Karen recalls the air quotes Thorstein Byle put around the word ‘hotel’ when he mentioned the place up by the golf course, where a group of most likely annoyed and hungover people are currently waiting for the police to take their statements so they can finally leave. She briefly wonders if Björn Groth is sober. That famous businessmen and people close to the British royal family would choose to spend even five minutes there is completely unthinkable.

The explanation comes in the form of a delighted chuckle from the sofa across from her.

‘You don’t believe me, I can tell,’ he says, ‘but they really did come here recently to play the course. Flew in on a helicopter and stayed longer than you’d think. The course is as tricky as it is breathtaking. But you’re right; they obviously didn’t stay the night.’

‘I didn’t even know you owned the golf course.’

‘Yes, my late father was a major golf enthusiast and had grand plans once upon a time. Unfortunately, he was never businessman enough to make anything of it.’

‘So it’s still playable?’

‘Absolutely. We actually have a small number of golfers who come back year after year, but without the revenue from the distillery, we wouldn’t have been able to keep it open. That being said, we don’t offer any club activities and since there’s nowhere to stay, maintenance has been limited to keeping the course itself playable and a few of the boys from the mash house take care of that as a side gig.’

‘And the hotel?’

Björn Groth laughs.

‘A grand word for that dilapidated shack. The only time it makes any money is when we rent it out to school classes or pensioners’ associations visiting the ship setting in Gudheim and looking for something basic. And we let our employees use it when they work late.’

‘Only the distillery is profitable. We keep the golf course for nostalgic reasons, I suppose,’ Laura Groth explains. ‘And to be honest, we’ve considered letting nature reclaim it once or twice.’

‘But then we were asked if we would rent out the entire course for a day to a group of eight golfers and whether there was anywhere for a helicopter to land nearby,’ Björn Groth says.

‘Did they explain why they wanted to come here to play?’

‘From what I gathered, word of the course’s unique location had somehow reached one of the businessmen. As I mentioned, it’s breathtakingly situated and very challenging, especially when it’s windy, and, as you know, that’s more rule than exception up here.’

Karen nods. I’m never going to understand golfers, she thinks to herself.