‘I think we can hold off on that, for now at least,’ Karl says. ‘If the OP had wanted to off Gabriel Stuub, they would hardly have snuck into Groth’s on New Year’s Eve to slit his throat. A bullet between the eyes in his own living room would be more their style.’

‘Yes, that’s what I keep telling myself,’ Karen replies grimly.

‘I also have a hard time seeing a connection between a retired biology teacher and a criminal motorcycle gang. Or is there something there too, something you haven’t told me?’

‘Not that I’m aware of.’

She glances up at the rear-view mirror.

‘And now this,’ she says with a sigh. ‘We’re being followed by the Kvellsposten car.’

They had left the distillery without stopping, passing exasperated journalists and photographers who were still waiting for a comment.

‘I talked to Johan Stolt,’ Karen says. ‘He’s probably going to issue a press statement tomorrow and will be handling all media enquiries for now. But, sooner or later, I suppose we’re going to have to bite the bullet and hold a press conference. Stolt said he’ll contact Haugen and discuss it with him.’

If she’s lucky, she won’t have to participate. Chief of Police Viggo Haugen has been clear about not wanting Karen Eiken Hornby talking to the media. The fact that they’d have to go back twenty years to find the newspaper article with the critical comment she’d made as a freshly minted graduate of the College of Policing makes no difference.

After a number of female police trainees had dropped out of the programme, a journalist from Doggerska Tider had asked her about gender equality in policing. Her spontaneous, and by today’s standards fairly tame, answer about ‘persistent resistance to women on the force’ and ‘the need for a fresh approach’ had not been kindly received. Her female peers had supported her, but only in private, safely out of earshot of their superiors. Because it had coincided with an unprecedented dip in the public’s confidence in the police and because it had been an election year, Karen’s comment had prompted the country’s political parties to practically fall over themselves proposing various reforms. The worst-received among the top brass had been the mandatory leadership course in gender theory and equality. Some of them still seemed traumatised by it. And Viggo Haugen has definitely not forgotten; he will never trust Karen Eiken Hornby.

Karen slows down to make the Kvellsposten reporters pass them, but their only response is a flash of the high beams.

‘Wankers!’ Karl says, sounding annoyed. ‘We’ll have to find some other way to shake them once we get to Lysvik. What else did Jens Groth have to say?’