We Know You Remember (62)

“It wasn’t like I told them.”

“Are you talking about your friends now? The boys waiting by the road?”

The woman interviewer seemed to be sitting off to one side; Olof briefly glanced over to her.

“She pushed me and I fell.”

“Now what are you saying?”

“The ground was dirty. All kinds of muck.”

“Lina, who weighed somewhere around fifty kilos?”

“Mmm.” Eyes fixed on the floor again.

“Why didn’t you mention any of this before?”

“Because . . . because . . . She’s a girl. It’s just, I wasn’t expecting it. That must’ve been why I fell. I’m strong.”

“We know you are, Olof. We know you’re strong.”

“And then she grabbed some nettles, like this.” He demonstrated for them, rubbing around his mouth, across his face, using both hands. “And shoved soil in my mouth, said it was my fault she was dirty, that I’d ruined everything.”

“Was that why you lost your temper?”

“No. No.”

“Look at me now, Olof.”

He shook his head, didn’t look up.

“What did he just say?” asked August.

Eira rewound the tape and turned up the volume to hear what the fourteen-year-old had mumbled.

“She walked away,” he said. “I was the only one on the ground.”

“Is that what you did to her face? Is that what you’re saying?”

“No. It was her.”

“But this doesn’t match what you told your friends. Which is the truth, Olof?”

“What the hell was I supposed to say?”

“Now I don’t know what to think. First you say you didn’t do anything to Lina, and now you’re claiming she’s the one who did something to you. How are we supposed to know which is true?”

“It’s true.”

“Which part? I’m confused now, Olof.” The woman leaned in, half into shot. “There can only be one truth. Were you lying to your friends when you came out of the woods?”

“Can we stop now?”

“No, Olof, we have to keep going a little longer. We have to keep going until you tell us the truth. You understand that, don’t you? That we can’t stop until you tell us what you did to Lina.”

This was followed by a section in which the fourteen-year-old repeatedly asked to stop. Then he asked for his mother to join them.

“Your mum is sitting outside.”

“I want her to come in.”

“We’ve decided she shouldn’t be in here right now. But she wants you to tell the truth too. She and your dad both do.”

Eira’s palm felt hot as August took the remote control from her hand.

“What’s going on here?” he asked, pausing the video. “Is he lying again, or is he telling the truth?”

“I don’t know.”

They sat quietly for a moment. Eira flicked through the summary, trying to make sense of the timeline and events.

“The interviews went on for several weeks after this, then he confessed everything. He supposedly pointed out the place where he threw her body into the river. I remember the picture of the sallow branch—they showed it on TV. The one he used to strangle her. I remember my mum started crying with relief when they announced that they’d solved the murder. I didn’t understand what was going on, I’d always thought people only cried when they were sad.”

Eira rummaged through the tapes again, looking for the last few, each marked with a date in late August.

The labels read WALK-THROUGH 3.

Shaky handheld footage, a group of people moving slowly through the forest.

The fourteen-year-old was in the middle, taking slightly awkward steps. One of the officers had a hand on his back, but it was impossible to tell whether the gesture was protective or urging—or both. Trust us, you’re safe here, we’re leading you to the precipice. When the officer turned around, Eira recognized her old colleague, a much younger version.

It was slightly breezy, making the microphone crackle.

“What did you use to kill her? Can you remember, Olof? What made her stop breathing? Can you show us?”

Another person stepped into the shot, holding a large doll. It was the same size as a human body. Arms hanging limply, possibly made from some kind of fabric, with no facial features whatsoever.

“Was this where she was lying when you had sex with her? Like this?”

The doll was pushed around on the ground. Olof shook his head.

“You said earlier that you tried to have sex with her. That you were lying on the ground. Could you show us how you were both lying?”

He eventually pointed. There was a rock, a fallen tree blocking the trail. There was an infinite slowness to everything happening. Eira rewound the tape and watched several sections again, parts where they thought they had missed something. When Olof said he had used a sallow branch just like that to strangle her, did he even say that was how she died?

“No, Olof, we can’t go yet.”

“I need a piss.”

“We can go once we have a clear understanding of what happened. You said something about soil and nettles in your mouth, did you suffocate her using soil?”