‘What about the policemen who drove me back to Vesterbro?’

‘I didn’t say we were safe, did I?’ She sounded annoyed. ‘Jens said they’re trustworthy, but who knows? In any case, it wasn’t as if they dropped you here, was it? Our real worry is you. Tell me again what happened this morning: everything.’

Prince told her every detail, and she listened thoughtfully. When he had finished, she went into the kitchen, came back with a glass of water, walked round the apartment, back into the kitchen and then came to sit down before starting her now familiar cigarette routine.

‘We need to get you a new identity. But the fact that they know what you look like is a concern. The only way we can do it is by changing your appearance. Your hair is quite dark, especially for a Scandinavian. We can certainly make it lighter; that should be easy enough. Have you ever grown a beard?’

‘No.’

‘Any idea how long it would take you to grow one? It would need to be a proper one, though.’

Prince was stroking his chin, trying to assess how long it would take. ‘I don’t know really. My guess is at least three weeks, perhaps a month.’

‘Very well then: I’ll get a message to Weston in Stockholm and he can tell London there’s been a delay. They don’t need to know more than that; they’ll just have to be patient. I’ll speak to someone about a new legitimationskort, but we can’t actually prepare it until we can get a photograph of you with lighter hair and a beard. In the meantime, you stay here. You’ll just have to be patient. Would you like a cigarette?’

‘I would actually, thank you.’

She lit one and passed it to him, noticing as she did so how his hands were trembling. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yes, thank you.’

‘You don’t look all right.’

Prince looked down at the rug between them, his eyes filling with tears as he did so. He watched as a couple of them dripped onto the ornate pattern, and then wiped his eyes.

‘No, it’s just been a terrible shock, that’s all. I’m sure I’ll be fine.’

Hanne said nothing, but she leaned forward and wiped a tear from under his eye with her thumb.

Hanne’s work was split between the police headquarters in Polititorvet and the police station in the Nørrebro district, where the unit investigating high-value robberies was based. A week after sending the message to London via Weston in Stockholm, she made one of her regular lunchtime visits to the Assistens cemetery.