“It won’t take long. I promise no one will even know I’m there.”

“Well, no, I don’t think so. I’m sorry. If you had any other information about the student aside from his first name, then maybe I could—”

Heloise happened to remember something Jonna Kiel had said.

“Oh, he was in a wheelchair. He had a physical disability of sorts?”

“Ah,” the woman said, and Heloise could almost sense her clasping her hands in excitement. “Well, then it must be Kenneth Vallø you’re looking for.”

“Do you know him?”

“Why yes, of course. Don’t you?”

“No, I—”

“Kenneth Vallø is the founder of ScanCope.”

“Um, that doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“ScanCope,” the woman repeated, as if that were the most obvious explanation in the world. “The tech company.”

“Okay,” Heloise said. “Never heard of it.”

“You’re not from Herlev, are you?”

“No, Copenhagen.”

“Well, that’s probably why. Kenneth Vallø is sort of a local hero around here.”

“A hero, really?”

“Yes, the new sports center we got here at the school a few years ago—he donated that. And the big bronze sculpture in Herlev Square and the embellishments in the new library? Kenneth Vallø paid for all of that too.”

“That was mighty nice of him.”

“I know, right? That’s just the kind of man he is.”

“Yeah, he sounds great,” Heloise said. “Where did he get the money from, though?”

“He sold ScanCope to a foreign company several years ago, a Chinese company, I think it was. I can’t remember how much he got for it, but it was a lot of money—somewhere in the hundreds of millions of kroner, if I remember correctly.”

Heloise whistled, impressed.

“And I think he’s just really proud of his hometown,” the woman on the phone continued. “Kenneth Vallø hasn’t forgotten where he came from,” she said. She all but started humming that he was a jolly good fellow.

“Well, it must be nice to be able to give something back to your hometown,” Heloise said. “How long have you been working at the school?”

“Almost six years.”

“There wouldn’t happen to be anyone in the office who’s been working there longer, would there? Someone who could maybe remember Kenneth from when he was a student?”

“No, unfortunately not. The old school secretary retired last year, and the rest of the team up here has been gradually replaced over the last few years. What do you need to know about him?”

“There was a girl that Kenneth was friends with when he was a kid,” Heloise began. “Someone he hung out with a lot when he was in elementary school.”

“Oh, I’m afraid I wouldn’t know anything about that,” Marianne said apologetically. “But you know you could just go and ask him yourself. He’s very down-to-earth.”

“Do you know him personally?”