In the Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page A

the best of their ability before a mediocre photographer, very concerned with their appearance. Not with one another.
    ‘I’ve got some coffee in the pot,’ she said hesitantly.
    He said yes. It would be good to have something to hold on to, even if it was only the handle of a cup. The boy trotted into the kitchen after his mother, but peeped at him stealthily from behind the door. He was thin, with a few freckles on his nose and hair that was too long and fell into his eyes all the time. In a few years he’d resemble the man in the wedding photo.
    ‘I’ve forgotten your name,’ Sejer said, smiling encouragingly.
    The boy withheld his name for a moment, twisting the sole of his trainer into the lino and smiling shyly.
    ‘Jan Henry.’
    Sejer nodded. ‘Ah, Jan Henry, of course. Can I ask you something, Jan Henry – do you collect pins?’
    He nodded. ‘I’ve got twenty-four. On my cowboy hat.’
    ‘Bring it here,’ Sejer smiled, ‘and I’ll give you another one. One you certainly won’t have.’
    The boy shot round the corner and made for his bedroom. He returned with the hat on his head, it was much too large. He removed it with respect.
    ‘They prick so much inside,’ he explained, ‘so I can’t wear it.’
    ‘Look here,’ said Sejer, ‘a police pin. I got this from Mrs Brenningen at the station. Not bad, eh?’
    The boy nodded. He searched the hat for a place of honour for the small golden pin, resolutely demoted an older one, and stuck the police pin in the middle at the front. His mother entered and gave a smile.
    ‘Go to your room,’ she said briskly, ‘me and the man have got to talk.’
    He put the hat on his head again and vanished.
    Sejer drank his coffee and watched Mrs Einarsson who dropped two lumps of sugar in her own cup, from just above the coffee, so that it wouldn’t splash. Her wedding ring had gone. Her blonde hair was dark at the parting and she was wearing too much make-up round the eyes, which made her look a bit fierce. In fact she was rather sweet, a neat, fair little person. Presumably she didn’t know it. She was probably dissatisfied with her own appearance, like most women. Apart from Elise, he thought.
    ‘We’re still looking for this purchaser, Mrs Einarsson, just as we were before. For some reason your husband suddenly wanted to sell the car, even though he’d never discussed it with you. He went off to show it to someone and never returned. Perhaps someone had expressed an interest in it, stopped him in the street or whatever. Perhaps someone wanted that precise model, and got in touch. Or maybe someone was out to get him, just him, not the car, but they used it to lure him out of the house. Tempted him to sell. Do you know if he was in financial straits?’
    She shook her head and crunched one of the dissolving lumps of sugar.
    ‘You asked me that before. No, not financial straits. I mean, not that bad. But everyone needs money, don’t they, we weren’t well off. And now it’s even worse. And I can’t even get a playschool place. And I get migraines,’ she massaged her temples lightly as if to demonstrate that he had to treat her gently, or it might strike like lightning at any moment, ‘and it isn’t so easy to work with a handicap like that, alone with a kid and all.’
    He nodded sympathetically. ‘But you’re not aware that he used money to gamble, or that he had a loan, perhaps a private loan, which he was having difficulty managing?’
    ‘He didn’t have one. He wasn’t a genius, but he wasn’t a fool either. We managed. He had a job and everything. And he only spent money on the car, and an occasional beer at the pub. He could mouth off sometimes, but he wasn’t tough enough to get involved in anything, I mean, anything illegal. At least I don’t think so. And we were married for eight years, so I think I know him fairly well. Knew him, I mean. And I can’t just sit here saying things about Egil either, even if he is dead.’ She drew