The axe is behind the door in the garage. Watch your hands!"
Raymond went outdoors and plodded dejectedly across the courtyard towards the rabbit cages. He stared at Caesar for a moment through the netting. It's lying there just like a baby, he thought, rolled up like a soft little ball. Its eyes were closed. It didn't move when he opened the cage and stuck his hand cautiously inside. It was just as warm as always. He took a firm grip of the skin on the scruff of its neck and lifted it out. It kicked half-heartedly, seeming to have little strength.
Afterwards he slumped in his chair at the kitchen table. In front of him lay an album with pictures of the national soccer team and birds and animals. He was looking very depressed when Sejer arrived. He was wearing nothing but tracksuit bottoms and slippers. His hair stood up from his head, his belly was soft and white. His round eyes looked sulky, and his lips were pursed, as if he were sucking hard on something.
"Hello, Raymond." Sejer gave a deep bow to appease him a bit. "Have I come at a bad time?"
"Yes, because I was just working on my collection, and now you're interrupting me."
"That can be awfully annoying. I can't imagine anything worse. But I wouldn't have come if I didn't have to, I hope you realise that."
"Yes, of course, yes."
He relaxed a little and went back to the kitchen. Sejer followed him and put the drawing materials on the table.
"I'd like you to draw something for me," he said.
"Oh no! Not on your life!"
He looked so worried that Sejer put his hand on Raymond's shoulder.
"I can't draw."
"Everybody can draw," Sejer said.
"Well, I can't draw people."
"You don't have to draw any people. Just a car."
"A car?"
Now he looked suspicious. His eyes narrowed and looked like ordinary eyes.
"The car that you and Ragnhild saw. The one that was driving so fast."
"You keep on talking about that car."
"That's true, but it's important. We've put out a bulletin, but no one has contacted us. Maybe he's a bad person, Raymond, and if he is, we have to catch him."
"But I told you it was driving too fast."
"You must have seen something," Sejer said, lowering his voice. "You noticed that it was a car, didn't you? Not a boat or a bike. Or a caravan of camels, for instance."
"Camels?" He laughed heartily, making his white belly quiver. "That would have been funny, seeing a bunch of camels going down the road! There weren't any camels. It was a car. With a ski-box on the roof."
"Draw it," Sejer commanded.
Raymond gave in. He sank on to a chair at the table and stuck his tongue out, like a rudder. It only took a few minutes to realise that he had been right. His drawing looked like a piece of crispbread on wheels.
"Could you colour it too?"
Raymond opened the box, carefully examined all the crayons, and finally selected the red one. Then he concentrated hard, trying not to colour outside the lines.
"Red, Raymond?"
"Yes," he said brusquely, and kept on colouring.
"So the car was red? Are you sure? I thought you said it was grey."
"I said it was red."
Sejer pulled a stool out from under the table, and thought carefully before he spoke. "You said you couldn't remember the colour. But that it might have been grey, like Ragnhild said."
Raymond scratched his stomach, looking offended. "I remember things better after a while, you know. I told him that yesterday, the man who was here, I told him it was red."
"Who was that?"
"Just a man who was out walking and stopped in the courtyard. He wanted to see the rabbits. I talked to him."
Sejer felt a faint prickling on the back of his neck.
"Was it someone you know?"
"No."
"Can you tell me what he looked like?"
Raymond put down the red crayon and stuck out his lower lip. "No," he said.
"Don't you want to tell me?"
"It was just a man. And you won't like what I say, anyway."
"Please tell me. I'll help you. Fat or thin?"
"In between."
"Dark or light hair?"
"Don't know. He was wearing a cap."
"Is that right? A young man?"
"Don't know."
"Older than me?"
Raymond glanced up.
"Oh no, not as old as you. Your hair is all grey."
Thanks a lot, thought Sejer.
"I don't want to draw him."
"You don't have to. Did he come by car?"
"No, he was walking."
"When he left, did he head down the road or up towards Kollen?"
"Don't know. I went in to see to Papa. He