Someone had been here. Very recently. The footprints were obvious. A person, a man to judge by the size of the prints, had come up from the road. He had been on the steps. The top steps were sheltered by an awning and were free of snow, but at the foot you could see that the person in question had walked up and down the steps before making what had to be a circuit of the house. At any rate, the footprints clearly traversed the lawn in a south-east direction and disappeared around the corner. From the south-west, the prints made a return. In the end the stranger had crossed the lawn diagonally towards the hedge at the bottom of the property.

There was no one to be seen. It was remarkably quiet.

‘Does the doorbell work?’ Selma asked crisply.

‘Yes. At least it did earlier today. I can test if …’

Selma just managed to stop her hand on its way to the substantial brass button.

‘Don’t disturb the others.’

‘But someone’s been here! Somebody’s …’

She pointed at the footprints on the grass. The figure had stood at a distance of only five or six metres from the vast panorama window. A slushy patch of one square metre or so was completely trampled.

‘He’s been staring at us. From there you can see right into the living room. Why has he … Why didn’t we spot him?’

‘It’s light inside and dark outside,’ Selma said, more brusquely than she’d intended.

‘We have to call the police.’

‘The police? To tell them that someone’s taken a walk around your house? I don’t think that’s a good idea.’

‘But …’

Selma turned on her heel and gripped Hege by the shoulders. She caught her eye in the light from the exterior lamp on the overhang above them.

‘It’s most likely been a journalist,’ she said as calmly as she could. ‘Those people know no boundaries, not at all. Don’t be afraid. Go to bed now. There’s no danger, OK? Only a journalist. You know what they’re like. Jan said they were here in force earlier this evening. The police were here too, I understand. With dogs and the whole shooting match. To chase them out of the garden. One of them has just been a bit more persistent than the others. Even bolder.’

‘He’s been watching us. In my own living room. He’s been staring at me! They’d all gone, every single last one of them, before you arrived, and I opened the curtains because they were no longer …’

‘Hege!’

Selma gave her a shake.