"Several times, and each time Ada called the police, claiming that I was trying to force my way in. That I was standing at the door and making threats. I'd have had problems at work if there was any more trouble, so I had to give up."
"What about Holland?"
"Holland's all right. Actually, I suspect he thinks it's a nasty business, but he's a wimp. Ada has got him by the balls, she really has. He does what he's told, and so they never fight. You've talked to them, I'm sure you've seen the set-up."
He got up suddenly and went over to stand by the window with his back to them, pulling himself up to his full height.
"I don't know what happened to Annie," he said in a low voice. "But I would have understood it better if something had happened to Sølvi. She's so unbelievably gullible."
Sejer wondered why everyone said that. As if the whole thing were a big misunderstanding, and Annie had been killed by mistake.
"Do you own a motorcycle, Bjørk?"
"No, I don't," he said. "I had one when I was younger. Kept it in a friend's garage, but I finally sold it. A Honda 750. I only have the helmet left."
"What kind of helmet?"
"It's hanging in the hallway."
Skarre peered into the hall and caught sight of the helmet, a full helmet, all black, with a smoke-coloured visor.
"A car?"
"I only drive the Peugeot from the security company. I've made an important discovery," he said, looking at them. "I've seen the mother-child phenomenon up close. It's a kind of holy pact that no one can break. It would be more difficult to separate Ada and Sølvi than to pull Siamese twins apart with your bare hands."
The image made Sejer blink.
"I have to be honest with you," he continued. "I hate Ada, and I don't feel like hiding it. And I know what the worst possible thing would be for her. It would be for Sølvi to grow up enough to fully understand what happened, so that sooner or later she would dare to defy Ada and come here. So we could have a father-daughter relationship, what we were always meant to have, and what we're both entitled to. A proper relationship. That would take the wind out of her sails."
He suddenly looked worn out. A tram thundered past outside, its bell clanging, and Sejer stared at the picture of Sølvi again. He tried to imagine his own life taking a different turn. What if Elise had ended up hating him and had moved out, taking Ingrid with her, even winning a court ruling forbidding them from seeing each other? The thought made him dizzy.
"So," he said softly, "Annie Holland was the kind of girl you wish Sølvi had been?"
"Yes, in a way. She's independent and strong. Was," he said, and turned around. "This is goddamned awful. I hope for Eddie's sake that you find the bastard who did it, I really do."
"For Eddie's sake? Not for Ada's?"
"No," he said fervently. "Not for Ada's sake."
"Quite an eloquent man, wasn't he?"
Sejer started the car.
"Do you believe him?" Skarre asked, signalling for him to turn right at Rundingen.
"I don't know. But there was a lot of despair behind that gruff mask of his, and it seemed genuine. I'm sure there are mean and calculating women in the world. And women do have a kind of first claim to their children. It must be bitter to be slapped with something like that, accusations that it won't do any good to deny. Maybe it really does have to be that way," he said as he steered the car away from the tram tracks. "Perhaps it's a biological phenomenon that's supposed to protect the children. A real bond with the mother that is totally unbreakable."
"Jesus!" Skarre listened, shaking his head. "You've got a child – do you really believe what you're saying?"
"No, I'm just thinking out loud. What do you think?"
"I don't have any children!"
"But you have parents, don't you?"
"Yes, I have parents. And I'm afraid that I'm an incurable mama's boy."
"I am too," Sejer said.
Eddie Holland left the accounting offices, said a few words to his secretary, and left. After driving for 20 minutes, he pulled the green Toyota into a large car park. He turned off the engine and sank back against the seat. After a moment, he closed his eyes and stayed like that, quite still, waiting for something that would make him turn around and drive