“Sorry,” she said.

“You don’t need to apologize,” Henrik said, looking at her exhausted face, her dry, pale lips.

“When did you last see Robin?” Mia asked, waving her hand in front of her face and coughing a little to show that she didn’t like sitting in the smoke-filled kitchen.

“A week ago,” Sussie said.

“How did he seem then?”

“Himself.”

Sussie shook her head, swallowing.

“On Saturdays I usually swing by with a little food—a loaf of bread, some butter, other milk-free things. He was kind of a—what’s it called?—veggie-something.”

“Vegan?” Mia asked.

“No, vegetarian,” Sussie said. “He started with that when he was only thirteen. That’s typical, I’ve heard. A sort of revolt, but it was nothing compared to how he reacted when Jesper died. His father. Cancer everywhere—stomach, lungs... He had ten tumors in his head, can you believe it? They couldn’t do anything. All we could do was watch.”

Henrik sat quietly, struck with strong compassion for this woman who had lost both her son and her husband.

“How did Robin react to that?” he asked in a calm voice.

Sussie twirled her cigarette against the inside of the glass jar.

“Robin has never been much of one for talking, like I said, but when Jesper died, I couldn’t talk to him at all. But I wanted to talk, so that was hard. And then when I found the bag, I’d had enough. I just couldn’t do it any longer.”

“The bag? Do you mean drugs, that he started doing drugs?”

“Yeah, first alcohol and tobacco. Then cannabis. I have no idea how he got his hands on all of it, but when I noticed the heroin, I finally understood it was serious. I mean, heroin is for serious addicts. Not for kids like my Robin. I wanted to stop it, right away.”

“So you called the police?”

“Yes. I know it was wrong of me, but...”

“I don’t think it was wrong,” Mia said. “I think it was the best thing you could have done.”

“You reported him a year ago,” Henrik said. “Do you know if he continued to abuse drugs?”

“No, but I assume he did. I can’t even think about it right now, I...”

Sussie fell silent, her eyes filling with tears.

“When you arrived at Robin’s this morning with the food,” Henrik said, “did you see anything unusual?”

“No, he was just lying there, he...”

Sussie shook her head, sniffling, one hand pressed against her forehead.

“You have a different surname than Robin, is that right?” Mia asked when Sussie had composed herself.