Anna shook her head.
“A lot of people didn’t like Lars. I can see why. Lars wasn’t an easy man.” She smiled. “But then, who is?” She looked gravely at Anna. “The telephone has stopped ringing now,” she added, glancing at the table where it stood.
“You didn’t call,” Mrs. Helland said. “Why not?”
Anna gulped.
“Lars was sure you didn’t like him.” She looked kindly at Anna. “Though he never cared very much whether or not people did. ‘Never mind,’ he would say. ‘That’s their problem. That will stir things up.’ Lars loved stirring things up. It always bothered me, though. Because it was so unfair. He was a good man.” Mrs. Helland smiled again. “A very unusual, but good man. He was a wonderful father to Nanna.”
Anna was about to reassure Mrs. Helland that there was no need for her to justify her late husband’s behavior, when Mrs. Helland said: “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.” She smiled and looked down at her hands. “Either I hide myself away, never to be seen. Or I tell everyone about Lars. The supermarket cashier, the bus driver, the cold caller, everyone is forced to listen to my grief.”
“I know how you feel,” Anna said. Mrs. Helland poured more tea.
“He often mentioned you,” she said. “I think he was fascinated by you. And Lars was usually only interested in birds.” She smiled wryly. Anna reddened and wanted to protest, but Mrs. Helland carried on: “‘She loathes me,’ he would say about you. ‘But she would rather die than admit it.’ He respected you, Anna,” she said.
Anna didn’t know what to say. Everything she had ever said about Helland suddenly tasted bitter.
“I don’t know what to say,” she admitted.
Mrs. Helland continued looking at her.
“We had our differences,” Anna said, tentatively.
“Well, of course you did. Lars had with most people. He was like that. He believed you had to court controversy to achieve anything at all.”
A pause followed.
“Do they suspect you, too?” Mrs. Helland asked out of the blue.
“Do they suspect you?” Anna was shocked.
“They don’t say so openly. The superintendent does. He wants to come across as a friendly teddy bear, so he ums and ahs. All he’s prepared to say is that Lars appears to have suffered from a tropical infection and they’re treating his death as suspicious. And then he assures me everything will be investigated very thoroughly. But he’s hiding something because he suspects me, I’m sure of it.” Mrs. Helland suddenly got up and sat next to Anna. She clasped Anna’s hands and looked desperate.
“We’re losing our minds,” she wailed. “Neither of us can sleep. Until last Monday, Lars was a perfectly healthy man, and now he’s dead. Why would anyone want to murder him? And what’s this about a tropical infection? It’s utterly ridiculous.”
Everything inside Anna resisted. Mrs. Helland was sitting too close to her, and something in Anna’s throat tightened.
“You’re lying,” she croaked.
Mrs. Helland stared at Anna. “What do you mean?”
“Your husband was ill,” Anna said. “I saw him. He was seriously ill. Why do you say he was well when we both know that isn’t true?”
Mrs. Helland pulled back.
“I don’t understand . . .” Her lips quivered.
“What was wrong with his eye?” Anna continued.
“That small polyp?”
“Yes, what was it?”
“His father had one of those.” Mrs. Helland faltered. “It was something inherited.”
“No,” Anna insisted. “It wasn’t. And you know it.”
Mrs. Helland looked stubbornly at Anna. “Lars wasn’t ill. I don’t understand why you keep saying he was. I loved him. He wasn’t ill.” Mrs. Helland started crying. “All I wanted to do was give you this,” she said and picked up a small white box from a circular table next to the sofa. The tears were rolling down her cheeks.
“It’s from Lars,” she sobbed. “Your graduation present.”
Reluctantly, Anna accepted the present.
“Open it,” Mrs. Helland ordered her.
Anna took the lid off the box and removed the bright yellow cotton. Underneath it was a silver chain with a pendant. The pendant consisted of two charms, an egg and a feather. Anna swallowed and looked up at Mrs. Helland.
“It’s beautiful,” she gasped.
Mrs. Helland smiled, red-eyed. She was still sitting far too close, Anna could smell her tears, feel a vile heat from her body. Anna didn’t want to stay there any longer. Not another second.