CHAPTER 5
The cars were parked diagonally in a row on the grassy bank by the cabin. The sun was higher now and reflected in the windscreens. The fire brigade had turned up with two divers and an orange rubber dinghy on a trailer, the Red Cross with a dog and a search and rescue team. The dog was an Alsatian, sturdy and shaggy with black, intelligent eyes. The police had sent two men. Konrad Sejer was an inspector, and he had a striking presence. He was tall and slim with thick grey hair and lined features. Jacob Skarre was considerably younger with blond curls. The grass was crowded with men and women and Axel went to meet them. He was a man overcome by grief and anxiety, his voice carried on the wind. You could detect traces of anguish and vulnerability in it. Reilly studied the performance. He was impressed, but he had seen it before. Axel could put on a good show and it cost him nothing.
‘We got up at nine and discovered that he was gone,’ he said. ‘It was a shock. He was in such a bad way.’
The inspector shook his hand. The handshake made Axel Frimann gasp.
‘You’ve looked for him?’ Sejer asked.
Axel nodded. ‘We walked across the sheep fields and we called out for him. But all we found was an old swimming costume and it can’t be Jon’s. But we’re more worried about the lake.’
He pointed in the direction of Dead Water.
Reilly stayed silent. It felt strange to hear these lies. As though they had pushed Jon out of the boat and were now covering up their crime. He examined Sejer and Skarre. Their names when spoken in the same breath sounded like a hedge trimmer, he thought. Even though they were face to face with the law and lying through their teeth, all he could think about was the kitten in the cake tin. It baffled him. It had taken root in his heart. It had attached itself there with its claws. I need to get high, he thought.
‘Which one of you called the hospital?’ Sejer asked.
‘I did,’ Axel said. ‘I called the ward.’
‘He had been given permission?’
‘Until Sunday evening. We’re old friends. We picked him up yesterday afternoon. We thought the change might do him good.’
Skarre took a step forward.
‘Do you happen to know the name of his doctor?’
Axel and Reilly looked at each other. ‘Now what was it?’
‘Wigert,’ Axel said. ‘Hanna Wigert.’
Skarre noted it down. He seemed bright and energetic, or as Axel would have put it, eager to please. He raised his eyes towards the black lake.
‘He might have gone for a walk,’ he said calmly. ‘A walk in the woods can do you good when it all gets too much.’
There was something about his eyes, something critical, which signalled that he would not allow himself to be deceived and would not automatically believe what they told him. Reilly grew nervous. The hedge trimmer could come down on them at any moment.
‘We’ve been up since nine,’ Axel said. ‘He would not have gone far on his own. He scares easily.’
‘Does he have a mobile?’ Skarre asked.
‘It’s inside,’ Axel said, ‘and that’s weird. That he didn’t put it in his pocket, because he always does.’
Skarre turned to the divers who were leaning against the rescue vehicle.
‘All right,’ he called out. ‘Let’s get started.’
He fixed his glance on Reilly.
‘Were you drinking last night?’
Reilly shrugged. ‘We had a little wine. Jon was the first to go to bed, but he wasn’t drunk, if that’s what you were thinking.’
‘I don’t think anything,’ Skarre said.
Then, having considered this for a moment, he asked: ‘Are you missing anything?’
‘What do you mean?’ Axel frowned.
‘Is anything missing?’ Skarre explained. ‘Did Jon Moreno take anything with him?’
‘We haven’t noticed anything missing,’ Axel said.
Skarre issued instructions to the emergency team, and the divers started carrying their equipment down to the lake. Skarre himself joined Sejer in the cabin. Reilly followed. He went to the kitchen and lifted the kitten out of the cake tin. His hands were the size of plates. You could eat porridge out of them, Axel used to say. The kitten was lying there, curled up.
‘Where did you find it?’ Sejer said.
‘In the forest,’ Reilly said. ‘The other kittens were dead. So was their mother. I brought it inside. There are foxes around here.’
‘Yes,’ Sejer said. ‘They need to eat too.’
‘It’s not food,’ Reilly said gruffly.
They sat down in front of the fireplace. Sejer wanted to know their names, dates of birth and where they worked. If they often came to this cabin at Dead Water, and why it was called Dead Water, did they know? Did they have a map of the area? No, Axel replied. He mostly asked questions about Jon. About how long they had known him. If he was depressed, if he had indicated that he might want to end it all. They said he had been quiet the whole evening, a little introverted, as though he was struggling with difficult issues. He pops anti-anxiety pills all the time, Axel explained.
‘What’s he scared of?’ Sejer asked.
Axel was momentarily wrong-footed.
‘This anxiety of his is complicated,’ he said, ‘because we don’t know all the things that he worried about.’
‘He was scared, but you never asked him what he was scared of?’ Axel and Reilly looked at each other.
‘I don’t think you quite understand anxiety,’ Axel began.
‘Yes,’ Sejer said, ‘I do. And I expect old friends to know one another. His pills, where are they? Did he take them with him?’
Reilly looked up from the kitten.
‘He always keeps them in his pocket. Never goes anywhere without those pills. Not that they do him much good, in my opinion. Jon trembles like an old man. Like this.’
He held up his hand to demonstrate.
Sejer picked up a Nokia mobile phone lying on top of a pile of newspapers.
‘Jon’s mobile?’
The sight of the mobile made Reilly nervous. He got the feeling they had overlooked something. Perhaps it has to do with truth, he thought, it has its own quality which you cannot emulate, its own pure tone.
‘So what do you think?’ Sejer wanted to know.
‘Well,’ Axel said, ‘we fear the worst. That he might have jumped into the lake. Last night. While we were sleeping.’
‘Why would he have done that?’
‘He was hospitalised. In a psychiatric ward.’
‘Is that a reason?’
Axel smiled patronisingly. ‘You probably don’t understand what I mean,’ he said.
‘Can he swim?’ Skarre asked.
‘No,’ Axel said. ‘Jon can’t swim.’
The search and rescue team was moving towards the lake.
Reilly followed Sejer and Skarre with his eyes. They acted as if they owned the place. The cabin, the grassy bank and the lake. There was something very organised about them, a sense of purpose which made him feel uneasy.
Sejer looked at the green boat, then across the lake.
