Mai Sinok

Mai Sinok is the caregiver who attends Henry Beskow at home. Her appearances reveal both the practical intimacy of her work—bathing him and bringing food—and an informal arrangement kept hidden from social services. When Henry is found dead, she is in the house and points the investigators toward him.

Identity and Introduction

Johnny Beskow asks his grandfather whether the carer from Thailand has visited. Henry corrects him with her name, Mai Sinok, establishing her as a familiar presence in his life. Her role is introduced through the care she provides rather than through a separate account of her background.

Care for Henry

Mai brings Henry cabbage soup and four nectarines, which he says he has eaten before Johnny arrives. On another Sunday, she gives him a bath; Henry remarks that he will smell of pine needles afterward. These small domestic details show care as repeated physical work and attention to meals, bathing, and comfort.

A Hidden Arrangement

Henry explains that Mai comes on Sundays as well, and that she is at his home every day, although social services does not know about the daily visits. He pays her privately and asks Johnny not to tell anyone, because he fears she could lose her job. The arrangement therefore provides Henry with more frequent assistance than the officially known schedule reflects, while placing Mai’s employment at risk if the extra work is discovered.

Henry’s Death

When Sejer and Skarre enter Henry’s house, Mai is sitting in the kitchen, wrapped in a shawl and looking cold despite the oppressive heat. With a quivering hand, she points them toward Henry, slumped in his chair in the lounge, with blood around his mouth and chest. Her presence connects the ordinary routines of his care to the aftermath of his death: she is the person on the scene who directs the investigators to him.