‘I’m going to ask you a question now and I would like you to answer honestly,’ she says. ‘Was Gabriel stealing from the warehouse?’

Silence.

‘I saw the marking on the wall the last time we were here,’ she goes on after a while. ‘A one followed by a per cent sign, and I know what that stands for. And we know Gabriel had connections in the OP.’

Karen silently studies the man in front of her for a while, then looks down at her notepad, pretending to check something, flipping through the pages, waiting. The silence lasts for eight long seconds.

‘OK, fine, but I didn’t kill him!’

Jens’ voice breaks and this time he picks up the glass and downs the contents.

He’s afraid, Karen thinks to herself. The question is whether he’s worried about becoming a suspect or about how the OP will react to Gabriel’s death.

‘Are you sure? Because from where I’m standing, it seems you have a lot to gain from his death, don’t you?’

For some reason, the question seems to make Jens Groth relax. Or maybe it’s the whiskey.

‘Think about it,’ he says. ‘How stupid would you have to be to kill one of the OP’s guys? If I had the guts to do that, I would have put my foot down a long time ago, wouldn’t I? The fucking prick stole whiskey to the tune of several thousand a month and I couldn’t do anything about it. He told me the OP would come here and burn down the entire warehouse if I didn’t keep my mouth shut.’

Karen watches silently as Jens gives in to the urge and tremblingly reaches for a bottle wedged in between a landline telephone and one of the stacks of documents. Something her cousin told her the other day flashes through the back of her mind like a fuzzy memory. No, she realises, not something Odd said, but the way he’d reacted. The look on his face when she’d mentioned the marking.

‘Who here knows Gabriel was threatening you?’ she asks after a pause. ‘Your parents, your sister?’

‘Officially, no one. But I assume a few of the guys on the floor must be wondering. I usually get rid of that bloody tag right quick, but someone’s bound to have seen it at some point. You need to understand, though, that people up here go about their business and pretend they’ve seen nothing. Especially if the OP’s involved.’

‘And not your parents?’

‘They don’t come down to the warehouse much and I doubt they’d know what the tag means even if they saw it. Besides, they wouldn’t notice a few litres disappearing here and there anyway.’

‘A few litres?’ Karen exclaims in surprise. ‘That’s it?’