A wide staircase led him down to a grand hall with built-in bookshelves overflowing with books. The hypnotic groove from the bedroom was playing here, too; his best guess was that it was something by The Future Sound of London. The lights were dimmed but bright enough to reveal that the room was filled with copulating silhouettes. In sofas and on chaises longues, on tables and chairs and the floor. Everywhere, people were fucking like there was no tomorrow, though some were also taking a break by the bar, sipping wine, making cocktails or just snorting a line or two.

He strolled around, trying to catch a glimpse of everyone without calling too much attention to himself. Jacobsén was nowhere to be found.

‘What do we have here?’ A woman came crawling towards him on the floor. Her curly red hair hung down over both her shoulders, making her vaguely reminiscent of a lion, prowling the savannah for its next prey.

‘Hi. Look, sorry, I’m not interested.’

‘Look alive, we have a Swede.’ She smiled and dragged her tongue across his feet. ‘Mm…’

‘Excuse me, but I mean it.’

The woman got up and untied his dressing gown, which fell to the floor when she slipped it over his shoulders. ‘Yes, I can see that. It really does look tired. So the question is what the two of you are doing here?’

‘Columbus. He’s apparently here. You haven’t seen him, by any chance?’

‘Maybe. Maybe not.’ She got down on her knees, cupped her hand around his scrotum and started massaging it.

‘Stop.’ He pushed her hands away. ‘Have you seen him and if so, where?’

‘You don’t ask for Columbus. He asks for you.’

Fabian was contemplating how to interpret her answer when he realized that, despite his resistance, she was about to close her lips around him. Not now, he thought, and was about to push her away when another woman came up behind him, grabbed his arms and started to kiss his neck. He’d never experienced anything like it. But not now, he couldn’t. Not after everything that had happened. The moist mouth of the first one. The tongue of the other behind his ear. It didn’t matter. That wasn’t why he was there.

And yet, he was unable to resist and do what he ought to. Like a wretched animal, he was pulled ever further down towards his basest instincts and let go of one thought after another until none of them mattered any more.

Then he noticed the black downward arrow on the redhead’s lower back. Suddenly, it was just there and just as suddenly, she stood up, wrapped his robe around her and left him standing there, blood pumping as though his body was refusing to accept that it was over.