Audible sighs almost invariably accompany any mention of the mandatory job-related fitness test for employees of the Police Authority, at least among officers whose memories of their academy days are becoming fuzzy.

‘Mine’s tomorrow,’ Karl says. ‘Not a drop in the past two weeks and a ten-kilometre run every day since the first of April. Looking forward to going back to my regular routine tomorrow night,’ he adds with a grin.

Karen smiles wanly but decides not to tell him about her failed run the day before. She won’t be going back to her old routines anytime soon.

‘So, what has come in over the weekend?’ she says instead.

‘Haven’t been through it all yet, but it seems like the usual: a few burglaries, a couple of overdoses, and a lot of underage drinking, of course. A big bar fight in Ravenby, a knife fight up on Noorö, and a handful of domestic disturbances. Oh yes, and a bloke who climbed onto a roof in Grunder and howled the whole night through. I think six of his neighbours called in about it.’

‘Full moon, in other words,’ Karen replies and leans forward to turn her computer on. ‘Nothing else? You know what I mean.’

Karl shoots her a sceptical look.

‘You don’t think I would have said? No, he lay low this weekend, too, despite the heat. I’m starting to suspect he’s been nicked for something else. Or that he’s dead.’

‘Well, here’s hoping,’ she replies absently while the Doggerland Police logo appears on the screen. ‘But I’d better go through the reports myself, in case Smeed suddenly feels like giving me a pop quiz.’

‘Want to have lunch later? Outdoors at Magasinet at one?’ Karl calls back over his shoulder on his way to his own desk a few seats away; Karen raises her hand over her head and gives him a thumbs up.

*

When the phone rings a couple of hours later, Karen has gone over every last case entered into the internal database over the weekend and established that no woman named Luna Johns or Lena Johanson – her birth name – has either reported a crime or been reported as the victim of one.

Kore doesn’t seem very reassured by the news when she calls him.

‘But we should have heard from her,’ he says in a strained voice that Karen doesn’t recognise. ‘Something’s not right.’

‘And none of you have had any new ideas? Anything she might have said that could expl—’

‘No,’ Kore breaks in, ‘but Brynn found out the name of the cleaner. He has her number, too.’

‘Great,’ Karen says and takes a pencil from the cup on her desk.

‘Calita Lita. Apparently, that’s her name.’