‘Patrik wasn’t exactly thrilled that you went to the flat.’ They had avoided the topic on the way over, but Paula could no longer resist bringing it up.

Gösta snorted. ‘If I remember correctly, Hedström is not head of the station.’

Paula didn’t reply, and after a moment of silence Gösta sighed.

‘Okay, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to go there without first talking to Patrik. Sometimes it’s hard for us old guys to accept that a new generation has taken over. We have experience and seniority on our side, but that doesn’t seem to mean anything.’

‘I think you underestimate yourself. Patrik always has positive things to say about you. But as far as Mellberg is concerned, well …’

‘He does?’ Gösta sounded happily surprised, and Paula hoped that he wouldn’t see through her white lie. Gösta didn’t often contribute to their work, and Patrik didn’t exactly shower him with praise. But he was nice enough, and he meant well. It wouldn’t do any harm to give him a little encouragement.

‘Mellberg is definitely in a class by himself,’ said Gösta, stopping again as they reached the top of the long flight of stairs. ‘So now let’s see what these people are like. I’ve heard a lot about this project, but I reckon it takes a particular breed to be willing to team up with Erling.’ He shook his head and then turned his back to Badis and gazed out across the water. It was another beautiful early summer day, and there was barely a ripple in the bay near Fjällbacka. Here and there some sparse vegetation was visible, but the grey rocks dominated. ‘All I can say is this is a damned spectacular view,’ said Gösta, sounding unusually philosophical.

‘Yes, it’s great, isn’t it? Badis certainly has an unbeatable location. It’s strange that it was allowed to fall into such disrepair for so long.’

‘It was a matter of money. It must have cost millions to fix up the place, given the state of the building. And the renovation isn’t half bad. Question is, how much of the bill are we going to be paying in taxes?’

‘Now you sound more like your old self, Gösta. I was starting to worry.’ Paula smiled and headed towards the entrance. She was impatient to get to work.

‘Hello?’ Once inside, they called out several times and after a few minutes a tall, nondescript man came to greet them. His blond hair was cut in the appropriate style, his designer glasses were the appropriate type, and his handshake was firm. It occurred to Paula that she’d have trouble recognizing him again if she ran into him on the street.

‘We spoke to you on the phone,’ she said after they did the introductions. They sat down at one of the tables in the dining room where documents were spread out next to a laptop computer.

‘Nice office,’ she said, looking around the room.

‘I’ve also got a cubbyhole back there,’ said Anders Berkelin, gesturing vaguely with his hand. ‘But I work better in here. It seems less confining. As soon as the place opens for business, I’ll probably have to crawl back into my hole.’ He smiled, and even his smile was perfectly appropriate.

‘I understand that you wanted to ask me some questions about Mats.’ He closed the laptop and looked at them. ‘It’s just so awful.’

‘Yes, he seems to have been well-liked,’ said Paula, opening her notebook. ‘Did you work together on Project Badis from the very beginning?’

‘No, only since he was hired by the local council a few months ago. Before that, things were a bit messy over there, so we had to take on a lot of the burden ourselves. Mats was like manna from heaven.’

‘Presumably it took him a while to get up to speed. A project like this must be very complicated.’

‘Well, it’s not really all that complicated. There are two financial backers. The local council and the two of us – my sister and myself. We share the expenses equally and we’ll also be sharing the profits.’

‘And how long do you estimate it will take before the place is profitable?’ asked Paula.

‘We’ve tried to be as realistic as possible with our calculations. There’s no point in building castles in the air, so to speak. We estimate that it’ll be about four years before we reach the “break-even point”,’ he said, using the English term.

‘Break-even?’ said Gösta.

‘The point when all the costs have been paid off,’ Paula clarified.

‘Oh, right,’ Gösta muttered, embarrassed at his lack of familiarity with English. He’d picked up a lot of phrases from the golf tournaments he watched on the sports channel, but the terms he’d learned weren’t much use outside of golf.

‘What sort of things did you and Mats work on together?’ asked Paula.

‘My sister and I are in charge of all the practical matters here. We’ve coordinated the renovation work, hired the staff, and basically taken responsibility for creating the business. Then we’ve billed the local council for its share of the expenses. It was Mats’s job to keep tabs on the account books and make sure the bills were paid. In addition, we’ve also had an ongoing discussion about project expenses and income. The council has also had a large say in things.’ Anders pushed his glasses up. It was hard to see his eyes behind the lenses.

‘Did you have any disagreements?’ Paula was taking notes as they talked, and one page was already nearly filled with illegible scrawls.

‘That depends on what you mean by disagreement.’ Anders clasped his hands on the table. ‘We didn’t agree on everything, but Mats and I enjoyed a good and constructive dialogue, even if we didn’t always see eye to eye.’

‘And no one else had any problems with him?’ asked Gösta.

‘On the project?’ Anders looked as if the idea was absurd. ‘No, absolutely not. Nothing beyond the differences of opinion that he and I had over certain details. Nothing that was so serious it would … No, definitely not.’ He shook his head vigorously.

‘According to Erling Larson, Mats was going to drop by here last Friday to talk to you about something that was worrying him. Did he do that?’ asked Paula.

‘Yes. Mats was here for a short time. He stayed about half an hour. But I think it’s an exaggeration to say that he was worried. There were a few numbers that didn’t add up, and the projections needed to be adjusted slightly, but that’s not so strange. We straightened it all out in no time.’

‘Is there anyone here who can confirm what you’ve just told us?’

‘No, I was the only one here at the time. He arrived rather late. Around five o’clock. I think he came straight from work.’

‘Do you recall whether he had his laptop with him?’

‘Mats always had his laptop with him, so I can be fairly sure that he did. Yes, that’s right. I remember that he brought his briefcase along.’

‘And he didn’t leave it here?’ asked Paula.

‘No. I would have noticed if he did. Why? Is his laptop missing?’ Anders gave them a nervous look.

‘We don’t know yet,’ said Paula. ‘But if it should turn up, we’d be grateful if you’d contact us at once.’

‘Of course. But as I said, he didn’t leave it here, at any rate. And we’d be quite concerned if his computer really has disappeared. It contains sensitive information about Project Badis.’ Again he pushed up his glasses.

‘I understand.’ Paula got up, and Gösta took that as a signal to do the same. ‘Give us a call if anything else occurs to you.’ She handed Anders her card, which he put in a card holder that he took out of his pocket.

‘I’ll do that,’ he said. He kept his pale blue eyes fixed on the two officers as they headed for the door.

What if they found her and Sam here? Strangely enough, the thought hadn’t occurred to Nathalie until now. Gråskär had always been such a safe place, and only now did she realize that they could find her here if they wanted to.

The shots were still loud in her memory. They had echoed through the silence of the night, and then everything was quiet once again. And she had fled, taking Sam and leaving chaos and devastation behind. Leaving Fredrik.