‘A moped!’ Anita Kollbar cuts her off.

Karen stiffens.

‘Are you sure? Where did you see it? Where did it come from?’

‘I heard it. It made me think of the one my brother used to own back in the day. But I never saw it. It was just before . . .’

Anita Kollbar’s voice fades out again. Her eyes seem stuck on a point between Karen’s legs and the table with the water glass and a peeled but untouched tangerine.

Wide-open, dry eyes.

Karen hesitates. Maybe they should call the doctor, stop here, and come back tomorrow. Without considering whether it’s right or proper, she puts her hand on Anita Kollbar’s. Keeps it there, gently covering the other woman’s clenched fist. Feels Anita’s cold skin against her warmth.

The faint sound of footsteps outside in the hallway, the clatter of cutlery, the sound of voices, someone laughing. Nothing from Karl, but Karen knows exactly what he looks like. That tiny muscle on the right side of his jaw is pumping, his head bowed to hide his anger.

Silence fills the room. No words now, only thoughts racing in the wordless stillness that has descended.

And then Anita’s eyes suddenly move away from the invisible point, seeking Karen’s.

‘Are you going to catch him?’

She shouldn’t. She knows that. But she says it anyway – because it’s the only thing she can say.

‘Yes, we’re going to catch him.’

*

Karl sits with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the key in the ignition.

‘Bloody hell,’ he says, making no move to start the car.

Instead, he leans back and says it again.

‘Bloody hell.’

Karen looks out the side window. The car park in front of Thysted Hospital is filling up; they should leave and make room for others. But the past forty-five minutes have sucked all the oxygen and strength out of them. It’s only momentary – she has been at this long enough to know that – but right now, she feels paralysed by what Anita Kollbar told them. The way her life has been utterly destroyed, how it started with a hard blow to her back. How she had time to think someone had bumped into her by mistake. The pain in her wrists as she caught herself in the gravel, her chin slamming into the ground. The brief moment during which her brain refused to realise what was happening. During which she still thought the person leaning over was going to help her.