The Chief told me they used a remote car-starter the night they abducted Emil. Made it look like one man and a driver. But all the time the accomplice was Julia and she was watching the whole scene with me.

‘Is there any sign of Julia?’

Noora pulls away.

‘Not yet. She escaped into the fog. The size of Visberg forest didn’t help, nor the fact that we didn’t know at that point that we were dealing with two perpetrators. We spent too much time trying to save Tobias and look after Emil. I regret not tracking her sooner.’

‘You think she’s still in Visberg?’

I think about the white bike. About the clockmaker’s house deep in the woods, the one with no windows or doors on the ground floor.

‘Dalarna police traced her debit card being used in a machine 150km east of here a few hours ago. They’re on her tail.’

‘I hope she gives herself up.’

‘I hope so, too,’ says Noora. ‘We’re still trying to piece together why they targeted Arne Persson. We know Tobias’s father was friends with Arne years ago and then the friendship ended suddenly. Karlstad homicide have found plans made months ago. Plans to practice before the transplantation attempt. They said it was as if Tobias had designed his own curriculum, his own dentistry education.’

A knock on the door. Noora answers and it’s Tam standing there with sleet in her hair, holding three plastic carrier bags of hot food.

‘I got fuel,’ she says, kicking off her boots, placing the bags down next to the sink. She comes over to me and I stand up. She looks up into my eyes and says, ‘Are you sure you’re alright?’

I smile and say I’m fine.

She puts her hands on my cheeks and I recoil a little at the coldness.

‘Sorry,’ she says, rubbing her hands together. We hug and she whispers, ‘Are you okay, though?’ and I nod.

‘Right,’ she says. ‘Pad Thai, panang, and Thai green curry. My three bestsellers. All made with VIP spicing. No mild, Scandi bullshit. Two bags of white crackers, two bags of chili crackers. Lots of rice. I brought paper plates and cutlery so no washing up required. Dig in.’

We do.

The food is delicious. We’re all ravenously hungry, but I eat carefully because of my tooth.

‘Will a real dentist re-do the root canal?’ says Tam.

I flinch at the memory. ‘Maybe,’ I say, glancing up at the clock on the wall.

‘You tired?’ says Tam. ‘Shit, I’m keeping you up. You must be exhausted. I’ll get off home.’