Don't Look Back

by Karin Fossum

  "Can you come down to the station?" Skarre said. "No? Then we'll come to you. This is very important information. Thanks for calling. That's fine."

  He hung up.

  "One of the neighbours. Henning Johnas. He lives at number 4. Just got home and heard about Annie. He picked her up at the roundabout yesterday and let her out near Horgen's Shop. He says there was a motorcycle there. It was waiting for her."

  Sejer perched on the edge of the table. "That motorcycle again, the one Horgen saw. And Halvor has a motorcycle," he said. "Why couldn't the man come here?"

  "His dog is about to have puppies."

  Skarre put the piece of paper in his pocket. "It might be hard for Halvor to verify how long he was out on his motorcycle. I hope he isn't the one who did it. I liked him."

  "A killer is a killer," Sejer said. "And sometimes they're quite nice."

  "Yes," Skarre said, "but it's easier to lock someone up if we can't stand his ugly face."

  Johnas stuck his hand under the dog's stomach and pressed gently. She was breathing hard and her tongue was hanging out of her mouth, a moist pink tongue. She lay very still and let him touch her. It wouldn't be long now. He stared out the window, hoping it would soon be over.

  "Good girl, Hera," he said, petting her.

  The dog stared past him, unmoved by his praise, so he sank down on to the floor a short distance away. Sat there and watched her. The silent, patient animal had his full attention. There was never any trouble with Hera, she was always obedient and kind as an angel. Never left his side when they went out for a walk, ate the food he gave her, and padded quietly over to her corner when he went upstairs to bed at night. He would have liked to sit there like that, very close, until it was all over, just listening to her breathe. Perhaps nothing would happen until early morning. He wasn't tired. Then the doorbell rang, one brief, shrill ring. He got up and opened the door.

  Sejer gave him a firm, dry handshake. The man radiated authority. The younger officer was different, a thin, boyish hand with slender fingers. Johnas invited them in.

  "How's it going with your dog?" Sejer asked. A nice-looking Dobermann lay motionless on a black and crimson Oriental rug. Surely nobody would let a pregnant dog lie on a genuine Oriental rug, he thought. The dog was breathing hard, but otherwise she lay without moving, not even aware of the two strangers who had come into the room.

  "It's her first time. Three pups, I think. I tried to count them. But it'll go fine. There's never any trouble with Hera."

  He looked at them and shook his head. "I'm so upset about what happened that I can't concentrate on anything."

  Johnas glanced at the dog as he talked, running a powerful hand over the top of his head, which was bald. A fringe of brown curls ringed his skull, and he had unusually dark eyes. A man of average build, but with a powerful torso and a few extra kilos around his waist, possibly in his late thirties. As a younger man he might have looked like a darker version of Skarre. He had handsome features and good colouring, as if he had been in the south lately.

  "You don't want to buy a pup, do you?"

  He gave them a look of appeal.

  "I've got a Leonberger," Sejer said. "And I don't think he'd forgive me if I came home with a puppy in tow. He's very spoiled."

  Johnas directed them to the sofa, and pulled the coffee table out so the two men could slip past. "I met Fritzner by the garage this evening, as I was coming back from a trade fair in Oslo. He told me about it. I don't think it's really sunk in yet. I shouldn't have let her out of the car, I shouldn't have done that."

  He rubbed his eyes and glanced at the dog again.

  "Annie came here often. She baby-sat for us. I know Sølvi too. If it had been her," he said in a low voice, "I could better understand it. Sølvi is more the type that would take off with someone if she got an invitation, even if she didn't know him. Doesn't think about anything but boys. But Annie..."

  He looked at them. "Annie wasn't all that interested. And she was very cautious. And besides, I believe she had a boyfriend."

  "That's right, she did. Do you know him?"

  "No, no, not at all. But I've seen them in the street, from a distance. They seemed shy, weren't even holding hands."

  He smiled rather sadly at the thought.

  "Where were you headed when you picked up Annie?"

  "I was going to work. For a while it looked as if Hera was going to have the puppies, but then there was another delay."

  "When does your shop open?"

  "At 11a.m."

  "That's rather late, isn't it?"

  "Yes, well, people need milk and bread in the morning, but Persian carpets come later, after their more basic needs have been satisfied." He gave an ironic smile. "I have a carpet shop," he explained. "Downtown, on Cappelens Gaten."

  Sejer nodded. "Annie was going over to Anette Horgen's to work on a school assignment. Did she mention that to you?"

  "A school assignment?" he said. "No, she didn't mention it."

  "But she had a book bag with her?"

  "Yes, she did. But that might have been a cover for something else, how would I know? She was going to Horgen's Shop, that's all I can tell you."

  "What did you see?"

  "Annie came running down the steep slope at the roundabout, so I pulled over into the bus stop and asked her if she wanted a lift. She was going to Horgen's after all, and that's quite a distance. Not that she was lazy or anything; Annie was very active. She was always out running. I'm sure she was very fit. But she got in anyway and asked me to put her down at the shop. I thought she was going there to buy something, or maybe to meet someone. I let her out and drove off. But I saw the motorcycle. It was parked next to the shop, and the last I saw of her, Annie was heading right towards it. I mean, I don't know for sure that he was waiting for her, and I didn't see who he was. I just saw that she made a beeline for the bike, and she didn't turn around."

  "What kind of bike was it?" Sejer asked.

  Johnas threw out his hands. "I realise you have to ask, but I don't know much about bikes. I'm in a whole different line of work, to put it mildly. For me it was just chrome and steel."

  "What about the colour?"

  "Aren't all bikes black?"

  "Definitely not," he said.

  "It wasn't bright red, at any rate, I would have remembered that."

  "Was it a big, powerful bike, or a smaller one?" Skarre said.

  "I think it was big."

  "And the driver?"

  "There wasn't a lot to see. He was wearing a helmet. There was something red on the helmet, that much I remember. And he didn't look like a grown man. He was probably a young guy."

  Sejer nodded and leant forward. "You've seen her boyfriend. He has a motorcycle. Could it have been him?"

  Now Johnas frowned as if on his guard. "I've seen him walk past in the street, from a distance. But this person was a long way off, wearing a helmet. I can't say whether it was him. I don't even want to suggest that."

  "Not that it was him." Sejer's eyes narrowed. "Just that it might have been him. You say he was young. Was he of slight build?"

  "That's not easy to tell when a person's wearing leathers," he said.

  "But why did you assume he was young?"

  "Oh," he said in confusion, "what can I say? I suppose I made that assumption because Annie's young. Or maybe there was something about the way he was sitting." He looked embarrassed. "I didn't know that it was going to turn out to be so important."

  He got up and knelt down by the dog. "You have to try and understand what it's like living in this place," he said, upset. "Rumours spread fast. And besides, I can't believe that her boyfriend would do anything like that. He's just a boy, and they'd been together for a long time."

  "Leave the judgements to us," Sejer said. "That motorcycle is important, of course, and another witness saw it too. If he's innocent he won't be convicted."

  "Is that right?" Johnas said, doubtfully. "No, but it's bad enough being a susp
ect, I would think. If I say that he looked like her boyfriend, then I'm sure you're going to put him through hell. And the truth is that I have no idea who it was."

  He shook his head sharply. "All I saw was someone wearing a leather outfit and a helmet. It could have been anybody. I have a 17-year-old son; it could have been him. I wouldn't have recognised him in that get-up. See what I mean?"

  "Yes, I see," Sejer said. "You've answered my question anyway. It could have been him. And when it comes to that hell you mentioned, he's probably in it already."

  Johnas swallowed hard.

  "What did you and Annie talk about in the car?"

  "She didn't say much. I passed the time talking about Hera and her pups."

  "Did she seem anxious or nervous about anything?"

  "Not at all. She was the same as always."

  Sejer looked around the living room and noticed that it was sparsely furnished, as if he hadn't finished decorating. But there were plenty of carpets, both on the floor and on the walls, big Oriental carpets that looked expensive. Two photographs hung on the wall; one was of a tow-headed boy about two years old, the other was of a teenager.

  "Are those your sons?" Sejer pointed, to change the subject.

  "Yes," he said. "But not recent photographs."

  He went back to petting the dog, stroking her black, silky-soft ears and damp snout.

  "I live alone now," he added. "Finally found myself an apartment in town, on Oscarsgaten. This place is too big for me. I haven't seen much of Annie lately. I think she was a little upset when my wife left. And there weren't kids to take care of any more."

  "And you sell Oriental carpets?"

  "I deal mostly with Turkey and Pakistan. Occasionally Iran, but they tend to hike the prices. I take a trip to southern Europe a couple of times a year and stay for several weeks. Take my time. People there are getting to know me," he said with satisfaction. "I've made some good contacts. That's the important thing, you know, to develop a relationship of trust. They've had rather mixed experiences with the West."

  Skarre manoeuvred his way past the coffee table and went over to the far wall which was almost entirely covered by a large carpet, from floor to ceiling.

  "That one's a Turkish Smyrna," Johnas said. "One of the most beautiful ones I own. I really can't afford to have it. Two and a half million knots. Incomprehensible, isn't it?"

  Skarre looked at the carpet. "Is it true that they're made by children?" he asked.

  "Often, yes, but not mine. It's bad for the reputation of the business. You may not like it, but the fact is that children make the finest carpets. Grown-up fingers are too thick."

  They stood gazing at the carpet, at all the geometric shapes, one inside the other, getting smaller and smaller, an almost endless number of nuances in colour.

  "Is it true that the children are chained to the looms?" Sejer said.

  Johnas shook his head, resigned.

  "It sounds appalling when you put it that way. The children with weaving jobs are the lucky ones. A good weaver has food and clothing and warmth. He has a life. If they are chained to the looms, it's at the behest of their parents. Often a young weaver supports a whole family of five or six people. He saves his mother and sisters from prostitution, and his father and brothers from becoming beggars or thieves."

  "I've heard it just postpones things," Sejer said. "By the time they grow up and their fingers are too thick, they're often blind or have weak eyes from labouring over a loom. They can't work at all, and so they end up being beggars just the same."

  Johnas smiled "You've been watching too much TV. You should go there yourself. The weavers are happy little people, and they enjoy great respect among the populace. It's that simple. But we have to help the rich maintain their moral standards; no one is more sensitive than they are when it comes to things like this. That's why I avoid child labour. If you ever want to buy a carpet, come over to Cappelens Gaten," he said eagerly. "I'll see you get a good deal."

  "I doubt it's within my price range."

  "Why is it discoloured?" Skarre asked.

  Johnas had to smile a bit at such complete ignorance; at the same time he livened up, as if talking about his great passion was like a puff of air on a dying ember. His enthusiasm swelled. "It's a nomad carpet."

  That didn't tell Skarre anything at all.

  "The nomads are always on the move, right? It might take them a year to make such a large carpet. And they dye the wool using plants, which they have to gather during different seasons, in shifting terrain, in varying conditions. This blue here," he said, pointing at the carpet, "is from the indigo plant. And the red is from the madder plant. But inside the hexagon there's a different red that is made from crushed insects. This orange colour is henna, the yellow is saffron."

  He placed his hand on the carpet and stroked downward. "This is a Turkish rug, made with Gordian knots. Every square centimetre has approximately a hundred knots."

  "Who designs the patterns?"

  "They weave them from patterns that are centuries old, and many have never even been sketched out. The old weavers walk around the workshop, singing the patterns to the younger weavers."

  The old blind weavers, Sejer thought.

  "Here in the West," Johnas said, "it's taken us a long time to discover this handwork. Traditionally we prefer figurative patterns, something that tells a story. That's why carpets with hunting and gardening patterns were the first to catch our attention, because they include flower and animal motifs. Personally I prefer this type. First the wide outer border that holds everything in place. Then your eye moves further and further in, until at last you come to the treasure, in a sense." He pointed to the medallion in the centre of the rug.

  "Forgive me," he said all of sudden. "Here I am, rattling on about me and my interests." He looked embarrassed.

  "The helmet," Skarre said, tearing himself away. "Was it a half or a whole helmet?"

  "Is there such a thing as a half helmet?" Johnas asked, surprised.

  "A whole helmet has a piece that fits over the jaw and cheek. An ordinary helmet covers only the skull."

  "I didn't notice."

  "What about the leather suit. Was it black?"

  "Dark, at any rate. It didn't occur to me to study him. There's something completely normal about watching a pretty girl cross the road and head towards a guy on a motorcycle. It's as though that's the way things should be, don't you think?"

  They thanked him and paused a moment at the door. "We'll probably be back; I hope you understand."

  "Of course. If the puppies come tonight, I'll be home for a few days."

  "Can you leave the shop closed?"

  "My customers call me at home if there's something they want."

  Hera gave a heavy sigh and whined plaintively, lying there on her Oriental rug. Skarre gave her a long look and then reluctantly followed his boss.

  "Maybe we'll get to see them if we come back," he said. "The pups, I mean."

  "No doubt," Johnas said.

  "Don't come back," Sejer said. He was thinking about his own dog, Kollberg.