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‘Your date?’ Harry asked, while a snowsuit-clad Gert pulled at his sleeve for Uncle Harry to lift him off the ground and swing him around once more.

‘Maybe. You’re thinking about someone, then suddenly you start seeing their face everywhere you go, you know?’

‘You mean you saw him up there?’

‘No, couldn’t have been him, he was going to work today. But I can’t walk arm in arm with you anyway, Harry. If we were to run into any colleagues and they saw the two of us...’

‘I know,’ Harry said, checking the time. Two full days left. He had explained to Katrine that he only had a couple of hours to spare before he needed to get back to the hotel to work. But he knew it was only to give himself the feeling he was doing something, that it was unrealistic to think he would find anything there. That something needed to happen.

‘Not dat way, dis way!’ Gert said, pulling Harry off the path and onto the trail leading between the trees towards the playground and Frogner Castle, a wooden fortress in miniature that children climbed and played in.

‘What did you say it was called again?’ Harry asked innocently.

‘Fwognaw Catal!’

Harry saw Katrine’s warning glare as he tried his best not to laugh. What the hell was happening to him? He had heard that lack of sleep could make people psychotic — was he at that stage?

His phone rang and he checked the display. ‘I have to take this. You two go ahead.’

‘Thanks for a great night,’ he said into the phone when the other two were out of earshot.

‘No, thank you,’ Alexandra said. ‘But that’s not why I’m calling. I’m at work.’

‘On a Sunday?’

‘When you leave the warmth of a girl in her bed in the middle of the night to read reports, then I have to be allowed to do a little work as well.’

‘Fair enough.’

‘I actually came in to catch up on my thesis, but it turns out the DNA analysis from the kitchen roll you asked for is ready, so I thought you’d like the results right away.’

‘Mm.’

‘It has the same DNA profile as the saliva we found around Susanne Andersen’s nipple.’

Harry’s overtired brain took in the information bit by bit as his heart rate increased. He had just been wishing for something to happen and now it had. One could turn religious from less. But it also occurred to him that he shouldn’t be so surprised. The suspicion about whom the saliva on Susanne’s breast came from had after all been strong enough for him to finagle DNA from Markus Røed.

‘Thanks,’ he said, and ended the call.

When he got to the playground, he found Katrine on all fours in the sand in front of the castle. She was making neighing sounds while Gert — who was sitting on her back — was digging his heels into her sides. She explained — still on all fours — that Gert had seen a film about knights and had insisted on arriving at the castle on horseback.

‘The saliva found on Susanne belongs to Markus Røed,’ Harry said.

‘How do you know?’

‘I got hold of Røed’s DNA and sent it to Alexandra.’

‘Fuck.’

‘Mammy...’

‘Mammy will mind her language, yes. But if it’s been obtained in that way, it’s not by the book, and then we can’t use it in court.’

‘It wasn’t done in the police-prescribed manner, no, but this is exactly what we talked about. There’s nothing to prevent you and your people from using information procured by others.’

‘Can you...?’ She nodded back in the direction of her rider. Harry lifted Gert off the horse despite his protests, and she got to her feet.

‘Røed’s wife still gives him an alibi; all the same this might be enough to arrest him,’ she said, brushing sand off the knees of her trousers and watching Gert, who had run over to the slide coming down from one of the towers.

‘Mm. I think Helene Røed might waver slightly where that alibi is concerned.’

‘Oh?’

‘I talked to her. The alibi is her bargaining chip in an upcoming divorce settlement.’

Katrine frowned and took out her own ringing phone. Looked at the display.

‘Bratt.’

Her work voice, Harry thought. And going by the change in facial expression he could guess the rest.

‘I’ll be right there,’ she said and cut the connection. Looked up at Harry. ‘A body’s been found. Lilløyplassen.’

Harry thought for a moment. Wasn’t that out on the tip of Snarøya, in the wetlands?

‘OK,’ he said. ‘But what’s the big hurry to get tactical investigators out there? Shouldn’t you be concentrating on having Røed arrested?’

‘It’s the same case. A woman. And she’s been decapitated.’

‘Shit.’

‘Can you play with him in the meantime?’ She nodded towards Gert.

‘You’re going to be busy for the rest of the day,’ Harry said. ‘And tonight. Røed needs to—’

‘These are to the gate and to the apartment.’ She slipped two keys off a set. ‘There’s food in the fridge. And save me the sceptical look, you are the father after all.’

‘Mm. I’m the father when it suits you, apparently.’

‘Right. And now you sound like one of those police wives who are always complaining.’ She handed him the keys. ‘We’ll get Røed afterwards. I’ll keep you posted.’

‘Of course,’ Harry said and clenched his teeth.