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another weekend when she would do nothing but exercise and wait for Monday morning to arrive. Was she really going to be only thirty-one that summer? She felt much older, with one foot in the grave of her suburban apartment. She yearned for Réka’s uncomplicated company, everyday chat about everyday things, long walks across the puszta that opened up between Zimonić and Velebit, the járás as they called it, a place where sheep grazed, herded by a shepherd skilfully using his dogs to guide them. The view could have been a hundred years old, if only the shepherd hadn’t occasionally been seen playing with his mobile phone, listening to music with a set of in-ear headphones, and if their walks hadn’t been cut short by the ploughing that tore the plains open, making them impossible to cross on foot. Churned fields were swallowing up the puszta one strip at a time; farmers were still ploughing the land in December. The pastures were getting smaller and smaller, and the wild animals no longer felt at home in the industrialised landscape; even the shepherd used his mobile to look for a better job.
    A knock at the door brought Anna back to the here and now. Virkkunen stepped inside.
    ‘A squad car was called out to the woodland behind Ketoniemi last night. They found a knife and a lot of blood, as though an animal had been slaughtered.’
    ‘Is this another job for us?’ asked Anna.
    ‘Maybe. Forensics are on the way there now.’
    ‘Perhaps someone killed an animal out there? Or there was a fight and someone got hurt?’
    ‘We haven’t had any new reports of an assault.’
    ‘If this was a fight between two drunkards, I doubt they’d come down to the station and press charges.’
    ‘Still, it’s not a place you’d expect drunks to hang out.’
    ‘Surely people go out there drinking sometimes?’
    ‘Call round the hospitals all the same and ask if they’ve seen anyone injured in a stabbing. And check the health centres too.’
    ‘Sari has just called them all regarding the old man in the traffic accident. If only we’d known, she could have asked about this too.’
    ‘The information just came in. Could you get on to this today?’
    ‘Very well.’
    ‘How are you otherwise?’
    ‘Excuse me?’
    ‘In general. Work, life?’
    Anna felt awkward. She didn’t consider Virkkunen a particularly close acquaintance, though she’d had to tell him things about herself that she hadn’t wanted to share with anyone. Once her position had been made permanent in January, Virkkunen had asked about her sleeping problems, the panic attacks she’d had as a child and all manner of other things: her past, her plans for the future. Indeed, what were her plans for the future, Anna found herself thinking long after the conversation.
    ‘Everything’s fine,’ she said with a smile. It’s true enough, she thought. There’s nothing the matter with me.
    Anna’s mobile beeped. An unknown number was flashing on the screen. Virkkunen left the room with a wave of the hand.
    ‘Fekete Anna,’ she answered in an official mode.
    ‘Szia, Anna. Itt Gabriella, emlékszel?’
    Remember her? How could Anna have forgotten her? She had interviewed Gabriella only yesterday. The girl had been released soon afterwards. Initial tests had revealed her speed at the time of the crash to be around eighty kilometres per hour, far too fast given the weather conditions but still within the speed limit. Gabriella’s shocked host family had picked her up at the station. She had been advised not to leave the country until the investigation into the crash was completely wrapped up. She seemed visibly relieved when word came that she had been driving within the speed limit. She’d promised to call Anna some day; Anna hadn’t expected the call to come quite so soon.
    ‘Szia, Gabi. Hogy vagy?’
    ‘I’ve felt better. Thankfully Tommi took the day off. That’s myhost father. I’m still not in any shape to look after the children. I couldn’t get