She stepped to the window, sighed deeply and tried to focus on the man. ‘I’ve seen someone in the same coat in the central station. But he’s too damn far away for me to really see him.’

He saw her enormous pupils. Even if the man stood right in her face she would hardly have recognized him.

‘And the man you saw at the train station. Who’s he?’

She moved away from the window and bumped into the table, so he had to grab her. ‘I’m not sure I want to talk to you,’ she sniffled. ‘What has Kimmie done?’

He escorted her to the settle bed and eased her on to the thin mattress.

Let’s try another angle, Carl thought, glancing round. The room was ten square yards and seemed as devoid of personality as possible. Apart from the rat cage and clothes piled in the corners, there were very few objects in the apartment. A few sticky magazines on the table. Stacks of beer-reeking plastic shopping bags. The bed and its coarse, wool blanket. A sink and an old refrigerator, on top of which was a grimy soap dish, a well-used towel, a tipped-over bottle of shampoo and a small collection of hairpins. There was nothing on the walls and nothing on the windowsill.

He looked down at her. ‘You’re growing your hair long, right? I think it’ll look good on you.’

Instinctively she reached for her neck. So he was right. That was what the hairpins were for.

‘You also look nice with shoulder-length hair, but I think long hair will look very good on you. You have fine hair, Tine.’

She didn’t smile, but behind those eyes of hers she was jubilant. For a brief instant.

‘I’d like to hold your rat, but I’ve become allergic to rodents and the like. I’m very sorry about that, in fact. I can’t even hold our little kitty any more.’

Now he had her.

‘I love that rat. It’s name is Lasso.’ She smiled with what had once been a row of white teeth. ‘Sometimes I call it Kimmie, but I haven’t told her that. It’s because of the rat I’m called Rat-Tine. It’s just so cute, don’t you think? Especially when you know you’ve got your nickname from it.’

Carl tried to agree.

‘Kimmie hasn’t done anything, Tine,’ he said. ‘We’re looking for her because there’s someone who misses her.’

She bit the inside of her cheek. ‘I don’t know where she lives. But tell me your name. If I see her I’ll pass it on.’

He nodded. Years of fighting the authorities had taught her the art of caution. Completely wasted on junk and yet still on her guard. Quite impressive, and at least as irritating. It would certainly not help the case if she told Kimmie too much. Then they ran the risk of Kimmie disappearing for good. Eleven years’ experience and Assad’s hunting her had demonstrated that she was capable of it.

‘OK, I need to be honest with you, Tine. Kimmie’s father is seriously ill, and if she hears that the police are searching for her, then her father will never see her again, and that would be a terrible shame. Can’t you just tell her to call this number? Don’t mention the illness or the police. Just have her call.’

He wrote his mobile number on his pad and gave her the page. He’d have to make sure to charge the battery.

‘And if she asks who you are?’

‘Then just tell her you don’t know, but that I said it was something that would make her happy.’

Tine’s eyelids closed slowly. Her hands lay relaxed on her thin knees.

‘Did you hear that, Tine?’

She nodded with her eyes closed. ‘Yeah, OK.’

‘Good. I’m glad to hear it. I’ll be going now. I know there’s someone looking for Kimmie at the central train station. Do you know who?’

She looked at him without raising her head. ‘Just someone asking whether I knew Kimmie. He probably wanted her to contact her father, too, right?’

Down on Gammel Kongevej he grabbed hold of Aalbæk from behind. ‘An old offender, out getting some sun,’ he said, resting a heavy fist on his shoulder. ‘What are you doing here, old boy?’ he went on. ‘Long time no see, eh?’

Aalbæk’s eyes were bright – but not with the joy of recognition.

‘I’m waiting for the bus,’ he said, turning his head away.

‘OK.’ Carl looked at him. Strange response. Why did he lie? Why not just say: ‘I’m on an assignment. I’m shadowing someone.’ It was his job, after all, and they both knew it. He hadn’t been accused of anything. He didn’t need to reveal whom he was working for.

No, but now he had revealed himself. No doubt about it. Aalbæk was certainly aware that it was Carl’s path he was crossing.

‘Waiting for the bus,’ the man had said. What an idiot.

‘You really get around in your job, don’t you? You didn’t by any chance take a trip to Allerød yesterday and mess up one of my photographs? What do you say, Aalbæk? Did you?’

Aalbæk turned round calmly to face Carl. He was the type of person who you could kick and punch without getting a reaction. Carl knew a guy born with underdeveloped frontal lobes who was simply unable to become angry. If the brain had a similar area that controlled emotion and stress, in Aalbæk’s case it had been replaced with an echoing vacuum.

Carl tried again. Why the hell not?

‘What are you doing here? Can’t you tell me that, Aalbæk? Shouldn’t you be up at my place in Allerød instead, drawing swastikas on my bedposts? Because there’s a connection between what we’re both working on right now, isn’t there, Aalbæk?’

His facial expression didn’t exactly suggest a desire to oblige. ‘You’re still a sarky old git, eh, Mørck? I really have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘Why are you standing here, staring up at the fifth floor? It wouldn’t happen to be because you hope Kimmie Lassen drops by to say hi to Tine Karlsen, would it? You’re the one asking round the central train station for her, aren’t you?’ He got in Aalbæk’s face. ‘Today you connected Tine Karlsen up there with Kimmie, didn’t you?’

The thin man’s jaw muscles worked under the skin. ‘I don’t know who or what you’re blathering on about, Mørck. I’m here because a father and mother wish to know what their son is doing with the Moonies on the second floor.’

Carl nodded, recalling how slick Aalbæk was. Of course he was able to fabricate a cover story when he needed one.

‘I think it might be nice to see your business receipts from this last period of time. I wonder if one of your employers is interested in finding this Kimmie? I think so. I’m just not completely sure why. Will you tell me that voluntarily, or do I need to fetch those receipts myself?’

‘You can fetch whatever the hell you like. Just remember a warrant.’

‘Aalbæk, old boy.’ He thumped him so hard on the back that his shoulder blades collided. ‘Will you tell your employer that the more they harass me privately, the more I will go after them. Is that understood?’

Aalbæk was trying not to gasp for air, but when Carl was out of sight, he surely would. ‘I’ve understood enough to know that you’re losing it, Mørck. Leave me alone.’

Carl nodded. That was the disadvantage of being the head of the country’s unquestionably tiniest investigative unit. If he had a few more men, he’d put a couple of his best magnets on Finn Aalbæk. He had a strong hunch it would pay to tail this stick figure, but who would do it? Rose?

‘You’ll hear from us,’ Carl said, heading off down Vodroffsvej. Then, when he was out of sight, he ran as fast as he could down the cross street and back around the Codan Building, ending up on Gammel Kongevej again, near Værnedamsvej. In a few breathless leaps he was on the other side of the street in time to see Aalbæk standing beside the lake, talking into his mobile.

Maybe he was hard to ruffle, but he certainly didn’t look happy.