The Water's Edge - By Karin Fossum Page 0,39

answered after four rings.

'The police.' She sounded taken aback. 'I see. What's wrong?'

'You have a son named Sverre?'

'Yes, that's right.'

He could hear that she was breathless.

'Is Sverre around right now?'

'Yes, he is. We're at my mother's, he's sitting in front of the television. What's this about?'

'Please would you ask him if he was with Edwin ?salid today?'

'Edwin? Yes, of course. Just a moment please, I'll go and ask him, he's in the next room.'

Skarre could hear her voice growing more distant. Some questions and answers. Then she returned.

'He was out with Isak and Edwin,' she said. 'They went down to the loch. To Guttestranda.'

'Did they walk back home together?'

And this was when the penny dropped. He was a policeman calling to get information about Edwin. She was hit by the full force of what had happened at Linde Forest.

'Dear God,' she gasped. 'Please don't tell me he's gone missing?'

Again she had a muffled conversation with her son. Skarre could make out fragments, he heard the word 'police' and 'Edwin'.

'He was picked up by someone, I think, someone in a white car.'

CHAPTER 22

September 11th.

'Have you had a letter from your school?' Sejer asked.

'What letter?' Sverre and Isak looked at one another, they stood shoulder to shoulder in the doorway. Oh, yes, they had got the letter. They had read it together with the grown-ups and had a serious talk about what it meant. But the letter was about the car that waited outside the school, not the one seen driving down to Loch Bonna.

'Whom did you think it was?' Sejer said. 'Who picked up Edwin?'

'An uncle, maybe?' Sverre said.

'Does Edwin have an uncle?'

He grew nervous and shrugged.

'Did it look as if they knew each other?'

'They were talking through the window,' Sverre said.

His mother, Mathilde Nohr, pinched her son's hair at the back of his neck.

'Now pay attention,' she ordered him. 'This is really important.'

He nodded. He turned away defiantly because she had pulled his hair.

Sejer and Skarre drove the boys down to Loch Bonna.

'Why is the beach called Guttestranda?' Sejer wanted to know.

Sverre put on a precocious face. 'Because boys and girls weren't allowed to swim together,' he said; 'in the old days, I mean.'

'So is there a separate one for girls?'

'Of course. On the other side of Svart Ridge and though it's smaller, the sand is much finer and we can wade almost all the way out to Majaholmen.'

'What did you do while you were here?' Sejer asked.

'We sat on the jetty.'

'Did you see anyone?'

'There was a man taking four dogs for a walk,' Sverre said.

'Do you know him?'

'We don't know him,' Isak said, 'but everyone knows who he is because he's always out walking those dogs. His name's Naper.'

'Tell me a bit about Edwin,' Sejer asked them.

'He doesn't say much,' Isak said. 'He's too busy trying to keep up and he gets out of breath, especially when we're walking uphill.'

'He gets out of breath even when the ground is flat,' Sverre said. 'He gets out of breath if he as much as sees a staircase.'

'What did you do once you were on the jetty?' Sejer asked.

'We ate jelly turtles.'

'Jelly turtles. I see. Are they nice?'

'They're sour,' Isak explained. 'Edwin thinks they're cool.'

Sejer surveyed the landscape. The beach was attractive. There was green grass, a jetty and some bathing huts. The bottom of the loch was covered with stones and, according to the boys, it dropped very deep further out. Three hundred metres with no warning, they explained.

They went on to the jetty and sat down, letting their legs dangle over the edge. They could see their own undulating reflections in the water.

'What were you talking about?' Skarre asked.

'We were talking about Alex,' Sverre said. 'We often do.'

'Who is Alex?'

'He's our teacher, at Solberg School. We're in Year Five and we have him for nearly all our subjects.'

Sverre brushed his fringe away from his face; his hair was coarse and the colour of copper.

'Do you like him?'

They glanced at each other.

'We like him,' Isak said, 'but he's weird.'

Sejer pondered their answer. 'Weird how?'

'He lives with another man,' Isak said. 'He's gay, you see. They both are. Alex and Johannes share the same house. And the same bed.'

They stared into the muddy water. The topic of conversation was making them embarrassed.

'How was Edwin yesterday?' Skarre asked. 'Was he like he normally is?'

'Oh, yes,' Isak said.

'How long was he here on the jetty?'

'I don't know,' replied Sverre. 'We weren't watching the time.'

'There's something important that we really need to be sure about,'