed his lips, like a reflection of the six-and-a-half-year-old Jan ten years before.
‘She blamed… Klaus,’ I whispered.
He didn’t answer.
‘Was there anything in what she said?’
His expression smouldered and I could see him fighting with the words that just would not come out. For a moment I was afraid he would go on the attack, and I involuntarily tensed my stomach muscles, ready to get to my feet if it was necessary.
Then he seemed to shrink inside himself again, crumpled up, lowered his head and stared down at the table top. ‘Dunno,’ he mumbled.
I sighed. ‘Perhaps we should take it right from the beginning, Jan Egil. Can you tell me what happened the day before yesterday, on Monday?’
His reaction was instant. ‘I wasn’t at home!’
‘But… where were you then?’
‘At Silje’s house!’
‘At night?’
‘Yes!’ he said with a defiant stare. ‘We’re old enough!’
‘Yes, yes… but…?’
He suddenly looked almost pleased with himself. ‘Her parents… Klara and Lars. They didn’t hear anything. But we were sleeping together, all night.’
I smiled sympathetically. ‘Through till Tuesday?’
‘Through till Monday!’
‘Through till… OK. But you had to go to school then, on Monday?’
‘Yeah. I just popped by to fetch my bag. Popped home to Libakk.’
‘And…what happened?’
He looked across at me. ‘Nothing.’
‘But… didn’t you speak to them?’
‘No.’
‘You just…’
‘I just shouted. But when I didn’t get an answer, I assumed they were in the cowshed. So I just made myself a packed lunch and rushed off to the school bus. It wasn’t until I came home, in the afternoon, that I — found them.’
‘You found them! Where?’
‘In their bedroom. Klaus was in bed, Kari over by the window. Shot, both of them.’
He told me this with the same intonation as if we were both sitting in a chair and reading a newspaper, strangely untouched, as if this had nothing to do with him at all.
‘And the weapon?’
‘It was on the floor, just inside the door. Klaus’s rifle, the one he uses for deer-hunting.’
I studied him. His expression was hard to decipher. It was flat and catatonic, the way I remembered him in 1974.
‘So this is Monday afternoon…?’
He nodded in silence.
‘But you didn’t ring the police?’
‘No, I knew what it would be like. Knew who would get the blame… and that was how it turned out of course.’
‘But what did you think you would do? Leave them lying there?’
He didn’t answer, just pursed his lips tightly and tossed his head in his characteristic way.
‘Silje. Didn’t you tell her?’
He just shook his head.
‘Did you talk to her at all that day?’
‘No, not after school.’
‘Tell me… you say you slept together the whole night. Through till Tuesday. Could she have nipped out while you were asleep and down to Libakk?’
His face changed colour. ‘It wasn’t Silje!’
‘So who was it then?’
‘How should I know! Somebody trying to rob them perhaps.’
‘Well… we’ll have to hear what the forensic examination turns up. So what then? Tell me what happened on Tuesday.’
‘I didn’t go to school that day.’
‘Oh, what did you do then?’
‘I went into the cowshed, Monday night and Tuesday morning. Someone had to look after the animals.’
I nodded. ‘So you’ve taught yourself to milk?’
‘We’ve got a machine.’
‘Right, of course. But when you’d finished that?’
‘I just sat there, in the sitting room, waiting for something to happen.’
‘Uhuh? With Klaus and Kari lying dead upstairs.’
