‘Straight ahead,’ said Norah. ‘We’ll sit in the kitchen.’

Grimm obeyed, sat down at the table.

‘So, what do you want?’ Norah asked.

‘You know what I want.’

‘I’m too tired for riddles, Dr Grimm.’

‘Ask me.’

Norah felt herself break into a sweat.

‘What do you want me to ask you?’

‘I made a mistake. And you noticed.’

Norah felt as if something were sticking in her throat, preventing her from swallowing. Something alive.

‘You knew Valerie,’ she said.

Grimm was silent for a long time.

Then he said, ‘Yes. I knew Valerie.’

And when Norah said nothing, ‘I hadn’t thought about her for years. But when you mentioned her to me, it all came rushing back.’

‘Why did you do it?’ Norah asked.

Grimm looked at her in bewilderment.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Earlier this evening, in the Prater. You said you were sorry about Valerie. You must have known I’d find that strange. So why did you say it? You were already off the hook.’

Grimm studied his hands on the wooden table.

‘Maybe I wanted to talk about her,’ he said. ‘I’ve never talked about her to anyone.’

Nor have I, Norah thought.

‘How did you come to know her?’ she asked.

‘Pure chance,’ said Grimm.

And he told her everything. How he and Valerie had become close, how their friendship had developed into an affair. It was all completely legal—Valerie was over sixteen—but they’d kept it quiet because they knew people would have disapproved of the age difference.

‘What happened?’

‘She fell in love with another man,’ he said. ‘And left me.’

‘Is that why you killed her?’

Grimm leapt to his feet; the chair clattered to the floor.

‘What did you just say?’

Norah was silent.

‘Are you mad?’ Grimm yelled. ‘Do we have to go through all this again?’

Norah shook her head mutely.

‘Calm down,’ she said.

‘I have an alibi,’ Grimm said. ‘I wasn’t even in town when Valerie died. Anyway, I’m sure you know how she did it.’

He didn’t want to say the words either, Norah thought.

‘Someone could have done it to her,’ she said.

‘I don’t understand you,’ said Grimm. ‘I thought you were Valerie’s best friend. You must have known what she was like.’

‘What was she like?’ Norah asked.

‘Beautiful,’ said Grimm. ‘Funny. But very, very moody. And resentful. And seriously unstable.’

Norah said nothing.

‘I came here to come clean,’ Grimm said. ‘Yes, it’s true, I knew Valerie. Yes, I had an affair with a sixteen-year-old when I was a young man. Some people may find that reprehensible, but it isn’t punishable. Especially as Valerie was—or seemed to me—the more mature of us.’

He sighed.

‘Our affair was over a good six months before she died.’

Norah felt him trying to catch her eye, but kept her gaze firmly on the tabletop.

‘There’s no big mystery, Norah. No shady conspiracy. I didn’t murder Valerie. She killed herself.’

Norah raised her eyes and met Grimm’s gaze, fighting back her tears.