Black Seconds by Karin Fossum Read Free Book Online Page B

the block once. Let him back into the living room. It was 7:15 when he opened the door to his office with fresh newspapers tucked under his arm. IDA STILL MISSING was the headline.
    The first meeting of the day was about dividing up tasks. Not that there was much to divide up in the Ida Joner case. In the first stage it was a question of checking out anyone with a record. People who had finished serving their sentences, people who might have been out on leave during the relevant period, and those previously charged but never convicted. The blunt truth was that they were all waiting for someone to stumble across Ida's mutilated body so they could start the investigation properly. Her photo was pinned up on the board in the meeting room. Her smile sent a jolt of pain through them every time they passed it, and in the midst of it all a slender hope still existed that Ida would suddenly stroll casually into her mother's house with the most incredible story to tell.
    When the telephone rang, and it did so frequently, everyone spun around and stared intently at whoever had answered it, feeling certain that they would be able to gauge from his reaction if it was news about Ida. The duty officer had the same hopes whenever he answered the telephone. They knew that it would happen eventually.
    A new search was initiated. They were still trying to decide if they should drag the river. The problem was where to start.
    Sejer drove out to Helga's house. He could see her face at the window; most likely she had heard the car. He got out slowly, very slowly on purpose so as not to raise her hopes.
    "I've almost given up," she said weakly.
    "I know that it's difficult," he said. "But we're still looking."
    "I've always known that Ida was too good to be true."
    "Too good to be true?" Sejer said carefully.
    Helga's lower lip quivered. "She
was.
Now I don't know what she is anymore."
    She went into the living room without saying another word. Then she walked over to the window. "Most of the time I stand here. Or I sit in her room. I don't do anything. I'm frightened that I'll forget about her," she said anxiously. "Frightened that she might slip away from my thoughts, frightened that I'll start to think or do something that doesn't include her."
    "No one expects you to be able to do anything now," Sejer said.
    He sat down on the sofa without being asked. He saw that her hair was unwashed and that she was wearing the same clothes as when he had first met her. Or perhaps she had changed back into them.
    "I'd like to speak with your sister," Sejer said.
    "Ruth? She lives a few minutes away from here, at Madseberget. She'll be here later."
    "You get on well?" he asked.
    "Yes," she smiled. "We always have."
    "And Ida's father. Anders. He has two brothers who also live close by. Ida's uncles?"
    She nodded. "Tore and Kristian Joner. They're both married, with children of their own. They live by the racetrack."
    "Do you see them often?" he wanted to know.
    She shook her head. "No, I don't. Funny really. But I know that they were out looking yesterday. Both of them."
    "Has either of them been in touch with you?"
    "They don't dare," she said quietly. "They're afraid, I suppose. I don't know what they're thinking. Don't want to, either. The pictures in my own head are bad enough." She shuddered as if some awful image had appeared at that very moment.
    "But Ida knows her cousins?"
    "Of course. She knows Marion and Tomme best of all. Ruth and Sverre's kids. She goes to see them often. She is fond of her aunt Ruth. She's the only aunt she's close to."
    "And your brother-in-law?" he asked. "What does he do?"
    "Sverre works in the oil industry and travels a lot. He's hardly ever home. Anders travels a lot too. They moan about all those nights they have to spend in hotels and how boring it is. Though I think that's actually the way they want it. Gets them off the hook when it comes to doing the day-to-day stuff."
    Sejer had no comment to make. "Is Ida fond of her