new friends recently? Met any new people? Did she talk about anything like that?"
"She wasn't interested in meeting people." S酶lvi smoothed out her blouse.
"Do you know whether she kept a diary?"
"Oh no, not Annie. She wasn't like that. She was different from other girls, more like a boy. Didn't even use any make-up. Hated getting dressed up. She wore Halvor's medallion, but only because he pestered her about it. In fact, it got in the way when she went running."
Her voice was bright and sweet, as if she were a little girl and not six years older than Annie. Please be nice to me, her voice pleaded gently, you can see how small and fragile I am.
"Do you know her friends?"
"They're younger than me, but I know who they are."
She played with her rings and hesitated for a moment, as if she was trying to make sense of this new situation she had found herself in.
"Who do you think knew her best?"
"She spent time with Anette, but only when they had something specific to do. Not just to talk, I don't think."
"You live a little out of the way here," he said. "Do you think she would ever hitchhike?"
"Never. Neither would I," she said. "But we often can catch a ride when we walk along the road. We know just about everybody."
Just about, he thought.
"Do you think she seemed unhappy about anything?"
"Not unhappy. But she wasn't exactly jumping with joy either. She wasn't interested in much. I mean, girls' things. Just school and running."
"And Halvor, perhaps?"
"I'm not really sure. She seemed a little indifferent about Halvor too. Couldn't ever make up her mind."
Sejer saw an image in his mind's eye of a girl turned slightly away with a sceptical look on her face, a girl who did as she pleased, who went her own way, and who had kept all of them at a distance. Why?
"Your mother says she used to be livelier," he said. "Do you agree?"
"Oh yes, she used to be more talkative."
Sejer cleared his throat. "This change," he said, "did it happen suddenly, do you think? Or did it happen gradually, over a long period of time?"
"No," the two of them glanced at each other. "We're not quite sure. She just became different."
"Can you say anything about when it happened, S酶lvi?"
She shrugged. "Last year sometime. She broke up with Halvor and right after that she stopped playing handball. Plus she was growing so tall. She grew out of all her clothes and got so quiet."
"Do you mean angry or sullen?"
"No. Just quiet. Disappointed, in a way."
Disappointed.
Sejer nodded. He looked at S酶lvi. Her stretch pants were dazzling, the colour of lilacs from his childhood.
"Do you know whether Annie and Halvor had a sexual relationship?"
She turned bright red. "I'm not sure. You'll have to ask Halvor."
"I will."
"The sister," Sejer said, when they were back in the car, "is the kind of girl who often ends up a victim. Of a man with bad intentions, I mean. She's so preoccupied with herself and her appearance that she wouldn't notice the danger signals. S酶lvi. Not Annie. Annie was reserved and sporty. Didn't care about making an impression on anyone. She didn't hitchhike and wasn't interested in meeting new people. If she got into someone's car, it would have been somebody she knew."
Skarre looked at him. 'That's what we keep saying."
"I know."
"You have a daughter who's been through puberty," he said inquisitively. "So what was it like?"
"Oh," Sejer said, looking out the window. "It was mostly Elise who handled that type of thing. But I do remember it. Puberty is a really rough time. She was a sunbeam until she turned 13, then she began to snarl. She snarled until she was 14, then she began to bark. And then it wore off."
It wore off, and he remembered when she turned 15 and became a young woman, and he didn't know how to talk to her. It must have been like that for Holland too. When your child is no longer a child, and you have to find a new language. Difficult.
"So it took a year or two? Before it was over?"
"Yes," he said thoughtfully, "I suppose it did."
"You seem to be focusing on this change in her."
"Something must have happened. I have to find out what it was. Who she was, who killed her and why. It's time we paid a visit to Halvor Muntz. No doubt he's been waiting for us. How do you think he feels?"