“She’s spending the night at the hospital for tests. She was drugged, but she’ll be fine.”

“Are you okay?”

He thought it over. “No,” he said.

“Come in.”

He stepped in and closed the front door. Sara didn’t make any move to invite him farther into the apartment, so they stayed in the entryway amid jackets and shoes.

“The girls are still asleep.”

“I just wanted to see you.” Jeppe stuck his hands in his pockets, so they wouldn’t reach for her. “The case is solved, the murderer has confessed. Jenny Kaliban will be charged for killing Malthe Sæther after he threatened to go to the police and tell them that she sold naked pictures of her nephew.”

“She took the pictures of Oscar? His own aunt?!” Sara blinked, looking appalled.

“Yes. Who knows how it came to that.”

“Pedophile rings often keep an eye on art pages, anything that has drawings or pictures of children,” Sara said, shaking her head. “They start by offering money for innocent pictures of children, then it gradually progresses from there.”

“The pedophile ring grooms the artist and the artist grooms the child?”

“A slippery slope. She surely gave Oscar money and praised him for his contributions, so he felt complicit, and then she threatened him when he wanted to stop.”

“Who needs enemies when you have family?” Jeppe sighed. “We also found a picture of Malthe Sæther in Jenny’s atelier. Naked and made up like the pictures of Oscar and in the same armchair. We think he’s dead in the picture.”

Sara put her hands over her mouth.

“That kind of thing sells to people who are turned on by necrophilia and snuff. It can potentially be worth quite a lot of money.”

“A golden egg for a starving artist.”

She nodded grimly.

“The Ninth Circle company has already deleted their home page and every trace of themselves. It won’t be easy to find the people behind it—”

“I didn’t come here to talk work. Sara, I’m sorry. I made a decision, and it was the wrong one. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not that, Jeppe. Well, it’s not just that.” She squeezed her eyes shut a little.

He knew that look.

“What are you trying to say?” he asked. “Are we over?”

Her head drooped, but only for a second, then she lifted her chin, determined.

“I can tell that you’re trying, but maybe this just isn’t what you really want? And it’s hard for the girls, too. It’s just not working.”

The silence resonated in the entryway. Jeppe wished he could reach out and touch her, that she was maybe hoping he would. But he knew that no matter what they both wished, and whether or not she was right, there was no point in discussing it. You never get between a mama bear and her cubs.

“Take care of yourself.”