‘I know it doesn’t look too good in here, but in the photograph you won’t be able to tell the difference. My advice is to keep the beard a bit messy, avoid the temptation to trim it. Like this, whoever’s looking at you will see your beard rather than your face.’ With that he let out a loud laugh that echoed around the small studio. The birth of Peter Rasmussen had begun.

Four days after the photo session, they were sitting at the table in the apartment, a legitimationskort and assorted other papers in front of them.

‘You look like a Peter Rasmussen.’

‘I look like a man with a beard.’

‘Good, that’s the idea. Peter Rasmussen from Helsingør.’ She was holding the card; he could barely recognise himself. ‘With your beard and glasses you look rather unremarkable, even quite unattractive.’

‘And without the beard and glasses?’

She smiled briefly and then pointed to the papers. ‘Concentrate: do you know anything about Helsingør?’

‘Isn’t it a port?’

‘Correct. It’s north of Copenhagen. If you were to drive there from here it would take around an hour, possibly slightly longer. It’s on the narrowest point of the Øresund, just two miles from the Swedish town of Helsingborg. In English it’s known as Elsinore; that’s what your Shakespeare called it in Hamlet.’

‘Is this another literature lesson?’

She continued. ‘Please, your life is going to depend on this. Peter Rasmussen was born on the eighth of July 1901, making him forty-one years of age.’

‘I’m thirty-four and people often comment that I look young for my age. It’s pushing it to make me seven years older.’

‘You don’t look so young with a beard and those glasses, I promise you. Also, it just feels better having someone who’s not in his thirties. Your occupation is ship worker. Helsingør used to have dozens of ferries crossing to and from Sweden each day. Now there’s only one or two, so many of the ship workers have come down here to look for work.’

‘And if someone wants me to describe my job? I barely know one end of a ship from the other. I’m not even sure what the difference is between a ship and a boat.’

‘But that was the same with Jesper Holm being an accountant: this identity is to allow you to move around, that’s all. I’m going to get hold of more clothes for you, the kind a ship worker might wear. For the next two days you need to study everything here about Peter Rasmussen. I’ll find you something to read on Helsingør and on ships too. Then you’ll finally be ready.’

‘Ready for what?’

‘You’ve forgotten already? Ready to meet Agent Horatio.’