Spar supermarket by Lake Skarve

Spar supermarket by Lake Skarve is both a practical hub for the surrounding community and a place where ordinary goods become investigative leads. Sejer’s visits turn its postcard rack and freezer aisle into points of inquiry: first, he asks about The wolverine postcard; later, he returns with a package of frozen ox blood and asks whether one like it was recently sold.

Setting and Local Role

Karsten Sundelin describes the shop as the area’s nearby general store. There is no bookshop where he lives, so residents must drive to the shopping centre near Kirkeby, but Spar is down by Lake Skarve and sells a little of everything: medicine, toys, and food. The description establishes its importance through convenience rather than size or specialization. It is the kind of place where a shopper might encounter necessities and small, incidental purchases in the same aisles.

Directions place the shop near the waterfront, reached by turning right at Bjerkås Centre; its flags make it conspicuous from outside. When Sejer visits, the store is part of a broader view of Bjerkås, a community of roughly five thousand residents. He has passed the old red-brick dairy and seen the former cloister across the lake, but the shop draws him in with the smell of freshly cooked food. He buys two meatballs, carrying them in a warm aluminium bag as he continues around the store. Its local, everyday character is therefore conveyed through both its position in the settlement and the mixture of food shopping and investigation that takes place there.

The Postcard Rack

At the checkout, Sejer finds a rack of postcards among pictures of kittens, puppies, and horses, as well as packs of thank-you notes and birthday cards. One card catches his attention: a lynx photograph identified on the reverse as part of a series on Norwegian mammals, taken by Gøran Jansson. Its presence prompts him to reconsider where the person he is investigating might live or shop. The possibility that this person uses the same local store makes the ordinary rack relevant to his search.

Sejer asks whether the shop has other animal cards, specifically asking about The wolverine postcard. Britt, the young cashier whose name tag and eyebrow piercing Sejer notices, does not recognize the animal or remember the stock. Her uncertainty leaves the question unresolved; the visit does not establish that the postcard was sold there. Sejer pays seven kroner and sixty øre for the lynx card, gives one of his meatballs to Frank when he returns to the car, and thumbs through three newspapers. The scene moves from routine shopping to a targeted question, then back to the small practical gestures of the visit.

The Frozen Ox Blood

On a later visit, the store’s shelves again draw Sejer’s attention to an unusual item. Skarre has found a package labeled as 1.2 kilograms of frozen blood, priced at thirty-two kroner and marked best before October 2009. Sejer takes it from him and confirms that it is ox blood. Their surprise at finding blood for sale contrasts with the shop’s otherwise ordinary range; Skarre speculates that farmers’ wives might use it to make blood pudding, but the evidence does not establish who bought this particular package or what it was used for.

Sejer carries the package to the cashiers and sees Britt again. He asks her not to scan it, explaining that he wants to know whether she remembers a similar package being sold recently. She reads the label and shakes her head. As with the question about the animal postcards, the exchange produces no confirmation. The store supplies an object that can be examined and a person who can be asked, but neither visit yields an answer from the cashier.

Investigative Significance

The two encounters give the shop a recurring role in Sejer’s inquiry without turning it into a dramatic or exclusive crime scene. Its general stock makes unusual items available alongside familiar goods, while its checkout offers a natural place to question someone about purchases. The wolverine-card inquiry begins with a printed image on a rack; the later inquiry begins with a labeled, frozen package that Skarre has discovered. In each case, Sejer follows a concrete object to Britt and asks whether the store’s sales might help establish a connection.

The recurrence also gives the location a modest continuity: the same cashier appears in both lines of questioning, though she recalls neither the postcard nor a recent sale of blood. Spar supermarket by Lake Skarve thus matters less as a source of answers than as a plausible point where clues may have passed through ordinary commerce. Its everyday accessibility is precisely what makes Sejer look there—and what leaves the outcome uncertain.