Copenhagen is the last known destination in the trail of the false Odd Utmo, a clue that links Tony Leike’s escape to the identity he has taken. The city remains offstage, but its place in the investigation gives it a decisive role: it marks the point where the false identity’s trace disappears.

A Destination Confirmed

While flying by helicopter, Harry Hole contacts the control tower at Gardermoen. The airport staff can access passenger lists for security reasons and confirm that Odd Utmo flew to Copenhagen the previous day on a ticket booked shortly beforehand. The information reaches Harry too late to help him intercept the traveler; he recognizes that the trail has already moved beyond his immediate reach.

The False Identity

The passenger-list confirmation prompts Harry to think of the passport belonging to the man he had tortured and killed. He imagines a routine identity check: a clerk comparing the passport name with the ticket and noticing the unusual dental brace in the photograph. The same brace appears on the possibly brown-stained teeth before the clerk, teeth Tony Leike had needed to bend to fit his own oversized ones. In this way, Copenhagen becomes associated with Tony’s use of the murdered man’s identity, although the account does not show Tony in the city or describe what he does there.

The Trail Ends

Three days later, no one knows where Tony Leike is, and the tracks of the false Odd Utmo end in Copenhagen. The city is therefore a limit on what the investigation can establish, not a scene of resolution: Tony remains missing, and the destination confirms the direction of his flight without revealing his whereabouts afterward. In the public account of the case, Mikael Bellman presents Tony as exposed and neutralized even though the killer has not been caught; Copenhagen’s unresolved place in the trail underscores the gap between that confident version and the facts still unknown.