bronze bird sitting on a perch. A chubby little feathered creature with its head tilted.
"It's broken," she said uncertainly.
Sejer stared in astonishment. The sight of the bronze bird struck him like an arrow at his temple. It was the sort of thing that was placed on the gravestones of small children.
"I could roll up a lump of clay and make a stand for it," S酶lvi said. "Or Papa might help me. It's really pretty."
A picture of a new Annie was slowly taking shape, a more complex Annie than the one Halvor and her parents had presented to him.
"What do you think it's for?" he said.
S酶lvi shrugged. "No idea. Just some kind of decoration that's broken, I suppose."
"You've never seen it before?"
"No. I wasn't allowed in Annie's room when she wasn't home."
She put the bird on her desk, and bent down to the box again.
"Has it been a long time since you saw your father?" he asked as he continued to stare at the bird. His brain was working in high gear.
"My father?" She straightened up and looked at him in confusion. "You mean ... my father who lives in Adamstuen?"
He nodded.
"He was at Annie's funeral."
"You must miss him, don't you?"
She didn't answer. It was as if he had touched on something that she rarely examined properly. Something unpleasant that she tried to forget, a trace of guilty conscience perhaps, about not visiting her father. Sejer felt a little too aggressive at that moment. He had to remember to be respectful, to approach people on their own terms.
"What do you call Eddie?" he asked.
"I call him Papa," she said.
"And your real father?"
"I call him Father," she said simply. "That's what I've always called him. It's what he wanted, he was always so old-fashioned."
Was. As if he no longer existed.
"I hear a car!" she said, sounding relieved.
Holland's green Toyota pulled up in front of the house. Sejer saw Ada Holland set one foot on the gravel and cast a glance at the window.
"That bird, S酶lvi, could I have it?" he said quickly.
"The broken bird? Sure, take it."
She handed it to him with an inquisitive look.
"Thanks. I won't disturb you any longer," he said, and left the room. He tucked the bird into an inside pocket and went back to the living room. He leaned against the wall and waited.
The bird. Torn from Eskil's headstone. In Annie's room. Why?
Holland came in first. He nodded and held out his hand, with his face turned away. There was something resigned about him that hadn't been there before. Mrs Holland went to the kitchen to make coffee.
"S酶lvi's going to have Annie's room," Holland said. "So it won't stand there empty. And we'll have something to keep us busy. We're going to take out the dividing wall and put up new wallpaper. It'll be a lot of work."
Sejer nodded.
"I have to get something off my chest," Holland said. "I read in the paper that an 18-year-old boy was taken into custody. Surely Halvor couldn't be the one who did this? We've known him for two years. It's true that he's not an easy person to get to know, but I have good instincts about people. Not to insinuate that you don't know what you're doing, but we just can't imagine Halvor as a murderer, we just can't, none of us can."
Sejer could. Murderers were like most people. Maybe he'd blown his father's head off, killed him in cold blood as he slept.
"Is Halvor the one in custody?"
"We've released him," Sejer said.
"Yes, but why was he taken into custody?"
"We had no choice. I can't tell you any more than that."
"So as not to prejudice the investigation?"
"That's right."
Mrs Holland came in with four cups and some cookies in a bowl.
"But has something else come up?"
"Yes." Sejer stared out the window, searching for something that would divert their attention. "For the time being I can't say much."
Holland gave him a bitter smile. "Of course not. I imagine we'll be the last people to find out. The newspapers will know long before we do, when you finally catch the killer."
"That's not true at all." Sejer looked into his eyes, which were big and grey like Annie's. They were brimming with pain. "But the press is everywhere, and they have contacts. Just because you read something in the paper doesn't mean that we've given them the information. When we make an arrest, you will be told, I promise you that."
"No one told us about Halvor," Holland said in a low voice.