‘Loots and Nielsen, focus on finding potential eyewitnesses,’ Björken says. ‘Anyone who frequents the area, dog owners, joggers, and so on. Johannisen, grab someone and go talk to the neighbours. Eiken and I will head over to the scene right now.’

Smeed pauses on his way out the door and nods to Karen.

‘Not her,’ he says. ‘Every resource is at your disposal, except Eiken. Take Inguldsen, she seems switched on.’

*

‘You can’t be serious,’ Karen says, jogging down the hall to keep up with her boss.

‘Of course I’m serious. What part of what I said don’t you understand?’

‘“Every resource except Eiken”. Surely we need every single goddamn resource, period, if we want to catch that bastard.’

Smeed stops dead and stares at her.

‘You were given a different assignment not twenty minutes ago. Or did you forget that?’

‘Of course I didn’t forget. But don’t you think we can hold off on looking for some damn diva who has probably gone off on some whim and instead focus on an actual crime that we know has been committed?’

He hesitates. She can tell from his eyes, darting from his watch to his phone to an undefined point on the ceiling. They’re short-staffed, and Karen Eiken Hornby is, along with Karl Björken and Evald Johannisen, the most experienced investigator he has. Everything points to the woman in Lemdal being the fourth victim of the same lunatic from the previous autumn. On the other hand, a woman whose disappearance would set the media aflame. Especially if it turned out the police hadn’t taken it seriously. Make the wrong decision now and he will have a lot to explain to the Head of Police.

Karen waits impatiently while Jounas Smeed weighs his options. Then he turns to her.

‘No, we’re going to do it like I said,’ he says.

Then he briskly walks on and she stays where she is, staring after him.

Chapter 6

6

KGB Productions is located on the outskirts of an industrial park called Thane, in an old factory building that once housed one of Doggerland’s two largest dye houses. It’s been over fifty years since wool was last dyed there and eleven years since Kore and brothers Brynn and Gordon Englund moved in.