‘You’re forgetting park, lane, grove, hey, croft and close. It’s confusing, I know.’
‘What’s the difference?’
‘No idea.’
On Croxteth Lane the priest said:
‘We could come over again when Missing Children get their new premises on Rydal Avenue finished. You’ll be able to see your posters again. I think that would be rather nice.’
Konrad Simonsen thought it was a good idea.
‘Perhaps we could go to a football match. I really must do that again.’
‘That’s what everyone says who’s been to Anfield. I did, too, after my first time.’
‘By the way, do you know when the sun is at its highest in northern Norway?’ Simonsen asked, changing the subject all of a sudden.
‘Midsummer, when the tilt of the earth towards the sun is at its greatest. It’s the same throughout the northern hemisphere.’
They talked about Simonsen’s trip to Hammerfest. As they had done in Valby.
‘Will you say a prayer for Lucy on Midsummer’s Eve?’
‘I will indeed. You can, too.’
‘I don’t know any prayers.’
‘Make one up. Often, they’re the best.’
They found themselves in a park, ambling along crooked paths lined with angular, half-bare trees.
‘You promised you’d sing for me.’
The priest looked at him and nodded. He took a breath, and then began to sing in a loud and confident tenor. Passers-by smiled at them, and the priest repeated the final lines:
Walk on, walk on,
with hope in your heart,
And you’ll never walk alone!
You’ll never walk alone.
Konrad Simonsen joined in. He sang poorly, hitting only an occasional note. But it didn’t matter. Two were better than one. Now they were a choir.
A NOTE ON THE AUTHORS
Lotte and Søren Hammer are a sister and brother from Denmark. Younger sister Lotte worked as a nurse after finishing her training in 1977 and her brother Søren was a trained teacher and a lecturer at the Copenhagen University College of Engineering. After Søren moved into the house where Lotte lived with her family in 2004 they began writing crime novels together. To date they have written six books in the series. The Hanging is the first, The Girl in the Ice is the second, and The Vanished is the third.
A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATOR
Martin Aitken is an award-winning translator of Danish literature. His many books include novels by Helle Helle, Jussi Adler-Olsen, Peter Høeg, and Kim Leine.
