think idiots are just as dependent on other people's good will to feel happy as the rest of us are. And here's something you should never forget: even though he can't interpret his surroundings in the same way you can, there's nothing wrong with his vision."
Johnas's face stiffened slightly. He escorted them out. As they went down the stairs to the first floor, Sejer felt the camera lens like a laser beam on the back of his neck.
They went to Sejer's apartment to collect Kollberg, and let him stretch out on the back seat of the car. The dog is alone too much, Sejer thought, tossing him an extra piece of dried fish. That must be why he's so impossible.
"Do you think he smells bad?"
Skarre nodded. "You should give him a Fisherman's Friend lozenge."
They drove towards Lundeby, turned off at the roundabout, and parked next to the letterboxes. Sejer walked along the street, fully aware that everyone could see him, all 21 houses. Everyone would think he was going to see Holland. But at the end of the road he stopped and looked back, towards the house belonging to Johnas. It looked semi-vacant. The curtains were drawn in many of the windows. Slowly he walked back.
"The school bus leaves the roundabout at 7.10 a.m. every morning," he said. "All the kids in Krystallen going to school take it. So they leave home at about 7 a.m. in order to catch the bus."
A slight breeze was blowing, but not a hair on his head moved.
"Magne Johnas had just left for school when Eskil got the food caught in his throat."
Skarre waited. A prayer for patience flitted through his mind.
"And Annie left a little later than the others. Holland remembered that they had overslept. She walked past his house, maybe while Eskil was sitting there eating breakfast."
"Yes. What about it?" Skarre looked at Johnas's house. "Only the windows to the living room and bedroom face the street. And they were in the kitchen."
"I know, I know," he said irritably. They kept on walking, approached the house, and tried to imagine that day, that very November day, at 7 a.m. It's dark at that time in November, Sejer thought.
"Do you think she might have gone inside?"
"I don't know."
They stopped and stared at the house for a moment. The kitchen window was on the side, facing the neighbours' house.
"Who lives in the red house?" asked Skarre.
"Irmak. With his wife and child. But isn't that a pathway between the houses?"
Skarre looked. "Yes, it is. And someone's coming."
A boy appeared between the two houses. He was walking with his head bowed and had not yet noticed the two men in the road.
"It's Thorbj酶rn Haugen, the boy who helped search for Ragnhild."
Sejer stood and waited for him as he strode briskly along the path. Over his shoulder he was carrying a black bag, around his forehead was the same patterned bandanna that he'd worn before. They watched him carefully as he passed Johnas's house. Thorbj酶rn was tall, and he reached to the middle of the kitchen window.
"Taking a short cut?" Sejer asked.
"What?" Thorbj酶rn stopped. "This path goes straight down to Gneisveien."
"Do most people take this route?"
"Sure, it saves you five minutes."
Sejer took a few steps along the path and stopped outside the window. He was taller than Thorbj酶rn and had no trouble peering into the kitchen. There was no high chair there now, just two ordinary kitchen chairs, and on the table an ashtray and a coffee cup on the table. Otherwise the house seemed practically uninhabited. The seventh of November, he thought. Pitch black outside and brightly lit indoors. Anyone outside could look in, but those inside wouldn't be able to see out.
"Johnas gets a little cranky when we go this way," Thorbj酶rn said. "Says he's sick of this short cut past his house. But he's moving."
"So all the young people use this short cut to catch the school bus?"
"Everyone who goes to the junior high and high school."
Sejer nodded to Thorbj酶rn and turned back to Skarre. "I remember something Holland said when we talked in my office. On the day Eskil died, Annie came home from school earlier than usual because she was sick. She went straight to bed. He had to go to her room to tell her about the accident."
"Sick in what way?" Skarre wanted to know. "I thought she was never sick."
"He said that she wasn't feeling well."
"You think she saw something, don't you? Through the window?"