“You would know if anyone does, Superintendent. Have you ever interrogated a violent criminal who answered like a human being? To do what they do—what I did—you have to be able to shut down. Completely. Emotions are a liability.”

“You don’t have to be a criminal to understand that.”

A quick glance at the emptiest, most desolate home Piet Hoffmann had ever visited.

And right there, at that moment, they understood each other and were in complete agreement.

That the ugliest, most dangerous enemy would always be loneliness.

During the call, Grens had kept holding the juice without thinking about it, and now he put it down on the kitchen table next to a half loaf of bread, a block of cheese, a stick of butter, two juice glasses, and two porcelain cups. And while the coffeemaker sputtered and coughed, he went and grabbed a whiteboard and a bag of magnets and markers from the hall and brought them into the kitchen, while Hoffmann looked on curiously.

“What are you up to, Detective?”

“I’ll tell you—if you tell me what you’re up to.”

Ewert Grens nodded to a balled-up napkin that Piet Hoffmann had pulled from the bottom of his knife holster and started to smooth out. Some kind of crossword, long rows of squares filled the paper, chains of boxes with letters inside. Which he now ran a finger over, one answer at a time.

Survive, eleven letters

P—H—O—N—E—T—O—G—R—A—M

Survive, eleven letters

G—R—O—U—N—D—F—L—O—O—R

Survive, fourteen letters

N—A—S—O—L—A—B—I—A—L—F—O—L—D

Survive, seven letters

D—E—T—C—O—R—D

Survive, eleven letters

R—A—D—I—O—J—A—M—M—E—R

Straight lines crossed out each of these word grids.

But the last two he had left untouched.

Survive, eleven letters

P—O—S—I—T—I—O—N—I—N—G

Survive, fourteen letters

E—N—C—R—Y—P—T—I—O—N—C—O—D—E

“What am I up to? Exactly what it says—surviving. Protecting my family.”

“Protecting a family who might never be able to be protected again. The robot voice is right about that.”

Grens folded the napkin together, handed it back to Hoffmann.

“You’re good at making plans. But they won’t do you a lick of good if those documents end up on the streets. Do they know that—Hugo and Rasmus and Luiza? That if you fail—they can never live in safety again?”

“If we fail. We. Because this time we’re going to help each other. Unlike all those other times. Right, Grens?”