Jan pointed at the mantelpiece. Selma tore up an old newspaper, tucked it well under the wood and lit the fire.

‘So why Clostebol in particular?’ she asked, straightening up.

Jan, assuming that the question was rhetorical, did not reply.

‘WADA’s list of forbidden substances is pages long,’ she went on. ‘And getting longer by the minute. All the same, there are only a few of these that are particularly relevant for use by cheating athletes. For cross-country skiers, the most obvious would be EPO or traditional blood doping, as well as anabolic-androgenic steroids. AAS. You might also imagine that stimulants, primarily amphetamines, would have a certain desirable effect during a fifty-kilometre ski race. But I’ve never heard of skiers being caught for that sort of thing. Have you?’

‘Er … no. Or yes, I have. There was a suspicion that the Italians used it, both in Chamonix in 1937 and later. At that time they used all kinds of strange things. Naphtha. Even strychnine.’

‘OK. But in modern times?’

‘No.’

‘Exactly. Besides, the effects last a relatively short time, and races can be very long. However, it’s beyond doubt that AAS can have a real performance-boosting effect. But then again: why on earth use Clostebol of all things? Precisely the same substance that a totally innocent Hedda Bruun was so close to ingesting in Italy? In an incident that has been hushed up ever since?’

Now she was standing in the middle of the room.

‘I’ve checked, Jan. If Hedda had used the ointment as the doctor advised her to, she’d have fallen foul of a drugs test taken within a reasonable length of time afterwards. She had terrible sores, and the active ingredient would have gone straight into her bloodstream.’

‘Do you mean … do you really mean that the national team’s doctor might have deliberately tried to administer the drug to Hedda Bruun?’

‘No idea. I don’t know Stian Bach, and for all we know, the whole thing might have been an inexcusable blunder. But don’t you see?’

Suddenly she grabbed her bag and fished out her mobile. She keyed in to the home pages of Anti-Doping Norway, hesitating for a second before pressing one or two buttons and then sitting down beside him.

‘Here. This is the list of banned AAS preparations.’

‘It’s long. Very long.’

‘Yes.’

She sat so close to him that he could smell her scent. Faintly of perfume, more strongly of what he assumed to be shampoo. At any rate the fragrance was stronger when she tucked her hair behind her ear and continued.

‘Clostebol has actually only been popular in one place,’ she said, more quietly now. ‘In a particular era. In the former DDR. We remember, don’t we, what their athletes looked like. It’s a relatively weak anabolic steroid, and in recent years it hasn’t been available on the legal market in pill form. Nor in liquid form, for injections, which are what athletes prefer when they decide to cheat. However, the derivative is found in a number of creams, as well as in a vaginal tablet, whatever that might be good for. There’s also a nasal spray. In saying that …’