Read Online The Drowned Boy by Karin Fossum - Free Book Online Page B

explained. “I work when someone’s ill or on vacation, that sort of thing. And I’m working today because of Tommy. I mean, I speak to them sometimes, and I really feel for them right now. I don’t even know where to begin. Tommy’s a good boy, even if he is a bit different. There’s something good about children like that. They steal a piece of your heart.”
    “That’s a nice thing to say,” Sejer remarked. “If only everyone could see it like that, things would be a lot better. Do you know what they were like as parents? They’re so young. What about Nicolai? What kind of father was he? Tell me what you know.”
    “He was over the moon,” she said. “Never angry or anything like that. He really loved Tommy just the way he was.”
    “And what about Carmen?” he probed.
    “Well, Carmen,” she started, and then paused. “I think basically it bothered her. And I can understand that, since it must be really hard. Or maybe she was just embarrassed. She certainly never talked about it. She never talked about Tommy at all, which I thought was a bit weird. Most people love to talk about their children, but she wasn’t like that. If anyone mentioned that he was different, she immediately changed the subject, to the weather or something like that. Perhaps I shouldn’t be telling you, but it’s the truth. I’ve thought about it quite a lot. Having a child that you constantly have to explain to everyone else must be so hard and exhausting. You can’t ever get away from it. It’s always there, just think about it. Different and slow and in need of help. Different today and different every day for the rest of their lives.”
    She sighed, paused, and shifted her position in the chair. As if she was suddenly uncomfortable that she had just admitted this. But they were from the police and she automatically felt she had to tell the truth at all costs. It just seemed to flow out of her.
    “People could see he wasn’t right,” she continued, “and I think Carmen hated having to answer all the questions. But I’m sure she loved him as well, in her own way. Don’t you think? I mean, people come to love their children, no matter what.”
    “Yes, that’s what we believe too,” Skarre assured her. “So, you’ll be getting a lot of shifts now. And I guess no one knows when they’ll be back at work?”
    “Yes, I’ll do all I can to help, and I need the money. It’s just awful. I don’t know what to say, really. To think that things like this happen, it’s horrible.”
    “Have you ever looked after him? Babysat or anything like that?”
    “Yes, actually,” she said. “Just once. I went to their house up at Damtjern. It was Pappa Zita’s fiftieth and they were having a big party for him at that place at Granfoss. They thought it would be best if Tommy didn’t go. There was a band and all that, and they thought that maybe there would be too much noise for him.”
    Sejer sat for a while thinking.
    “What’s your name?” he asked after a pause.
    “Elisabeth,” she replied.
    “Elisabeth. Right. Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”
    “Of course. I’m OK with that,” she said with a slight smile. She adjusted her hairnet and folded her hands on the table, waiting like a schoolgirl.
    “Do you have children?”
    “No, I don’t have children. I don’t even have a boyfriend.”
    Skarre looked at her intently. “You mean right now, today, you don’t have a boyfriend?”
    “Yes, because we broke up on Friday,” she said and let out a light, tinkling laugh. Her laughter was cheering in the midst of all the sadness.
    “But,” Sejer pushed, “if you were expecting a baby, that is, you and a possible partner—which you don’t have at the moment, but still, a boyfriend—and the doctor did an amnio, as they do on some women these days when they think there is a risk. Imagine that you were told that the baby you were carrying had Down syndrome. Would you have an abortion? Or would you