‘Okay,’ Theodor said, meticulously spreading a thick layer of Nutella on one of the slices of toast.

‘Just so you know, dinner will be ready in fifteen, twenty minutes.’

‘But I’m hungry now, so it’s cool.’

Cool? He wanted to reply that it was anything but cool. That they were in a nosedive and risked crashing any second if they didn’t make some changes soon. That he was going to sit down for dinner with his family whether he wanted to or not. That all that sugar was going to give him diabetes if he didn’t watch himself. But he didn’t say any of that. Instead, he just stood there, paralysed.

‘I don’t know if you’ve heard on the news,’ he finally managed, even though he’d promised himself not to bring it up while Sonja wasn’t on his side. ‘The trial in Helsingør is underway now.’

‘Right. What do you know.’ Theodor started building a small mountain of orange marmalade on the other slice of toast.

‘Like I feared, they’re blaming each other in their first statements. The only thing they’re all certain of is that they themselves did practically nothing.’

‘Right, that’s what you said. Good for you.’ Without so much as a glance in his direction, Theodor put his toast on an empty plate and poured himself a big glass of milk.

Fabian felt something break inside him. ‘Is that all you’ve got? An ironic comment whose only purpose is to put me down?’ A small crack that grew until the whole dam burst. ‘Do you really think this is funny? That it’s ha, ha, ha.’ But he mustn’t let his feelings take over. Not now. ‘Do you realize what this means? Do you have even the slightest inkling of what this will lead to?’

Theodor dumped spoonful after spoonful of chocolate powder into his milk.

‘They’re going to be acquitted. Do you understand that? Unless you, who knows who’s who and who did what, choose to come forward, justice won’t stand a chance. Even after they took turns jumping on that homeless man’s chest until every rib was broken, they’re going to be acquitted and walking these streets again in just a few months. Despite forcing another homeless man into a shopping trolley, chaining him to it and pushing it out on to the E4 motorway during rush hour. Despite all that, all you can do is shrug and make sarcastic quips.’

Without knowing how it had happened, he was suddenly standing behind Theodor, watching himself grab his shoulders and turn him around.

‘Look at me when I’m talking to you,’ he said, much too loudly. ‘I said, look at me!’

But Theodor’s empty eyes were as evasive as a magnet of the same polarity as his own.