“He called to postpone our date. Malthe and I usually take turns visiting each other on the weekends. As long as I’m living in Odense—I’m an intern there at a bookstore on the pedestrian shopping street—we have to do it that way. He was going to come to Odense Friday night, but he canceled.”

“Did he say why?”

“He had to stay in Copenhagen because one of his students was in trouble and needed help.”

Oscar, Jeppe thought, but didn’t say aloud.

“Malthe didn’t say who it was or what it was about, but I could hear in his voice that it was serious. Otherwise he wouldn’t have spent his time off doing it. He was very dedicated, but…” Josephine blinked and looked down.

“Was he with someone when you talked to him?”

She shook her head.

“Who did he socialize with here in Copenhagen?” Anette asked. “Friends, colleagues?”

“Malthe doesn’t have a big social network in Copenhagen yet. We spend our weekends traveling back and forth. When you’re apart all week, you become a little stingy with the time you have together.” Josephine dabbed at her eyes with a crumpled tissue from her pocket. “But he spoke highly of one colleague named Lis. I don’t actually know her last name. And he drank coffee with several of the people from his building. He sang with a chorus once a week. A men’s chorus that practices in a church in Vesterbro. He really enjoyed that.”

Jeppe made notes.

“Do you know the name of the chorus?” Jeppe asked.

“Allegro, maybe? Or Axis? Something like that. I never got to hear them sing.”

“What else did he do in his free time?”

“Hung out with me, like I told you,” she said, one corner of her mouth rising ever so slightly. “On the weekends anyway. Malthe hasn’t worked as a teacher for that long and still spends most of his weekday nights preparing for work. Apart from chorus on Tuesday night and long bike rides. He’s always biked a lot, but here in the city he hardly has time to keep it up. He’s always prepping for class and grading essays.”

“Do you know of any conflicts he may have had? Did he have any enemies?”

“No.” Josephine laughed nervously.

Jeppe waited, but she didn’t elaborate.

“There wasn’t anyone he didn’t get along with?”

She shook her head.

“Did he ever socialize with any of his students outside of school?”

“Of course not!” She sounded indignant.

Jeppe and Anette exchanged a glance over the little café table, then he asked, “Has Malthe ever mentioned a student to you by the name of Oscar?”

Josephine thought about it and then shook her head.

“He never mentioned an Oscar Dreyer-Hoff?”

Her face lit up.

“Dreyer-Hoff?” she said. “If you mean Victor, then yes.”