Bad Intentions

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.’