'So do I, but it's all we've got. Who would trap another person?'
'Kids,' Skarre said.
'Precisely.'
'I can see the initial attraction. But surely they would have let him out. After a while. After a few hours.'
'Well, would they?'
'Of course. They can't trap one of their friends in an earth cellar and then go home to bed.'
'They may have trouble sleeping,' Sejer said.
The two men looked at each other, then they both shook their heads. Sejer took out his mobile and found a number.
'What are you doing?'
'I'm calling Alex Meyer.'
After a brief conversation he put the mobile back in his packet.
'Sverre is having trouble sleeping,' he said, 'and Isak has started wetting the bed.'
CHAPTER 49
Mathilde Nohr positioned herself by the window.
Her silhouette was sharply defined against the light outside. She placed her hands on Sverre's shoulders, a demonstration of ownership, and there was a smile on her lips, but it failed to reach her eyes. She had asked Sejer to give her a reason for the meeting and his reply had scared the living daylights out of her.
Isak and his father had sat down. His father was as thin as a rake, his hair and eyes were dark. It seemed as though everything was hard for him: his son, this meeting, life itself. Isak was silent and pale, his brown freckles clearly visible, scattered across his cheeks like a fine spray of mud. Sejer looked at the two boys. He noticed that Sverre's right hand was in plaster.
'What happened to your hand?' he asked.
Sverre looked away. 'I broke my finger.'
'Broke your finger? How did you do that?'
No reply.
'We've found Edwin,' Sejer said. He looked at Sverre. 'Do you know where we found him, Sverre?'
'In the earth cellar at Fagre Vest Farm…'
'Did you hear that on the news?'
Sverre traced circles on the floor with his foot. 'Mum told me, she heard it in the shop.'
'What about you, Isak?' Sejer said. 'Did you know where we found him?'
Isak was twining his fingers so fiercely that he, too, was in danger of breaking them.
'Have you ever gone down there to play?'
'Not often,' Sverre said reluctantly.
'But you have been there? The two of you together?'
Sverre shrugged. The parents were on their guard as if they knew deep down that at any second, life would turn around and bite them.
'Someone trapped Edwin in that earth cellar,' Sejer said, 'and for some reason no one came back to let him out. We don't understand why.'
'Pardon me for asking, but what are you insinuating?' asked Mathilde Nohr. She had bags under her eyes. She had lain awake all night staring into the dark.
'I'm hoping I've found an answer,' Sejer said. 'There is not a single scratch on Edwin's body, no one has beaten him or abused him, or hurt him in any other way. Someone trapped him in the earth cellar and we think it might have happened as part of a game. He was with Sverre and Isak on the tenth of September, that's why I'm asking them what happened. If perhaps something went wrong.'
Sverre threw a glance at Isak, but Isak kept studying his hands.
'You need to tell us what happened,' Sejer said, 'and no matter what it is, you will not be punished, no one will hit you or send you to prison.'
At this Isak's father stirred. 'Edwin was picked up by someone in a car,' he said. 'Are you calling my son a liar?'
'I'm not accusing anyone of anything,' Sejer said. 'I'm trying to get the boys to explain themselves. They both have mobiles. Both are in their parents' names, and when we checked them out, we discovered that they called each other several times on the night of the tenth of September. We have a list of five calls in total, the last one made around midnight.'
He looked gravely at Sverre. 'That was when you called Isak and you spoke for three minutes. What was so important that you had to talk to him in the middle of the night?'
'We didn't do anything, really,' Sverre whispered. He emitted a small yelp like a puppy that has got its paw caught in a door.
'I'm sure there is an explanation,' Sejer said, 'and I need it. I need it now,' he added, 'because this business with Edwin has been going on for so long and we are all exhausted.'
Suddenly Sverre started talking. 'We were just sitting there,' he said, 'on the mattress. Just chatting. The trap door was open so we could see what we were doing. We watched Edwin eat the sweets.'
The boy's voice was frail and small. Again he looked at Isak, but received no help from him.
'What were you talking about?'
'Football. Carew. And Solskj?r. That's all.'
'Go on.'
'We were starting to get bored.'
'How long were you there?'
'Dunno. I didn't look at my watch, but I decided to climb back up and Isak followed me. We stood at the top looking down at Edwin, he had trouble getting up the ladder because he was so fat and some of the steps were broken. He had two steps to go, but then he slipped and fell down and he kept doing that. We rolled around laughing because it looked so funny.'
'So you didn't help him?'
'We tried pulling him up, but he was too heavy.'
'Then what did you do?'
'We gave up. We shut the trap door.'
'Why?'
'Dunno. We just did. We pretended that he was our prisoner. It was really cool.'
'And you bolted the trap door?'
'Yeah, we bolted it. And Isak jumped up and down on top of it, but it was just for fun.'
'Were you paying him back for something?'
Sverre adopted a guilt-laden expression. 'He told on us.'
'Whom did he tell?'
'Everyone. Meyer and all the other teachers. He was such a telltale.'
'You had been stealing sweets from the shop, hadn't you?'
'Only sometimes.'
'What did Edwin do when you bolted the trap door?' Sejer asked. 'Did he call out for you?'
'No, it was all quiet. He just sat there. We thought he would start screaming.'
'And then,' Sejer said, 'you went home. Why did you do that?'
'It was tea time,' Sverre said, 'and we thought he could sit there until we had finished eating.'
'Just for fun?'
'Yes, just for fun. Just for a little while. He would be all right on the mattress.'
'I see,' Sejer said. 'So this is what happened: you left Edwin in the earth cellar and went home. You had your dinner. What had you and Isak planned afterwards?'
'That we would meet up outside the Kiwi shop. That we would walk back together and let him out.'
