Hell Fire

32 August 2005

Sejer and Skarre told Henny Hayden about the red car that had been observed near the crime scene. She had already read about it in the papers, which she pored over every day now.

“Do you know if anyone in Bonnie’s circle of friends and acquaintances drove a red car?”

“I’m afraid not,” she replied. “And in any case, I really don’t think it’s anyone who was close to Bonnie. Goodness, who would it be?”

“Well, we’ll see,” Sejer said. “We’ll keep you updated.”

“So you think the red car is a clue?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“But no one saw who was sitting inside?”

“Yes, there was one sighting, when the driver got out of the car. And there’s something about the man that interests us.”

“What’s that then?”

“The way he was dressed made him stand out. And he was seen walking down toward Skarven.”

“You mean on the day they died?”

“Yes, and around the same time.”

“But tell us how you are,” Skarre said in a concerned tone. “Do you have good friends who can support you?”

“Yes, I have some very good friends. But I can’t face talking to them at the moment, so I haven’t been in touch. And they don’t know what to say to me; they can hardly look at me. When I bump into them in the store they look the other way and try to avoid me.”

“You mustn’t underestimate them.”

“I don’t, I just can’t face it!”

“And what about Henrik, how is he?” Sejer inquired.

“We’re losing him more and more,” she said. “I don’t know what to do.”

There wasn’t much the two men could do to comfort her. So instead they asked some more questions about Bonnie because they realized that it was her daughter she wanted to talk about.

Did she have any particular interests in the period before she died? Did she mention anything unusual, anything that made you think? Or was she worried about anything?

“No, nothing. And if there was, she didn’t say anything to me. She was often worried about Simon because he was such a nervous child. She was concerned for the old people that she looked after every day. And for her father.”

“And what about the people we’ve already spoken to,” Skarre asked, “for example, her ex-partner, Olav? You haven’t remembered anything that might be of interest? She took the breakup very badly and could hardly bear to see him.”

“That’s just the way Bonnie was. When she got attached to someone, it was till death do us part.”

Sejer noted her use of the words “till death do us part.”

“She had been betrayed once before,” Henny told them. “But she was only a teenager then. It was her first boyfriend and she was over the moon. She stood in front of the mirror all the time and we weren’t used to that. But then, he finished it. And she was devastated, inconsolable.”

“Did you know him?”

“No, she never brought him home. I thought that perhaps it was because Henrik was so strict. He thought she was far too young to have a boyfriend. Sometimes I got the feeling that he was just waiting for it to be over, and then he could relax again. You know what fathers are like.”

“Do you remember his name?”

“Jørgen.”

“Did he ever contact her again?”

“Not that I know of. He simply disappeared into the big blue. Just like Olav.”

Sejer suddenly thought of something. “She was a teenager when she developed anorexia,” he said. “Did you ever connect that with the breakup? With Jørgen?”

“Yes, I did, as a matter of fact. But at the time we were just relieved that she’d managed to get over it without any lasting damage and started to eat again. We fretted that she might not be able to have children because the doctors had spoken to us about that. You know, because of the illness. Malnourishment. But then after some years, she had Simon. Sometimes having a child can give us new life.”