The image of Mads Teigen at the helm, smoking and smiling, appeared out of the blue. Or rather: it had popped into her head quite a few times over the course of the afternoon, but now she permitted herself to dwell on it. There was something unusual about that man, a reticence that she just couldn’t decode. He was reserved, no doubt about that, but at the same time a darkness burned in those green eyes; a gloom that seemed strangely alluring to her. Anette had to admit that she found him exciting, and she had no idea what to do with that feeling. Even the fact that he smoked made him interesting in this sanctimonious parent phase of her life. She sighed heavily at her own silliness. It was probably just the spring going to her head. The spring and her fatigue.

Her phone rang. It was Kørner.

“What is it now?!” Anette laughed to make it clear that she was kidding. Her partner could be a little dim sometimes. “Anything new?”

“No. But I have a couple of details I’d really like to discuss with you if you have time. You’re not in the middle of making dinner, are you?”

Anette heard him light up a cigarette and felt a sharp pang of longing for the way things used to be.

“No,” she said, “it’s fine. Let’s hear it!”

“I was just talking to Esther de Laurenti. She thinks that the letter to Oscar’s family might be a suicide note.”

“You are saying that he killed himself?”

A group of laughing teenagers walked past Anette’s bench. She moved the phone over to her other ear.

“The father can’t rule out that Oscar is able to operate the family’s boat.”

“What the hell, Jepsen? That makes no sense. If he committed suicide, we would have found him and the boat by now. Or at least the wreckage.” Anette spoke with more conviction than she felt. None of their theories seemed really plausible.

“There’s something else, too. That fortress caretaker guy, the one who found the backpack… The guy who was also on Hven—”

“Mads Teigen, what about him?”

“Do you know how long he’s been working at Trekroner?”

“No, why?” Anette stiffened.

“There’s some indication that he knew Oscar. The Dreyer-Hoff family went to Trekroner often. Henrik mentioned the guy but couldn’t remember his name.”

“I’ll ask him. Anything else?”

“That’s it,” Jeppe replied. “Say hello to everyone for me!”

Anette hung up and returned her phone to her pocket, tossed the unlit cigarette into a bush, and summoned her dogs.