‘Then I suppose we’ll have to come at it from a different angle,’ she says at length.

He looks back at her between his fingers.

‘So, your usual strategy, then . . .’ he mutters. ‘Maybe you should have been a PI instead of a copper?’

She nods slowly, pretending to consider his suggestion.

‘Perhaps. I’d probably get more done if I played by my own rules. But seriously, it’s not like what I’m suggesting is illegal, I’m just saying let’s you and I take a closer look at Gundar Freske. Either we find something, or we don’t, in which case, no harm, no foul.’

There’s a pause. Then he lowers his hands down to the armrests of his chair.

‘OK,’ he says. ‘But not a fucking word to anyone. I have three children to feed.’

*

They split up the work. Decide that Karl will stay at the station, hold down the fort against both management and the other members of the investigation team, while digging up as much as he can on Gundar Freske the digital way, while Karen gets back into her car and sets off towards a nursery called The Hawser in Joms.

Chapter 33

33

‘Well . . .’ Sandrine Broe had said hesitantly on the phone, ‘Sure, you can come. But call when you’re here and I’ll come out, I don’t want to talk in here.’

Twenty minutes later, Karen watches the door to the low, green, wooden building open and Sandrine Broe jog past the little playground in front of the day care with her arms crossed and her head bowed against the rain.

She opens the gate and looks up and down the street. Karen flashes her lights before leaning across the passenger seat to open the door.

‘I’m so glad you had a minute,’ she says as Sandrine runs her fingers through her damp fringe.

‘So typical to get all this rain after that spell of nice weather,’ she says.

‘I’m glad you could make time for me.’

‘I don’t have long, ten minutes, tops, we’re short-staffed as it is.’

Karen opens her mouth to say something, but Sandrine continues.

‘Besides, I don’t understand what you want now. I’ve already told you everything I can remember. Even if it’s not a lot.’

‘I know, and I just have a few quick questions,’ Karen replies quickly. ‘First I’d like to know if you’ve ever had a conflict with any of your neighbours in Moerbeck?’

Sandrine gives her a look of incredulity and what might be disappointment.

‘But you already asked me that. If any of my neighbours had been weird or threatening, but no, nothing like that. I’ve already told you.’

‘It doesn’t have to be big, maybe just something trivial. Something you didn’t think of at the time.’

Sandrine looks concerned. And slightly annoyed.