Brun. Yes, here was one thread that hadn’t snapped yet. That child had lied to me. The child had seen Mrs. Moses, but had said that it hadn’t seen her. The child had been canoodling with Olaf at the door to his room, but had stated that it slapped him by the dining-room doors… And then suddenly I remembered. I’d been sitting here, in this chair. The floor had shaken, I’d heard the hum of the avalanche. I looked at the clock, it had been two minutes after ten, and then upstairs a door slammed loudly. One flight up. Someone had slammed that door—hard. Who? Simone was shaving at the time. Du Barnstoker was sleeping and, possibly, had just been woken up by the same sound. Hinkus was lying tied up under the table. The owner and Kaisa were in the kitchen. The Moseses were in their rooms. That meant that the door could only have been slammed by either Olaf, or Brun, or the murderer. Hinkus’s double, for example… I threw the poker down and ran upstairs.
The kid’s room was empty, so I knocked on Du Barnstoker’s door. The kid was sitting gloomily at the table, its cheeks propped on its fists. A tartan-wrapped Du Barnstoker was dozing in a chair by the window. Both of them practically jumped when I came in.
“Take your glasses off!” I ordered sharply, and the kid immediately obeyed.
Yes: a girl. A very pretty one, although her eyes were red and swollen from tears. Stifling a sigh of relief, I sat down opposite her and said,
“Listen, Brun. Stop withholding information. You personally are not in any danger. I don’t think you’re the murderer, so you have nothing to gain by lying. At nine ten, Mrs. Moses saw you and Olaf here… in the hallway, outside the door to his room. You lied to me. You and Olaf didn’t go your separate ways at the doors to the dining room. So where did you leave him? Where, when, and under what circumstances?”
She looked at me for some time, her lips trembling, her red eyes again filling up with tears. Then she covered her face with her hands.
“We were in his room,” she said.
Du Barnstoker moaned piteously.
“Don’t moan, uncle!” Brun said, immediately flaring up. “Nothing irreparable happened. We kissed, and it was pretty fun, only cold because his window was open the whole time. I don’t remember how long it lasted. I remember he pulled something that looked like a necklace out of his pocket—beads or something—and wanted to put it around my neck, but then there was a roar and I said, ‘Listen: an avalanche!’ and he suddenly let go of me and held his head as if he’d remembered something… You know how people hold their heads when they remember something important… It lasted a few seconds. He rushed to the window, but then came right back, grabbed my shoulders and literally threw me out into the hallway. I almost fell down, and he slammed the door immediately behind me. He didn’t even say anything, he just swore under his breath, and I remember that he turned the key in the door, too. I didn’t see him again. I was crazy with anger because he’d acted like a pig, he even swore at me, so I immediately went back to my room and got drunk…”
Du Barnstoker groaned again.
“All right,” I said. “He held his head as if he’d remembered something, and rushed to the window… Maybe someone called out to him?”
Brun shook her head.
“No. I didn’t hear anything, only the sound of the avalanche.”
“And you left immediately? You didn’t linger outside the door for a second?”
“Immediately. I was going crazy.”
“Good. And what happened after you and he left the dining room? Tell me again.”
“He said that he wanted to show me something,” she said, bowing her head. “We went into the hallway, and he began leading me to his room. I resisted, of course… but, you know, we were joking around. Afterwards, when we were already standing outside his door…”
“Stop. Before you said you saw Hinkus.”
“Yes, we saw him. As soon as we went into the hallway. He was turning from the hallway onto the stairs.”
“Right. Go on.”
“While we were standing outside Olaf’s door, the Moses woman showed up. Naturally, she pretended that she hadn’t seen us, but I was embarrassed… It’s annoying when people dawdle around and stare at you. Anyway… after that we made our way to Olaf’s room…”
“I understand.” I looked at Barnstoker. The old man was sitting, his eyes raised grievously towards the ceiling. It served him right. Uncles like him always imagine that they’re sheltering angels under their wings. Meanwhile those angels are making counterfeit bills. “Okay. You drank something at Olaf’s?”
“Me?”
“I’m interested in what Olaf drank.”
“Nothing. We didn’t drink, neither of us.”
“Now… hm… Did you notice… m-hm… Did you notice any strange smell?”
“No. The air in there was very clear and fresh.”
“I’m not talking about the room, dammit. When you kissed, did you notice anything strange? A strange smell is what I mean…”
“I didn’t notice anything,” Brun said angrily.
For a few moments I tried to think of a way to put my next question delicately, then I gave up and asked directly.
“There is the possibility that Olaf might have been given a slow-acting poison before being murdered. You didn’t notice anything that would confirm this possibility?”
“And what would I have noticed?”
“You can usually tell when someone feels sick,” I clarified. “Especially when someone is getting sicker and sicker before your eyes.”
“There was nothing like that,” Brun said decisively. “He was feeling great.”
“You didn’t turn the light on?”
“No.”
“And you don’t remember anything he said that sounded strange?”
“I don’t remember a thing he said,” Brun said quietly. “It was the usual patter. Jokes, one-liners, flirting… We talked about motorcycles, and skiing. He seemed like a pretty good mechanic. He knew his way around all sorts of engines…”
“And he didn’t show you anything interesting? After all, he said he wanted to show you something…”
“Of course not. Don’t you get it? He just said that… well, to say something…”
“When the avalanche happened, were you sitting down or standing up?”
“We were standing up.”
“Where?”
“Right by the door. I was already bored and was getting ready to leave. And then he started to try and put the necklace on me…”
“And you’re sure that he ran from you to the window?”
“How am I supposed to… He grabbed his head, turned his back to me, made a step or two towards the window… In the direction of the window… Well, I don’t know how else to put it, maybe not to the window, of course, but I just didn’t see anything else in the room other than the window…”
“Do you think that there could have been anyone else in the room other than you? Maybe now you remember some noises, strange sounds that you didn’t pay attention to at the time…”
She thought about this.
“No, it was quiet… There were a few noises, but on the other side of the wall. Olaf made a joke that Simone was in his room walking up the walls… But there wasn’t anything else.”
“And was the noise really coming from Simone’s room?”
“Yes,” Brun said confidently. “We were standing already, and the noise was coming from my left. Anyway, it was just normal noises. Steps, water from the faucet…”
“Olaf moved some furniture around while you were there?”
“Furniture?… Yes, he did actually. He said he wouldn’t let me out, and pulled a chair over to the door… Afterwards he pushed it out of the way, of course…”
I stood up.