When fifteen-year-old Oscar Dreyer-Hoff disappears, the police assume he's simply a runaway. But his family is certain something terrible has happened. After all, what runaway would leave behind a note that reads: He looked around and saw the knife that had stabbed Basil Hallward. He had cleaned it many times, till there was no stain left upon it. It was bright and glistened. As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter's work, and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead, he would be free. It's not much to go on, but it's all detectives Jeppe K�rner and Anette Werner have, and it will have to be enough.