Helen’s shift was over. She was walking to the changing room, following her colleagues at a distance. Her surgical mask dangled around her neck. She took off her cap and crumpled it up. Shook her hair loose. Near the operating rooms, she passed a small corridor with a wheeled metal cabinet. It wasn’t parked against the wall but stood in the middle of the hall, as though the person pushing it had been called away in a hurry. One of the doors was still open, and there were medical devices and instruments on the shelves. Some still with blood on them. Instruments were put in cabinets like this after use and then taken to the sterile-processing department, where they would be washed, sterilized, and packaged under two layers of paper—spotlessly clean and ready for the next operation.

Helen stood still. Among the items in the cabinet was an electrical device that resembled a cordless drill—except that where you would expect to see a drill bit, there was a small saw blade instead. Helen had seen the device in action many times, back when she used to work in the OR. It sliced through bone and tissue like a knife through butter. Hesitantly, she approached the cabinet. She reached out her hand, gripped the device by its handle, and lifted it up. Examined the cutting blade. It was covered with tissue and minuscule splinters of bone. Bits of Mr. Van Drunen, she realized.

6

6

“Hello?” Naomi bent forward and pushed the mail slot open, peering through into the hallway.

Ralf watched her, observing how her buttocks moved inside her jeans and her blouse rode up over her lower back. The bare skin it exposed was smooth and tanned. He turned his head to one side and concentrated on a car down the street.

“I can’t see anybody,” she said.

Ralf pulled his phone out of his pocket. It was half past five. “Maybe we should come back this evening. Or tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow morning I’ll be at school.” Naomi stood upright. She was touching his chest slightly. “Hey. What if he’s just in his room?”

“I went there on Saturday. His bed hadn’t been slept in.”

“Maybe he’s there now, though?”

Ralf didn’t like the idea of going back. There was nobody there apart from Mikey, whom Brian still owed money to, and Ralf would prefer not to run into him.

“Aw, come on!” She grabbed his forearm and rubbed it. “Pretty please?”

His skin tingled where Naomi touched his jacket, and he felt mild shocks run through his body. He stared at her lips. If Brian was somehow still alive, then he needed to let them know about it pretty damn fast.

“OK,” he murmured. “We’ll go and take a look.” Some part of him that he couldn’t quite control took her by the hand and led her back to his car.

7

7