Bad Intentions Read Online Free PDF Page A

kitten. They did not talk much the rest of the way because ultimately no words could express what had happened.
    Three hours later they parked outside the police station. They had to wait in reception. Again Reilly voiced his concerns about everything that could go wrong.
    "It'll be fine," Axel reassured him. "It's a straightforward story. It's impossible to get it wrong."
    Reilly became aware of two people crossing the room. One of them seemed familiar. He gripped Axel's arm.
    "It's Ingerid," he whispered.
    Reilly had known this was something they would have to get through, but it was happening sooner than he had imagined, and he hadn't had time to prepare himself. Ingerid Moreno was accompanied by a female police officer and now she spotted them. She collapsed and started sobbing. Axel shot up from his seat.
    "We didn't know he was in such a bad way," he said. "If we had known, we would have taken better care. And if the hospital had known about his intentions, they would not have given him permission to leave for the weekend. Ingerid. Listen to me. None of us could have foreseen this."
    Ingerid Moreno nodded and wiped away her tears. Reilly remained in his seat without saying anything. Ingerid did not appear to see him. She was caught in the light which always surrounded Axel. If Axel could act so convincingly, with such apparent sincerity, how often had he himself been deceived? What was the basis of their friendship? Was it all just one big lie, a star performance?
    "You must come and visit me sometime," Ingerid pleaded. "We need to talk. Please."
    "We'll come," Axel said. "There is so much we want to tell you. All the things we shared with Jon. Which you don't know about."
    "Tell me he was a good boy," Ingerid begged. "Tell me that he was a good person."
    "Yes," Axel Frimann said. "Jon was a good person."
     
    "It's possible that Jon Moreno took his own life," Sejer said.
    Axel and Reilly looked at him in amazement. His words were so unexpected that they gawped. Was he considering other options? Why would he do that? Was it an automatic response? Perhaps he instinctively thought they were dishonest because in the course of his work he was unaccustomed to meeting honest people? It struck them that this man never made assumptions, not even about an obvious suicide. And if he decided Jon's death had been a suicide, he would still want to know why it happened and if it could have been prevented. If Jon had tried to kill himself before, if there had been warning signs, if they had ever discussed the subject of death and what, if anything, Jon had expressed. Anxiety, relief, longing. If he was taking something in addition to his prescribed medication, if he had said anything during the evening which had made them wonder.
    "Think back," he said. "Go through everything that happened. What about the drive there in the car: did something happen on the way, did you stop anywhere?"
    They had not expected such attention to detail. Calmly and methodically Sejer worked through the events of the past two days and Skarre noted down everything that was said.
    "In cases such as this," Sejer went on, "we follow a procedure. It consists of a series of questions. We will come back to you when we have more information such as the autopsy report, and after other friends and relatives have been interviewed."
    Skarre had pushed his chair toward the wall. He exuded a boyish enthusiasm as though these routines had not yet started to affect or bore him.
    "Let's talk about last night," Sejer said. "His last hours. Was he in a particular mood or had anything about him changed?"
    "It was a quiet evening," Axel said. "We just discussed stuff as friends do."
    "Such as?"
    "You want to know what we talked about?"
    "Yes, please."
    "But why?"
    "It's one of the questions we need to ask."
    Axel Frimann raised an eyebrow.
    "We talked about films," he said. "We go to the movies a lot and we have strong views about what we see."
    "Are you interested in