‘Might as well get it over with,’ Karen says and peers up at the house. ‘Do you have keys?’

‘I do, actually. Brynn was given an extra set so he could get the house in order before Luna moved in.’

‘And who owns it? A friend of Brynn’s, I think Leo said?’

Kore nods.

‘His name’s Ole Henriksen. He spends most of the year in Palm Springs and only visits in the summer. The rest of the year, the house is empty, so he didn’t mind helping us out.’

‘Yes, I heard hotels were out of the question,’ Karen says. ‘I take it our little prima donna is here incognito.’

Kore seems oblivious to the derision.

‘Yes, it wasn’t easy,’ he says. ‘But we actually pulled it off. So far, anyway.’

‘So the media don’t know she’s here?’

He gives her a surprised look.

‘Well, what do you think? You would have noticed. Do you have any idea how big she is?’

Karen shrugs. Yes, she knows. Of course she knows.

Luna is probably the most famous person I will ever have the dubious pleasure of shaking hands with – or not she muses, remembering Luna avoiding her hand at the party while she watches Kore hold a key card to the reader on the wall, punch in a code and push open the door. Then he consults a crumpled note he pulls out of his jeans pocket, walks over to an alarm panel on the wall and quickly taps in the ten-digit reset code.

Karen notices that his hands are trembling slightly, and only at that point does she realise how worried Kore really is. Because they might not get the recordings done in time? Or is he actually worried about Luna? They’ve known each other since they were young; that’s why the world-famous artist so unexpectedly chose KGB Productions for her new album. Why she has come home to Doggerland to prepare her comeback after almost ten years as a recluse.

Of course he’s worried, she thinks with a pang of guilt.

‘Hello,’ she calls out. ‘Anybody home?’

She opens the first door on her right and finds herself staring into a guest bathroom more spacious than her own bedroom. Neat rows of towels, an empty bin. A dry sink, she notes after touching it.

‘Let’s split up. Don’t touch anything,’ she says.

‘Shouldn’t we look around downstairs first?’ Leo says, hanging back in the hallway as Karen starts moving towards the stairs.

‘You do that, I’ll check the bedrooms. I assume they’re upstairs.’