Jeppe went out to the coffee machine in the hallway, made himself a double espresso, and poured a splash of milk in it. Who knew what the rest of the day would bring? The thought of a possible autopsy on a dead teenage boy turned his stomach. Children should outlive their parents, period.

Back at his desk, he printed out the picture Anette had taken of the mysterious letter. The original was on its way to the forensic scientists to be examined for prints and other evidence that might tell them something about its origin. This printout, though, looked quite inconspicuous. Ordinary machine-written letters on ordinary white paper, it could have been typed on any computer and printed on any printer.

Jeppe skimmed through the words one more time.

As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter’s work, and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead, he would be free.

They reminded him of something, maybe something he had read. He typed the lines into the search field on his browser and received a whole page of links about the author Oscar Wilde. Oscar? Was the shared name a coincidence or a hidden message?

Jeppe seemed to remember that Esther de Laurenti had mentioned and quoted Wilde more than once; maybe he should check with her. Normally he was reluctant to ask her things that had to do with his policework. Their friendship had been founded in the course of a murder case three years ago, and back then her assistance had almost cost her her life. Esther had helped him since, but he was always vigilant about not exposing her to potential danger.

He called her.

“Yes, hello?”

He heard music in the background, opera.

“It’s Jeppe. I hope I’m not calling at a bad time.” He took a tentative sip of his coffee and made a face.

“Jeppe, how nice to hear from you.” This was followed by a brief pause, as if Esther moved away from the phone. When she spoke again, she sounded more distant. “Let me just turn this down.” The music was silenced. “There, that’s better. What can I do for you?”

“As a matter of fact I’m calling to ask if you’re familiar with an Oscar Wilde quote that I came across. I could ask Sara to look it up online, but I need to know the context and to understand what it might mean. Can I try reading it to you?”

“Of course!” She responded with an academic’s excitement at being challenged on her home turf.

“ ‘He looked around and saw the knife that had stabbed Basil Hallward. He cleaned it many times…’ ”

Jeppe didn’t get any further than that.