In front of her an image of two dead birds with black feathers dotted with app icons filled the computer screen. The dock held the expected word-processing programs and apps for music and social media. Oscar played Fortnite and World of Warcraft regularly—games that Sara was very familiar with and knew could potentially put a child in contact with a whole world of sketchy acquaintances. Pedophiles offered kids skins and other perks in exchange for nude pictures. But there were no immediate indications that Oscar had gotten to know anyone through the games who might have lured him astray, no suspicious chats or invitations that she could see. She went through his emails and calendar, but found only sparse information.

On Oscar’s Facebook page he had posted paintings of Francis Bacon, links to art exhibits, punk music videos, and environmental policy updates about the effects of meat production on the ozone layer, endangered rhinos, single-occupancy vehicles, and CO2 footprints.

There were conversation threads with his classmates in Messenger about parties and homework. One of the threads revolved around a subject-focus day at the high school two weeks earlier, where Oscar had apparently given a presentation on plastic in the world’s oceans. Several classmates praised him with flexed biceps and heart emojis, but a few also mentioned a subsequent debate, where things apparently got a little heated. Someone named Karla wrote, You’re the one who’s right. They are being totally ridiculous! and someone named Gabriel added, Hang in there! If our generation doesn’t sound the alarm, the world’s going to be screwed in ten years.

Sara scrolled through to see if Oscar had commented on the subject but didn’t find anything.

There was a folder on the computer’s desktop that turned out to contain school assignments. Sara browsed through them. One paper in his social studies folder was titled “Brexit, and How It Could Affect Northern Ireland,” and another was called “Hurry!” with the subtitle “If We’re Going to Save the World.” She opened and skimmed the assignments; they were articulate, and showed that he was a good student and engaged in his schoolwork. One title in the Danish folder gave her pause. “In His Image—Oscar Wilde.”

Sara opened the document. It was an essay for Danish class. She skimmed the text but didn’t find any quotes that sounded like the one Jeppe had mentioned. Still, there had to be some connection. His Danish teacher had written comments and given him an A at the end of the document. The teacher’s comment was signed Malthe Sæther, Zahles School.

A quick search of the name yielded a phone number and an address. Sara called, but no one answered, nor did the call go to voice mail. It just kept ringing and ringing. Did she have time to pay him a visit? He lived at Vendersgade 19, on the fifth floor.