She can hear herself hissing and spitting, but she’s powerless to stop it. Rufus has apparently had enough of the conversation and jumps down onto the floor with a thud.

She sees the mix of surprise and something akin to revulsion on Leo’s face.

As though he’s wondering if she has lost her mind.

‘I’m talking about Luna,’ he says. ‘Why are you still going on about her, Karen?’

He says it in a tone that reeks of the rational person’s advantage over the lunatic. Her irritation is overtaken by confusion.

‘Luna? I don’t think I’ve said a word about her since she finally deigned to contact you people and I no longer had to run around trying to find out what happened to her.’

‘Yes, you have. As recently as yesterday morning, actually. You asked if I’d seen her. If we were done recording.’

Karen stares at him, dumbfounded. Had she really asked him that? Maybe. But Sigrid’s comment had made the whole world shift. She has no clear memory of anything that happened before she threw up in the sink. They’d been fighting, but she can’t remember about what, exactly. And why Leo wants to drag that back up now is beyond her. But apparently, Luna’s a touchy subject for him.

Then it all becomes clear. Leo suspects but doesn’t know. What Sigrid blurted out has sown a tiny seed of anxiety. And now he’s beating around the bush, afraid it might be real. Terrified his life is going to be turned upside down, of Luna finding out.

Marike is probably right. And wrong. Leo may have a right to know, but he definitely doesn’t want to hear it.

And I’m not going to force you to.

‘I did?’ she says in a tone that signals equal parts surprise and indifference. ‘OK, I guess I shouldn’t have.’

‘It seemed pretty fucking unnecessary,’ Leo says. ‘Mean-spirited. You know as well as I do that sh—’

A sharp ring cuts him off. Karen hears him let out a curse when she quickly reaches for her phone. Feels a rush of relief when she sees Karl Björken’s name on the screen. Quarter past eleven at night. He’s hardly calling to enquire about her health at this hour.

‘It’s work,’ she says, without looking at Leo. ‘I need to take this.’

She starts to get up to head out to the kitchen, but he pre-empts her.

‘Saved by the bell, eh, Karen?’ he says and stomps out of the room.

Yeah, get out of here, she thinks and pushes the green button.

‘Hi, Karl, has something happened?’

‘You might say that. We have him.’

As the significance of Karl’s words reach her brain, she hears the front door slam shut with a bang that sets the kitchen window rattling.

With an effort she manages to corral her jumbled thoughts.