The bottom-right corner of a framed poster shows a fraction of something that looks like photographed water and the letters MP. To the left of the M is half a letter with a slanted side that suggests an A. She notes that the poster and the frame it’s in look significantly newer than the wallpaper behind them. Karen writes down AMP and suppresses the impulse to immediately start racking her brain for towns that end in that particular letter combination.

Instead, she focuses on the thick tabletop on the left side of the picture. Lacquered pine with prominent knots and the tops of straight, square legs, evocative of the same time period as the wallpaper. Typical seventies, she thinks to herself and makes a note.

The items on the table change or move between pictures. In seven of the fifteen photographs, parts of a plate with food remnants in shades of brown and greyish-white can be seen. A half-eaten banana in its own peel in one of the pictures, a piece of something that looks like black bread in another. In every picture there’s a glass of water, and in two, a green plastic watering can can be glimpsed at the extreme edge of the frame.

Karl Björken is the one who eventually says what they’re all thinking:

‘At least it looks like he’s been feeding her. He clearly meant to keep her alive. At least for a while,’ he adds. ‘What do you think of the last picture, the one where she’s lying down with her back to the camera. Dead or alive?’

‘Impossible to say for sure,’ Sören Larsen replies. ‘Her body looks stiff, which could either mean that she’s alive and in pain from having her arms tied behind her back; lying on your side in that position has to be pretty excruciating.’

‘Or . . . ?’ Karen says, even though she already knows what Sören’s going to say.

‘Well, or it’s a sign of rigor mortis. That would tally, timewise, with the last two pictures. But I’m not a doctor, as you all know. Do you want me to start the videos now?’

*

Scattered grunts, throat-clearing, and comments along the lines of ‘that bloke’s not right in the head’ and rhetorical questions like ‘what the fuck is he after, anyway?’ are heard around the table after the first two videos play.

‘All right,’ Karen says. ‘I’ve seen everything up until this point. The last three videos are as new to me as they are to you. But before we continue, I want to ask if anyone has spotted anything that might give us a clue as to where this is? Anything.’

Worried head shakes.