‘Did he tell you anything about himself?’
She thought about it.
‘He lived with his mum in one of those terraced housed in Nattmål. And he went to Sanderud College. His dad is dead. That was all we knew.’
She looked up at Sejer.
‘He had a bottle in his hand the whole time,’ she said, ‘and I told them they had to stop it because we didn’t even know if he was allowed to drink alcohol. And he still had to get home. Somehow or other.’
‘And that was how the evening went on? You sat on the floor drinking?’
‘As you can see, there’s not enough room to dance here,’ she said.
‘Go on,’ Sejer said. ‘What happened next?’
‘It was late,’ she said, ‘and I had to throw people out because no one wanted to leave. It was so cold outside. It’s impossible to have a conversation with drunk people,’ she sighed.
Sejer looked at her gravely.
‘Was there anything else, apart from alcohol, being passed around that night?’
‘Not that I know of. And if I had suspected anything, then I would have made people stop. I can’t risk it. My dad would kill me.’
‘Do you like Axel Frimann?’ Skarre asked.
She looked confused. ‘He’s always got loads of girls chasing after him.’
‘Strictly speaking that’s not a proper answer to my question,’ Skarre said.
‘Being Axel’s girl gives you status,’ she explained.
‘I understand he’s quite a guy,’ Skarre said.
‘I don’t care about status,’ she said.
‘You started throwing people out,’ Sejer said. ‘How did they get home?’
‘Most of them took a cab. They shared and split the fare. Some walked because they live locally, and a few had caught the last bus.’
‘And Kim Van Chau?’
‘He was the biggest problem. At that point he was really drunk. But it was three o’clock by then, and I didn’t want anyone sleeping on the floor when I woke up in the morning. He didn’t have any money either, so I told Axel and the others that they had to give him a lift back. They could drop him right where my friends had picked him up, right by the letterboxes at the bottom of the hill in Nattmål. From there it’s only a short walk to his front door. I thought about his mum, she was probably waiting up for him. Then we had a row.’
‘And what was the outcome?’ Sejer asked.
‘It ended up that Axel and Reilly dragged him through the door and bundled him into the Mercedes,’ she said. ‘But that was after I had argued with Axel for a long time. He is very stubborn.’
‘Had Axel been drinking?’
‘Don’t think so,’ she mumbled. She started twirling a ring on her finger and Sejer recalled Yoo Van Chau’s words. Watch their hands, see if they flap.
‘What about Reilly and Jon?’
‘Jon was completely out of it,’ Irene said, ‘because he couldn’t hold his drink either. And Reilly was looking pretty wasted, too.’
‘So we have the following scenario,’ Sejer said. ‘It’s three o’clock in the morning. Axel, Jon, Reilly and Kim leave by the front door to drive to Nattmål. Did you see them get into the car?’
‘I can only see the water,’ she said.
‘But as far as you were concerned, Axel was driving Kim to Nattmål?’
‘That was the deal,’ she said. ‘He promised. Jon and Reilly promised.’
‘So that was the last time you saw Kim Van Chau?’ Sejer asked. ‘When Axel and Reilly helped him through the door?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘That was the last time I saw him.’
CHAPTER 24
Ingar and Ragni Lund had also been to Irene’s party in Skjæret. They were twins. Sejer was fascinated by their similarities, which manifested themselves not only in their features, but also in their gestures, even though they were not identical twins.
‘When we turned up, the party had already been going for a couple of hours,’ Ragni explained, ‘and Kim had been assigned the role of mascot.’
‘He was drunk. He laughed at everything we said. He looked like a happy little goblin with his black hair.’
Sejer made a note and looked up at the twins again.
‘Did anyone leave the party and come back later?’ he wanted to know.
‘Yes, someone did, didn’t they? Stian and Jon went off to buy mixers,’ Ingar said. ‘There’s a petrol station on the main road which is always open. Shell,’ he explained. ‘They were gone about half an hour.’
‘Anyone else?’
‘No.’
‘Did anyone go into the other rooms?’
They both shook their heads.
‘Irene had locked the door to her bedroom,’ Ragni explained, ‘because she didn’t want anyone making out in there.’
‘Do you know if any of the guests already knew Kim?’
‘No one knew Kim,’ Ragni said. ‘Suddenly he appeared in the doorway, and Irene didn’t have the heart to tell him to go. It was so cold that night, it was almost minus twenty, and he wasn’t properly dressed. He was only wearing a thin jacket. He wouldn’t have survived.’ And then she remembered that he had not survived.
‘Were there any problems during the evening?’
‘Only minor rows,’ Ingar said.
‘About what?’
‘Boys’ stuff. When did bass player X leave band Y, and who took over from him and when did he OD and so on. The kind of things that boys are into.’
‘No arguments relating to Kim?’
‘No.’
‘No form of harassment or bullying?’
The twins shook their heads. ‘We were messing about about, but it was nothing serious.’
‘Would you say that Jon Moreno was drunk?’ Sejer asked.
‘Yes,’ Ingar said. ‘He was drunk.’
‘And Philip Reilly?’
‘He was quite wasted, but he’s bigger, so he can handle more.’
‘What about Axel Frimann?’
‘I think he’d had a few beers earlier in the evening,’ Ragni said, ‘but he was driving so he was careful. He’s fanatical when it comes to that Mercedes. He would never take any chances with it.’
‘When did you leave the party?’
‘Round about one o’clock,’ Ingar said. ‘I think we were among the first to leave. We caught the last bus into town.’
Sejer put down his pen.
‘Kim was found in Glitter Lake,’ he said. ‘Do you know of a place there where young people tend to meet? A beach, a viewpoint?’
‘There’s a beach we go to. We have a lot of parties there in the summer. You drive up along the west side,’ Ragni explained, ‘past the asylum seekers’ centre, and then you take a sharp right. It’s a tiny beach. We call it Copacabana.’
CHAPTER 25
Yoo Van Chau put on a knitted jacket and boots to go down to the letterboxes. At the bottom of the road she stopped and shivered while she pondered that this was the very spot where Kim had stood alone in the cold, hitch-hiking, and a car had pulled over. I imagine he must have been thrilled to be invited to a party, she thought. Finally someone had noticed him and included him. Everything he had always dreamed of had rolled up on four wheels. Two pretty girls and an invitation. Hey you, do you want to come with us? For a moment she was so stunned that she temporarily forgot why she had left the house. She opened her letterbox. Inside lay a thick pile of junk mail. For coffins. And headstones. There was also a catalogue from a florist. Even death is a business, she thought; they get you when you’re down. There are probably some greedy people behind all this glossy paper. Then she remembered that they too would die, the people who made the coffins and carved the stones. And those who tied the wreaths. Sons would die and daughters, mothers would die and fathers, every single one of them would have to make these choices. She felt limp. She clung to the letterbox for a moment and the catalogues slipped from her hands and on to the ground. She had to squat down to pick them up. She sat there clawing at the coffins and the flowers and the headstones. Some dirt had got on to the pages. She wiped it off with her sleeve.