With a heavy heart, Karen thinks about the visits she’s going to have to make tomorrow. She can’t put off talking to Luna’s parents any longer. Granted, Leo, Kore, and Brynn had been in firm agreement; Luna hasn’t been in touch with them in over twenty years and she had been clear about that not being about to change.

‘It was one of the reasons she absolutely didn’t want anyone finding out she was in the country,’ Kore had said. ‘I don’t think she would ever choose to contact them. And I honestly don’t think she was interested in seeing anyone else from the good old days, either.’

Billy had backed him up on that. Luna had, as far as he knew, had no visitors and made no visits during her weeks in the country.

‘I obviously can’t tell you if she talked to people on the phone, but I’m pretty sure I would have known if she met up with anyone. She would have told me.’

At least you like to think she would have, Karen had thought to herself.

*

Stein and Randi Johanson, seventy-four and seventy-six years old respectively, according to the population registry. One daughter, Lena, born in 1977 and one son, Andreas, two years before that. So Luna has a brother. A few more searches revealed that Andreas Johanson seemed to have spent half his life either in the nick or at Karby Prison for a long series of infractions in an all-too familiar mix: burglaries, possession of various illegal substances, drug dealing, and assault. But at the moment, he seems to be a free man, she had noted. Not one sentence in the past four years, actually.

Perhaps Luna’s brother is the exception that proves the recidivism rule, Karen muses. Apparently, Andreas Johanson lives less than a mile from his parents outside Ravenby. The question is who she should contact first. The thought of having to inform the parents not only that their prodigal daughter has been back in the country for weeks but that she has now gone missing is about as tempting as having to seek out a Karby Prison regular.

I’ll start with Andreas, she decides. Luna may not want anything to do with her parents, but she might have looked her brother up. She pulls out her phone and dials the number listed at the address where Andreas Johanson is registered. Lets it ring ten times before giving up.

If she can’t get hold of Luna’s brother and the conversation with her parents fails to turn up anything new, she will run into a wall if she has to stick to discreet methods and no backup.

Just find her, Smeed had said.

‘Go to hell,’ Karen mutters and slams her laptop shut.

‘What, you have eyes in the back of your head now, too?’