In the Darkness (34 page)

Ahron lit another cigarette.

‘It must have been strange for you when Einarsson vanished. Have you thought at all about why he died? I mean, really thought it through. It was actually a genuine misunderstanding, just as you said.’

Ahron gathered himself and lay back in his chair.

‘And then you began to visit Jorun. You knew that we were questioning her. Perhaps you were frightened that Egil had managed to talk?’

‘You’ve obviously been working on this tale a long time.’

‘But listen to this. I just happen to have an interesting piece of news for you. You were seen. A witness saw you, and by that I don’t mean saw you as you left the scene of the crime in Einarsson’s Opel. A witness saw you kill Maja Durban.’

This statement was so extraordinary that it made Ahron smile.

‘Sometimes people are frightened to come forward. Sometimes they have good reasons for not doing so, so it took some time. But she came in the end. She was sitting on a stool in the adjoining room and was looking at you through the door that was open a crack. She’s just made a statement.’

Peddik’s eyes wavered slightly, then he smiled again.

‘Quite a claim, isn’t it?’ continued Sejer. ‘I agree. But you see, this time it isn’t a bluff. You killed her, and you were seen. It was a gross and totally unnecessary murder. Totally unfair. She was a woman’ – Sejer got up from his chair and took a few paces – ‘and a small woman at that,
with
only a fraction of your musculature. According to the pathologist’s report she was one metre fifty-five tall and weighed fifty-four kilos. She was naked. You were sitting over her. In other words’ – he lowered himself into his chair again – ‘she was utterly defenceless.’

‘She wasn’t fucking defenceless, she had a knife!’

His shout reverberated round the room, then there came a sob.

Ahron hid his face in his hands and attempted to keep his body calm. It had begun to shake violently. ‘I want that solicitor now!’

‘He’s on his way, he’s on his way.’

‘Right this bloody moment!’

Sejer leant over to the cassette player and switched on the tape. The voice of Eva Magnus was crisp and clear, even slightly monotonous, she’d been tired by that time, but there could be no mistaking her.

‘“You tarts are fucking greedy. I’ve laid out a thousand for a five-minute job, d’you know how long it takes me to earn that much at the brewery?”’

‘Now perhaps you see why Egil died? You looked quite similar. Easy to make a mistake in that dim light.’

‘The solicitor!’ he cried hoarsely.

Chapter 35

JAN HENRY WAS
skulking in the garage. He was struggling to turn up the legs of his mechanic’s suit, and when he’d finished, he tried to look at himself in an old, cracked windowpane that was leaning against the wall.

Emma Magnus was in her father’s guest room where she had her bed, looking about with a bewildered expression. ‘I’d rather sleep with you two,’ she wheedled.

‘There wouldn’t be room for your bed in there,’ her father said miserably.

‘I could sleep in the bed with both of you,’ she sniffed. ‘I don’t mind lying in the gap.’

Markus Larsgård was taken to hospital in an ambulance. The crew looked quickly through his house, in case there was a dog or cat that was in danger of being shut in. They looked in every room, even in the cellar, which only contained a load of old junk, a broken washing machine, rotten apples and a clutch of old paint tins.

Eva Magnus had pulled the blanket over her head. Beneath the blanket it was dark, and quite soon it got hot. Nothing was happening inside her head.

Karlsen and Sejer strolled down the corridor in silence.
They
continued into the rear lot where the cars were parked. Karlsen aimed for a Ford Mondeo.

‘What will Magnus be sent down for, d’you think?’ He glanced at Sejer.

‘Culpable homicide, I’m afraid.’

Sejer sighed heavily. He felt a knot in his stomach. Children got up to some funny things, they forgot about time, they had no sense of responsibility and anything was possible. Nothing untoward might have happened, it was probably just a small incident. That was what they were hoping, as they walked towards the car. But instinctively, as if at some given signal, they both quickened their steps.

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Published by Harvill Secker 2012

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Copyright © Karin Fossum 1995
English translation copyright © James Anderson 2012

Karin Fossum has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

First published with the title
Evas øye
in 1995
by J.W. Cappelens Forlag AS, Oslo

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
H
ARVILL
S
ECKER
Random House
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road
London SW1V 2SA

www.randomhouse.co.uk

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This translation has been published with the financial assistance of NORLA