Heloise was about to protest, but he held up a hand to stop her.

“They’re probably already covered in fingerprints from all kinds of other people, but they should be checked anyway. There is also a chance that the sender’s DNA is in the glue strip closure.”

Heloise had already taken pictures of the letters with her iPhone and uploaded copies to the cloud. She got him a couple of plastic bags.

Schäfer put his gloves back on and placed each of the letters into its own bag.

“What should I do now?” Heloise asked.

Schäfer got up and zipped up his caramel-colored suede jacket. He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and handed her his card.

“Let me know if you get any more letters or any other mysterious Instagram posts, but other than that? Just take it easy and keep your eyes and your ears open.” He glanced around. “Do you have a boyfriend or someplace else you could stay tonight?”

Heloise shook her head.

“Then make sure you keep your door closed and locked the whole time.” He held out his hand to say good-bye, and Heloise took it.

“You didn’t answer my question about Johannes Mossing,” she said. “Why doesn’t he want to cooperate with the police?”

Schäfer hesitated a moment. Then he said, “I think he’s got his own people looking for her.”

“Are you serious?” The idea was so absurd that it almost made Heloise laugh. “What do you think he’s planning to do if he finds her?”

Schäfer started moving toward the front hall.

“Just make sure you keep your door locked,” he repeated, and left the apartment.

Heloise walked out onto the balcony and watched as he crossed the street in front of her building and got into a black Opel Astra, which was parked half up on the sidewalk.

After he drove away, she started cleaning up after her dinner, but her head felt like a pinball machine with a hundred balls zipping around at the same time, so she left the dishes and went to bed with her clothes on even though it was still light out.

Sleep didn’t find her right away, though. The late-summer bird calls outside cut through the air like stray bullets, disturbing the peace. She pressed a pillow over her ear and waiting until the roiling surf in her inner sea slowly but surely started to subside.

CHAPTER

11

A NOISE FROM SOMEWHERE outside woke her up. Or was it the strangely prevalent silence in the building that had awakened her? Heloise lay there for a moment, sleepily blinking with her eyes half open, as she listened.

Ten heartbeats ticked by.

Nothing.

Her eyes closed, and she was starting to doze off when she heard it again. Something moving. A quiet, scraping sound.

She sat up in bed.

What’s that? Was the sound coming from the stairwell? Or from the living room?