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he decided. “Once we get through with that, you can look into this other situation.”
    He lowered his hand again.
    â€œI’m not ruling out a possible connection between the two. But I want to know who the dead woman is first, and until we have a name we’re not going to get very far.”
    And with that Willumsen adjourned the meeting and disappeared.

7
    C AMILLA HAD SPENT MOST OF THE DAY FOLLOWING UP ON HER story about the baby abandoned in the church, even though she didn’t make it into her office until after eleven.
    Markus had woken up several times overnight with terrifying nightmares about her abandoning him and never coming back, and Camilla had no idea what time he had stumbled into her room with his blanket under his arm, sobbing. He lay down beside her, and she stroked his hair until he settled down again.
    â€œIf we’d left for school earlier, we might have seen the mother,” Markus said while they were eating breakfast. “And then we could have stopped it from happening.”
    Camilla had tried to explain to him that there were many reasons why a mother might choose to leave her child.
    â€œMaybe she did it for the sake of the child, because she knew she would never be able to give the little girl the life she thought the child ought to have. And that she would be better off if she were adopted by someone else.”
    Camilla could see from Markus’s expression that he didn’t understand how it could be better for the little girl to wind up with strangers instead of her birth mother.
    â€œYou do know that it’s very hard for a grown-up to be accepted as a foster parent—let alone an adoptive parent—don’t you?” Camilla asked him. “You have to be approved so everyone is sure that you’re suited to taking care of a child. And that you’ll make sure the child has a loving, secure place to grow up in. It’s a big responsibility. Maybe this was the best thing that could happen to that little girl if her own mother couldn’t handle the responsibility.”
    Camilla hoped she sounded convincing enough that it would put the worst of her son’s fears to rest.
    They sat at the breakfast table for a long time, but finally she got up and cleared the Nutella and cardamom rolls away and put the butter back in the fridge. Then she called the pastor to ask if he and Jonas wanted to come over for dinner so the boys could talk a little more about what they’d been through. She explained that the previous day’s experiences had made quite an impression on Markus, and it turned out that Pastor Holm had decided to keep Jonas home from school for the same reason. He invited Camilla and Markus to come over to his place for dinner. When he said that Markus was welcome to come over right away if he wanted, Camilla decided to let her son play hooky with his buddy.
    They cycled over to the pastor’s residence together. Camilla put Markus’s laptop with World of Warcraft in the basket on the front of her bike and followed him on the bike path. When they reached the church, she walked out back to the attached pastor’s residence with Markus and knocked twice with the heavy door knocker before kissing him on both cheeks and promising that she would try to finish work at a reasonable hour. She smiled at Markus’s friend when he yanked open the door and dragged Markus inside so they could start playing. She could see the pastor sitting at his computer in the living room and waved to him before shutting the door again and pushing her bike back down the drive to head to Morgenavisen .

    When she called Frederiksberg Hospital, Camilla learned that the baby girl was still in the hospital and the doctor thought the infant would be there for a week or two until she was sent on to Skodsborg Orphanage.
    â€œUnless the mother turns up,” he added.
    Then she called the social services office and spoke to a woman who was also