All of a sudden he opened up a tiny bit and smiled that half-smile of his. 'What she liked best was the downhill run. It's set up so you can choose the kind of snow – coarse or fine-grained, dry or wet – the temperature, the length and weight of your skis, the wind conditions, everything. Annie always won. She would choose the hardest course, either Deadquin's Peak or Stonies. She would make the run in the middle of the night in a huge storm on wet snow with the longest skis, and I never had a chance.'
Sejer gave him a look of incomprehension and shook his head. He poured some Coke into two plastic cups and sat down again.
'Do you know Knut Jensvoll?'
'The coach? I know who he is. I went to handball matches with Annie once in a while.'
'Did you like him?'
Halvor shrugged.
'Not such a great guy?'
'I thought he chased after the girls too much.'
'Annie too?'
'Don't be funny!'
'I rarely am. I was just asking.'
'He didn't dare. She didn't let anyone get too close.'
'So she was tough?'
'Yes.'
'But I don't understand it, Halvor.'
He shoved his plastic cup aside and leaned forward.
'Everyone speaks so well of Annie – about how strong and independent and sporty she was. Didn't care too much about her appearance, seemed almost stand-offish. Didn't let anyone get too close, as you say. And yet she went with someone deep into the woods, to the lake. Apparently of her own free will. And then,' he lowered his voice, 'she let herself get killed.'
Halvor gave him a frightened look, as if the absurdity of the situation finally dawned on him, in all its horror.
'Someone must have had power over her.'
'But was there anyone who had power over Annie?'
'Not as far as I know. I didn't, that's for sure.'
Sejer drank his Coke. 'A damn shame she didn't leave anything behind. A diary, for example.'
Halvor bent his head over his cup and took a long gulp.
'But could it be true?' Sejer said. 'That someone actually had some kind of hold over her? Someone she didn't dare defy? Could Annie have been mixed up in something dangerous that she needed to keep secret? Could someone have been blackmailing her?'
'Annie was very law-abiding. I don't think she would have done anything wrong.'
'A person can do lots of wrong things and still be law-abiding,' Sejer said. 'One act doesn't describe a whole person.'
Halvor noted those words, carefully storing them away.
'Are drugs available in that little village of yours?'
'Jesus, yes. Have been for years. You guys show up at regular intervals and raid the pub in the middle of town. But this can't have anything to do with that. Annie never set foot in there. She scarcely even bought anything at the shop next door.'
'Halvor,' Sejer said, 'Annie was a quiet, reserved girl who liked to be in control of her life. But think carefully: did she also seem scared of something?'
'Not exactly scared. More… closed down. Sometimes almost angry, sometimes resigned. But I
He was suddenly eager to talk. 'Her mother and father and Solvi were in Trondheim, where her aunt lives. Annie and I were home alone. I was going to stay over. It was last spring. First we took a ride on our bikes, then we stayed up late, listening to music. It was really warm, so we decided to sleep in a tent in the yard. We set everything up and then went inside to brush our teeth. I went back to the tent first. When Annie came, I knelt down and opened the sleeping bag. And there was a snake inside. A big black snake, coiled up inside the sleeping bag. We rushed out of the tent, and I went to get one of the neighbours who lives across the road. He thought it must have crawled into the sleeping bag to get warm. The neighbour managed to kill it. Annie was so scared that she threw up. And from then on I had to shake out her sleeping bag when we went camping.'
'A snake in her sleeping bag?' Sejer shivered, remembering his own camping trips in his distant youth.
'Fagerlund ridge is crawling with snakes; it's a rocky slope. We put butter out and catch a lot of them.'
'Butter? Why butter?'
'They eat it until they're practically in a stupor. Then all you have to do is pick them up.'
'I hear you also have a sea serpent at the bottom of the fjord.'
'That's right,' Halvor said. 'I've seen it myself. It only shows itself once in a while, when the wind is blowing in a certain way. It's actually a rock in the lake, just below the surface of the water, and when the wind changes from an onshore to an offshore, there's a loud roaring, three or four times. Then it's quiet again. It's really odd. Everyone knows what it is, but if you're out there all alone, you don't doubt for a minute that something is rising up from the deep. The first time I rowed away like crazy without turning around even once.'
'But you can't think of a single person who knew Annie and might have wanted to harm her?'
'Not one,' he said. 'I've thought over and over about everything that happened, and I can't make sense of it. It must have been a madman.'
Yes, Sejer thought, it could have been a madman. He drove Halvor home, manoeuvring the car right up to the front steps.
'I suppose you have to get up early,' he said kindly. 'It's late.'
'I usually don't have any trouble setting up.'
Halvor liked him and didn't like him. It was confusing.
He climbed out, opened the door cautiously, hoping his grandmother was asleep. To make sure, he peeked through a crack in the door and heard her snoring. Then he sat down in front of the monitor again and continued where he had left off. He kept on thinking of new things. Suddenly he remembered that she once had a cat that they found in a snowdrift, as flat as a pizza. He typed in the name Baghera. Nothing happened, but he hadn't really expected it to. He thought of this as a long-term project, and besides, there were other ways. In the back of his mind an idea for a simple solution to the problem was forming. But he hadn't lost hope yet. Besides, that would be cheating. If he managed to find the password on his own, he felt the breach of his promise to Annie would not be as great. He scratched the back of his neck and typed in 'Top Secret'. Just in case. And then he typed 'Annie Holland', both backwards and forwards, because it suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't tried the simplest possibility, the most obvious, which of course she wouldn't have used, and yet might have used after all. 'Access denied'. He shoved his chair back a little from the desk, stretched, and put his hand on the back of his neck again. It prickled, as if something on his neck was annoying him. There was nothing there, but the feeling continued. Surprised, he turned around and stared out the window. A sudden impulse made him stand up and draw the curtains. He had a strong sense that someone was watching him, and the feeling made the hairs on his head stand on end. Swiftly he turned off the light. Outside he heard retreating footsteps, as though someone were running away. He peered through a crack in the curtains but couldn't see anyone. Nonetheless, he was positive that someone had been standing there, all his senses told him this was so, with an undeniable, physical certainty. He switched off the Mac, tore off his clothes, and climbed under the covers. He lay in bed, quiet as a mouse, and listened. Now there was total silence, he couldn't even hear the swaying of the trees in the wind outside. Then, after several minutes, he heard a car start up.
CHAPTER 8
