The Water's Edge - By Karin Fossum Page 0,62

of the Toyota.

Brein grimaced. 'I walk with great difficulty,' he maintained.

Sejer nodded sympathetically. 'Precisely. But there are clearly exceptions. Perhaps the fourth of September was one of them, perhaps it was one of your better days and you went for a walk in Linde Forest.'

'I couldn't possibly go for a walk with this hip,' Brein said, placing a hand on his right hip and giving Sejer a look of suffering.

'It was crushed by a Volvo on a pedestrian crossing. The joint is stainless steel and it aches.'

'I see,' said Sejer, still being exquisitely polite. 'But there may have been something you needed to do up there?'

'Which case is this?' Brein asked. His eyes had become evasive now. They flickered around the farmyard, to the barn and the stationary tractor.

'Jonas August L酶we and Edwin ?salid,' Sejer said. 'We've appealed for you to come forward in the newspapers and on every TV channel, several times. To put it plainly, we've been looking for you for nearly four months.'

Brein placed his hands on his knees. He had large hands with yellow fingernails.

'I read about it in the papers,' he said. 'About the two boys.'

He tried to get comfortable in the chair and did so with exaggerated effort.

'They were in all the papers. Huseby was invaded by journalists for weeks. I don't see how it concerns me, what all this fuss is about. This is the second time you've come knocking on my door. And I've told you all I'm going to tell you,' he added.

'Did you go to Linde Forest on the fourth of September?' Sejer asked him.

'I have been known to drive up there,' he said. 'People up there would recognise me because I used to live on Linde Farm when I was a boy. We rented the brewer's cottage.'

'Did you see two people?' Sejer asked. 'A couple in their thirties, right by the barrier?'

'Are you deaf?' Brein yelled. 'I wasn't there on the fourth of September. My hip was playing up.'

Skarre took a step forward. 'You were seen,' he said firmly.

Brein tightened his grip on the wheels. 'Your witnesses are mistaken,' he said.

'Please let us in,' Sejer persisted. 'Let's have a talk. You're very important to us because if you were up there, you might have seen something that can help us.'

'I saw nothing.'

'They noticed that you walk with difficulty,' Skarre said. 'Because you do, don't you?'

Brein shrugged.

'I'm not the only man with a limp around here,' he retorted.

'Of course not,' Skarre said. 'But we have good reason to believe that it was you. It's to do with your appearance. What was your business up there, can you tell me something about that?'

Brein fished a packet of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket. The men followed his movements as he stuck a cigarette in his mouth. He found a disposable lighter and inhaled greedily.

'Well, what might a man be doing in a forest,' Brein speculated. 'Berry-picking, perhaps?'

Sejer made no reply. The fact that Brein had lit a cigarette might mean that he was prepared to continue talking to them, so they stayed where they were.

'No, honestly, I don't go to the forest very much,' Brein said casually. The cigarette glowed against his pale face.

Obviously he's a suspect, Sejer thought, he confirms all our prejudices. All the same, he might be innocent. We must proceed with caution.

'If you happen to think of anything later,' Sejer said, 'something you need to tell us, we would really like you to get in touch.'

'You don't say,' said Brein.

Sejer considered the disturbing fact that they had no grounds for interviewing him. He had been spotted in the relevant area, but he had no previous convictions and there was nothing that linked him to the crime. I've only got one card left to play, he thought, and I've got to play it now.

'However, there's an easy way,' he started, 'to put an end to this. But it requires your co-operation.'

'It would be a relief to get this over with,' Brein said.

He was angry now. Angry that they harassed him when his life was already filled with anguish and misery.

'It so happens,' Sejer went on, 'that we have obtained some evidence. And with your help we can eliminate you.'

'What are you talking about?' Brein asked suspiciously.

'You volunteer to give us a saliva sample.'

A deathly silence followed. Brein's eyes narrowed.

'I refuse to be treated like a criminal,' he exploded.

'A DNA test would also prove your innocence,' Skarre argued.

'I haven't killed those boys,' Brein raged, 'and that's God's honest truth.