Anette blinked, for a second looking uncharacteristically hesitant. One would almost think she was insecure.

“He promised to help me look for Oscar at that fort called Prøvestenen. And before you say anything—I know it’s a shot in the dark, but I think the Search and Rescue crews might have overlooked it. I saw them in action on Hven and, honestly, I wasn’t impressed. Only three men turned up, and two of them were volunteers.”

Jeppe rolled his eyes at her.

“Can we agree that you have a control issue? Say, do you check whether Svend folds his undies the right way, too?”

She didn’t laugh.

“I just have a… hunch. You of all people know what that’s like.”

Jeppe got out of the car, bracing himself against the rain.

“Just be careful, Anette!” he urged. “Remember to wear a life jacket.”

She winked at him, waited for him to close his door, and then raced away. Jeppe saw her speed around the corner, then turned to face his workplace.

The sight of the modern office building in the rain automatically muted his serotonin level and made him wish that he could travel to some warm country and stay there. Walking to the front door he glanced up at the facade and felt the weight of the soaked bricks deep in his soul. This was his new reality. He had no choice if he wanted to keep his job, and he loved his job. In other words, he had to find a way to—if not love—then at least accept the new police building in Sydhavn.

In the shelter of his office he hung his jacket over the back of his chair to dry and tried to look at the bright side of things. At least he and Anette shared their own office and didn’t have to sit in an open-office layout like many of their coworkers. He went to fetch a cup of coffee from the machine and found Thomas Larsen and Sara Saidani in their cubicles down the hall.

“Larsen, Saidani, everything all right?”

“Yeah, thanks. I brought Malthe’s computer in,” Sara replied, and smiled at him in a way that was not strictly professional. Her look warmed his heart. “It came back from the crime scene technicians at NKC this morning. No prints other than his own. And so far there’s nothing to be found, everything seems normal.”

Jeppe drank his coffee. It tasted very faintly of dishwashing soap.

“I met with one of Malthe’s colleagues this morning, a Lis Christensen. She claims that there have been problems between him and some of the students, including Victor Dreyer-Hoff.”

“Whereas Victor insists that he saw Malthe and Oscar hugging in the school library two weeks ago,” Sara replied with a frown.