‘Is it true there’s a mass murderer on the loose in these parts?’

‘You mean serial killer,’ Karl corrects her. ‘But no, two murders actually isn’t enough to qualify for that epithet either.’

‘Oh, whatever. It’s some kind of lunatic, right? He might be in here now . . .’

Sigrid nods conspiratorially at the other tables and Karl turns around. A flat New Year’s Day mood reigns among the sparse regulars in the pub. Two men in their seventies are playing backgammon at one table and three girls in their twenties are fiddling with their phones, holding them up for the others to see at regular intervals, which invariably draws laughter and groans and exclamations of ‘that’s so embarrassing!’. A few lonely patrons by the bar seem engrossed in reading yesterday’s evening paper and others are staring dully at the TV, which is showing a rerun of a Stoke–Newcastle game.

‘I don’t think you need to worry,’ Karl comments drily. ‘None of them looks particularly lethal to me.’

‘Lethally boring, possibly,’ Karen quips. ‘And yet, apparently you’re planning to stay the night here in Lysvik,’ she adds with a nod to Sigrid’s pint. ‘You can’t drive back after drinking that.’

Sigrid sighs.

‘Yes, I can. I’m an excellent driver after I’ve had a few,’ she says and grins impudently at Karen. ‘Oh my God, I’m joking. Is that illegal now, too?’

‘Not if you’re funny,’ Karen mutters. ‘Either way, it’s too late for you to drive home.’

‘Oh my God, relax, I have a room. It’s actually really nice. The woman at the bar said it was the last decent room she had.’

Karen notices Karl’s disgruntled look and decides to change the subject.

‘Have you decided what you’re going to do, now that the start of term’s approaching?’

A few weeks previous, Sigrid had told her she’d been accepted to law school, but that she didn’t know if she really wanted to go. Karen had done her best to hide her surprise at Sigrid apparently having finished secondary school with good grades, despite quite a bit of truancy. But to her horror, Sigrid had started asking about applying to the College of Policing next autumn. The mere thought of Sigrid’s future being filled with drunkenness, narcotics, domestic disturbances, assault and all the other things that come with the job fills her with dread.

Sigrid shrugs.

‘I told you, I don’t know.’

‘Law is always a good choice, no matter what you decide to do afterwards,’ Karen puts in. ‘Isn’t it, Karl?’

He raises his hands defensively.

‘Don’t drag me into this. I see you’ve found yourself a new mother, Sigrid,’ he adds and grabs his pint.

Dead silence follows.