Fear Not by Anne Holt

wondering whether he ought to take back the untouched file. The silence between them went on for just a little bit too long. It became embarrassing, and Adam realized that Lukas Lysgaard’s fairly unfriendly attitude had hardly changed over the past twenty-four hours. He was staring at the desk with his arms folded.
    ‘My wife is a criminologist,’ Adam said suddenly. ‘And a lawyer. And she’s studied psychology as well.’
    Lukas at least looked up, a furrow of surprise creasing his brow.
    ‘She’s quite a lot younger than me,’ Adam added.
    Neither the most reluctant witness nor the most hostile thug could manage to remain unmoved when Adam started talking about his family for no particular reason. It seemed so unprofessional that the person being interviewed was annoyed, surprised, or quite simply interested.
    ‘She sometimes says …’ Adam picked up his cup and took a slow, noisy slurp. ‘She would rather her nearest and dearest died after a long, painful illness than as the victim of a crime, however quick it might be.’
    As he spoke he felt the usual pang of conscience as he misrepresented Johanne, saddling her with views she didn’t hold. It disappeared when he saw Lukas’s reaction.
    ‘What does she mean … ? What do you mean by that? It’s terrible to wish something like that on someone you love, and—’
    ‘It is, isn’t it? I agree with you. But what she means is that the family of someone who has been the victim of a crime is subjected to a detailed investigation, and that can be a terrible strain. When someone dies of other causes, then …’
    Adam held up his hands, palms facing outwards.
    ‘… then it’s all over. The family is overwhelmed with sympathy, and no one asks questions. Quite the reverse, my wife stubbornly maintains. A death from natural causes has the effect of laying to rest any secrets the family might have. However, when the deceased is the victim of a crime …’
    He shook his head ruefully and stuck an imaginary key in an imaginary keyhole.
    ‘Everything has to be brought out into the open. That’s what she means. Not that I agree with her, as I said, but she is right to a certain extent. Don’t you think?’
    Lukas peered at him without giving any indication of whether he agreed or not. Adam held his gaze.
    ‘I assume,’ Lukas said suddenly, leaning across the desk, ‘that what you’re trying to tell me is that there are secrets in my family that could explain why my mother was stabbed and murdered out in the street!’ His voice cracked at the end of the sentence. ‘That she’s the guilty party, somehow! That my mother, the kindest, most thoughtful …’
    His voice broke and he started to cry. Adam sat motionless with the coffee cup in his right hand and a pen balanced between the index and middle fingers of his left hand.
    ‘I don’t think my mother had any secrets,’ said Lukas in despair, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. ‘Not my mother. Not her.’
    Still Adam said nothing.
    ‘My mother and father loved each other more than anything in the world,’ Lukas went on. ‘They’ve had their disagreements, just like everyone else, but they’ve been married since they were nineteen. That’s …’ He sobbed as he worked it out. ‘That’s more than forty years! They’ve been married for more than forty years, and you come along claiming there are all these secrets between them! It’s … it’s …’
    Adam made a few brief notes on the pad in front of him, then pushed it away so that it fell on the floor. When he picked it up, he put it back on the table face down.
    ‘You’ve got a nerve,’ Lukas said harshly. ‘Insinuating that my mother—’
    ‘I apologize if that’s the way you see it,’ Adam said. ‘That wasn’t my intention. But it’s very interesting that you immediately defend your parents’ marriage when I talk in completely general terms about the fact that everyone has experiences they don’t want to share with