Patches of sweat appeared on his shirt, proving that he wasn’t as calm as he tried to pretend. He still held the phone in his hand, and with fumbling fingers he punched in Kenneth’s mobile number. After five rings, his voicemail answered. Angrily Erik ended the call and tossed the mobile on his desk. He tried to force himself to act rationally and think through everything he now needed to do.

The phone rang. He jumped and then looked at the display. Kenneth.

‘Hello?’

‘I can’t pick up the phone on my own,’ Kenneth explained. ‘I have to have help to put on the Bluetooth. I can’t hold the phone,’ he said, without any self-pity in his voice.

For a moment Erik thought he should have taken the trouble to visit Kenneth in the hospital. Or at least sent him flowers. Oh well, he couldn’t think of everything, and somebody had be to at the office. He was sure Kenneth would understand.

‘How are you doing?’ he asked now, trying to sound as if he were actually interested.

‘Fine,’ said Kenneth curtly. He knew Erik too well to think that he had asked about his health because he cared.

‘I have some unpleasant news.’ Might as well get right to the point. Kenneth didn’t reply as he waited for him to go on. ‘Christian is dead.’ Erik tugged at the collar of his shirt. He was still sweating heavily, and he could feel that the hand holding the phone was damp. ‘I just heard about it. The police rang. He’s hanging from the diving tower at Badholmen.’

Still no answer.

‘Hello? Did you hear what I said? Christian is dead. The officer I talked to refused to tell me more, but any idiot can see that it’s the same nutcase who’s been doing everything else.’

‘Yes, it’s her,’ said Kenneth at last. His voice was icy and calm.

‘What do you mean? Do you know who it is?’ Erik practically screamed. Kenneth knew who it was, and yet he hadn’t told anyone? If nothing else happened to Kenneth first, he was going to kill the man himself.

‘She’ll be coming after us next.’

The eerie calm in his voice made the little hairs on Erik’s arms stand on end. For a moment he wondered whether Kenneth might have suffered a blow to the head.

‘Would you please let me in on what you know?’

‘She’ll probably save you for last.’

Erik had to restrain himself from slamming his mobile on to the desk out of sheer frustration. ‘Who is it?’

‘You mean you really don’t know? Have you hurt and injured so many people that you can’t pick her out of the crowd? For me it was easy. She’s the only person that I ever harmed. I don’t know whether Magnus ever realized that she was after him. But I do know that he suffered. That’s not something you’ve ever done, have you, Erik? You’ve never suffered or lain awake at night because of what you’ve done.’ Kenneth didn’t sound upset or accusatory. He was still calm and composed.

‘What are you talking about?’ snarled Erik, as thoughts raced through his head. A vague memory, an image, a face. Something began stirring. Something that had been buried so deep that it was never supposed to resurface again.

He gripped the phone hard. Could it be…?

Kenneth was silent, and Erik didn’t need to say out loud that he now knew too. His own silence spoke volumes. Without saying goodbye, he ended the conversation with Kenneth, trying to push away the certainty that had been forced upon him.

After that he opened his email and swiftly began doing what had to be done. It was urgent.

As soon as he saw Erica’s car parked in the drive in front of Agneta’s house, Patrik got an uneasy feeling in his stomach. Erica had a tendency to get involved in matters that didn’t concern her. And even though he had many times admired his wife for her sense of curiosity and the way she used it to produce results, he didn’t like her to interfere with police business. He would have preferred to protect Erica, Maja, and the unborn twins from all the evil in the world. But that was a tough job when it came to his wife. Time after time she had landed in the centre of the action, and he realized that without his knowing it she had probably landed herself up to her ears in this investigation too.

‘Isn’t that Erica’s car?’ asked Gösta laconically as they drove up and parked next to the beige Volvo.

‘Yes, it is,’ replied Patrik. Gösta didn’t ask any more questions, simply raised one eyebrow.

They didn’t have to ring the bell. Sanna’s sister had already opened the front door and was waiting for them, a worried look on her face.

‘Has something happened?’ she asked tensely.

‘We’d like to talk to Sanna,’ said Patrik, without answering her question. He wished that he’d brought Lena the pastor along this time too, but she had been out when he phoned, and he didn’t want to delay delivering the news.

The expression on Agneta’s face was even more concerned as she stepped aside to let them in.

‘She’s on the veranda,’ she said, pointing.

‘Thanks,’ said Patrik. ‘Could you make sure that the children are kept busy for a while?’

Agneta swallowed hard. ‘Yes, I’ll do that.’

Patrik and Gösta made their way out to the veranda. Sanna and Erica looked up when they heard them come in. Erica had a guilty expression on her face, but Patrik motioned to her, indicating that they would talk later. He sat down next to Sanna.

‘I’m afraid I have some very bad news to tell you,’ he said, keeping his voice calm. ‘Christian was found dead early this morning.’

Sanna gasped for breath and her eyes filled with tears.

‘We don’t know very much at the moment. But we’re doing everything we can to find out what happened,’ he added.

‘How…?’ Sanna’s whole body began shaking uncontrollably.

Patrik hesitated, unsure how to tell her.

‘He was found hanged. From the tower at Badholmen.’

‘Hanged?’ Her breathing was fast and shallow. Patrik put his hand on her arm to calm her.

‘That’s all we know right now.’

She nodded, her eyes glassy. Patrik turned to Erica and said in a low voice:

‘Could you trade places with her sister? Ask Agneta to come down here while you take care of the kids?’

Erica got up at once, casting a glance at Sanna before she left the veranda. A moment later they heard her heading upstairs. Then, as soon as they could tell that someone was on the way down, Gösta went out to the hall to speak to Sanna’s sister. Patrik was grateful to his colleague for wanting to report what had happened out of earshot so that Sanna wouldn’t have to hear it twice.

Agneta came in, sat down next to Sanna, and put her arms around her. And that was how the two women stayed as Patrik asked if they’d like him to call anyone, and whether they wanted to speak to a pastor. All the usual questions that he clung to in order not to fall apart at the thought of the two little boys upstairs who had lost their father.

But he really needed to be on his way. He had a job to do, a job that entailed doing something for this family. First and foremost for them. It was the victim and the victim’s family members that he always pictured in his mind as he sat in his office at the station and spent so many long hours trying to find a solution to cases he was investigating – some of them more complicated than others.

Sanna was sobbing uncontrollably as Patrik met her sister’s gaze. Agneta gave an almost imperceptible nod in answer to his unvoiced question, so he stood up.

‘Are you sure there isn’t someone you’d like me to phone?’

‘I’ll ring Mamma and Pappa as soon as I can,’ said Agneta. Even though she was very pale, she had a calm air about her that made Patrik feel okay about leaving them.

‘Call us anytime, Sanna,’ he said, pausing in the doorway. ‘And we…’ He was uncertain how much he dared say. Because the worst thing that could happen to a police officer in the midst of an investigation had now happened to him. He was about to lose hope. The hope that they’d ever find out who was behind all of these horrible events.