Kennedy's Brain Page 0,65

not true. I'm his mother. I ought to know.'

'How do I know you're telling me the truth?'

Louise was furious.

'I'm his mother, and I'm totally devastated by his death. You hurt me deeply if you question who I am.'

'I didn't mean to offend you. But Henrik was always talking about his sister.'

'He didn't have a sister. Perhaps he would have liked one.'

The girls lined up along the walls left the bar one after the other. Soon Louise and Lucinda were alone in the silence and darkness, apart from the barman, busy filing away at a thumbnail.

'They are so young, the girls who were sitting here.'

'The youngest are the most sought-after. South African men who come here like to go with twelve- and thirteen-year-olds.'

'Aren't they carrying infections?'

'You mean Aids? The one whose cigarette I lit is ill. But not all of them are. Unlike many of their age, these girls know the score. They look after themselves. They are not the ones who die or pass the infection on.'

But you do, Louise thought. You passed it on to him, you opened the door and allowed death to enter his bloodstream.

'The girls hate what they do. But they only have white men as clients. That means they can tell their boyfriends that they haven't been unfaithful. They've only had sex with white men. That doesn't count.'

'Is that really the case?'

'Why shouldn't it be?'

Louise wanted to ask the question right out, no beating about the bush. Did you infect him? Didn't you know you had the virus? How could you do that?

But she said nothing.

'I have to know what happened,' she said after a while.

'Nothing happened while he was here. Was he alone when he died?'

'Yes, he was alone.'

I don't actually know that, Louise thought. There could have been somebody with him.

She suddenly thought of an explanation for the pyjamas. Henrik did not die in his bed. Only after he had lost consciousness or could no longer offer any resistance had he been undressed and the pyjamas put on him. Whoever was with him in the flat had not known that Henrik always slept naked.

Lucinda suddenly burst into tears. The whole of her body was shaking. The man behind the bar studying his thumbnail raised an eyebrow in the direction of Louise. She shook her head, she did not need any help.

Louise took hold of her hand. It was hot and sweaty. She held hard onto it. Lucinda calmed down, wiped her face with a serviette.

'How did you manage to find me?'

'Henrik left a letter in Barcelona. He wrote about you.'

'What did he say?'

'That you would know if something happened to him.'

'Know what?'

'I don't have the slightest idea.'

'And you've come all the way here, just to talk to me?'

'I have to try to understand what happened. Did he know anybody else here, apart from you?'

'Henrik knew lots of people.'

'That's not the same as having friends.'

'He had me. And Eusebio.'

'Who?'

'That's what he called him. Eusebio. A civil servant at the Swedish Embassy who used to be one of the gang that played football on the beach every Sunday. A very awkward person who was nothing like the footballer of that name. Henrik sometimes used to stay at his place.'

'I thought he stayed with you?'

'I live with my parents and the rest of the family. He couldn't sleep there. Sometimes he would borrow a flat from somebody at the embassy who was away on business. Eusebio used to help him.'

'Do you know his real name?'

'Lars Håkansson. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it right.'

'So you lived there with Henrik?'

'I was in love with him. I dreamed of marrying him. But I never lived with him in Eusebio's house.'

'Did you discuss that? Getting married?'

'Never. It was just a dream I had.'

'How did you meet?'

'The way you always meet – by chance. You walk down a street and turn a corner. Everything in life is about what's in store for you round the corner.'

'Which corner was it where you bumped into each other?'

Lucinda shook her head. Louise could see that she was worried.

'I must get back to the bar. We can talk tomorrow. Where are you staying?'

'At the Hotel Polana.'

Lucinda pulled a face.

'Henrik would never have stayed there. He didn't have enough money.'

Oh yes he did, Louise thought. So he didn't tell Lucinda the whole truth either.

'It's expensive,' she said. 'But my journey was unplanned, as you can probably understand. I'll change hotels.'

'How long is it since he died?'

'A few weeks.'

'I must know the exact date.'

'September 17.'

Lucinda stood