‘I’m good, too. I need to stay sharp, at least until Mum and Dad pick up the kids.’

Aylin’s parents had promised to come straight from the airport, blindsided on their way home from a shopping trip to London. Aylin had managed to reach them just as they were about to leave their hotel in Bayswater and get into a taxi. Shocked, they had listened to her and promised to come straight away. Of course they were happy to look after the children. Just for a few days, Aylin had stressed, maybe a week until things calm down and we find somewhere better to stay. She wouldn’t hear of going with her parents to their house in Rakne, knowing Bo might show up there. But the children should be safe; he could hardly take them until he’d sorted out some kind of childcare. Or found Aylin.

‘It’s me he’s after. Not the children.’

She looks calmer now, Karen notes. Or maybe it’s resignation she sees in her friend’s slow movements as she raises her cup to her lips. Just then, a phone rings, making Aylin jump so badly she spills her coffee. Karen quickly pulls out her phone and checks the screen.

‘It’s just Sigrid,’ she says soothingly and stands up.

‘Hi, Sigrid, hold on a second.’

She quickly walks out of the living room, pressing the phone to one ear and sticking her finger in the other to block out the sound of Tyra and Mikkel running screaming in their stocking feet across the wooden floor, unperturbed by their mother’s attempts to calm them down.

‘Let them have fun,’ she hears Marike say. ‘There’s no one downstairs.’

‘Hi, Sigrid,’ she says again.

‘Oh my God, Karen, he’s a fucking lunatic!’

The voice on the other end is shrill. A mix of worked-up fear and disjointed words that sends an icy shiver down Karen’s spine. Still with the phone pressed to her ear, and the curious eyes on her back, she slips into the bathroom, pulls the door closed behind her and sits down on the toilet lid.

‘Calm down, Sigrid, I can’t hear you. What happened?’

‘He was here. Just now. Tried to force his way in. He’s a fucking mental case!’

‘Are you talking about Bo?’ Karen says, even though she knows the answer.

‘Like I know his fucking name! Aylin’s husband, he was looking for her.’

‘Has he left?’

‘Yes, I heard the car drive off, but Leo’s covered in blood.’

‘Leo’s hurt? Does he need a doctor?’

Karen is surprised to hear her own voice. Calm and effective, as though her insides weren’t on the verge of dissolving.

‘No, he says it’s just a nosebleed, but you need to come back here, Karen.’

‘I’m on my way. Stay calm, I’m leaving right now.’

Chapter 56

56