‘The only complaint was about the food.’ A deep furrow appeared on Erling’s forehead. ‘Bertil wasn’t particularly thrilled with what was served. I don’t know whether the others shared his opinion, but he’s the one who takes the lead, of course, and we ought to listen to our customers.’

‘Exactly what was wrong with the food?’ asked Vivianne. She spoke in an icy tone, but Erling didn’t notice.

‘Apparently there were far too many vegetables, and also a few strange items, from what I understood. And there wasn’t much gravy either. So Bertil suggested that we offer a more traditional menu that would appeal to a wider range of people. Good, plain food, in other words.’ Erling’s face lit up with enthusiasm, as if he anticipated a standing ovation.

Vivianne, however, had reached her limit. She stood up, fixing her eyes on Erling.

‘It sounds as though their time at the spa was completely wasted. I thought you understood my philosophy, my view of what’s important for both the body and soul. We’re concerned with health here, and we serve food that will provide positive energy and strength, not rubbish that will lead to heart attacks and cancer.’ She turned on her heel and walked swiftly away. Her long plait swayed in time with her footsteps.

‘Oh dear,’ said Erling, clearly taken aback at the reception to his suggestion. ‘Looks like I really put my foot in it this time.’

‘You might say that,’ replied Anders drily. Erling could behave however he liked. Soon it wouldn’t make any difference. Then worry overwhelmed him again. He was going to have to talk to Vivianne. He was going to have to tell her.

‘So what exactly are we looking for?’ asked Martin. He looked up at Patrik, who merely shook his head.

‘I don’t really know. I think we need to follow our gut feelings, read through all the material in the folders, and see if there’s anything that we should follow up.’

They leafed through the documents in silence.

‘Bloody hell,’ said Patrik after a while, and Martin nodded.

‘And this is just for the past year. Or not even that long. And the Refuge is only one of many women’s crisis centres. We really have no clue about the sort of things that go on in some women’s lives.’ Martin carefully closed up one folder, set it aside, and opened another.

‘I can’t understand …’ said Patrik, voicing the thought that had been occupying his mind ever since they arrived at the Refuge.

‘What fucking bastards,’ Martin agreed. ‘And it seems like it can happen to anyone. I don’t know Anna very well, but she seems like a strong-minded person who would never end up in the clutches of somebody like her ex-husband.’

‘I know what you mean.’ Patrik scowled at the thought of Lucas. Thank God all that was behind them now, but that man had managed to cause so much pain for his family before he died. ‘It’s hard to understand why a woman would stay with a man who beats her.’

Martin set another folder on the desk and took a deep breath.

‘I wonder what it’s like for the people who work here and have to deal with this on a daily basis. Maybe it’s not so strange that Sverin would decide that he’d had enough and wanted to move back home.’

‘I can see why they have that rule about staff not getting too involved, and why they’re constantly changing the individual in contact with each woman. Otherwise it would be practically impossible not to get personally involved.’

‘Do you think that might have been what happened to Mats?’ asked Martin. ‘Could the assault be connected with someone here? Leila used the word “obsessed”. Maybe one of the men decided that Sverin was more than just a contact person and decided to give him a warning.’

Patrik nodded. ‘I’ve been thinking along the same lines. But in that case, who would it be?’ He pointed to the stack of folders on the desk. ‘Leila claims to know nothing about it, and I don’t think there’s any point trying to pressure her for more information at this stage.’

‘We could talk to the other staff members. Maybe we could even talk to a couple of the women. I can imagine that a lot of gossiping goes on, and if what we’re theorizing really happened then that sort of news would spread fast.’

‘Hmm … could be,’ said Patrik. ‘But I’d like to have more facts before we do any real digging here.’

‘How are we going to find out more?’ Martin impatiently ran his hands through his short red hair, making it stand on end.

‘I think we should talk to the neighbours in the block of flats where Mats was living. The assault took place right outside the front door, so maybe somebody saw something but never reported it. And now we have the names of the women that Mats was the contact for, so hopefully we’ll have a reason to come back.’

‘Okay.’ Martin bowed his head and went on reading.

They closed up the last folder just as Leila came dashing into the office. She hung her jacket and handbag on a hanger.

‘Did you find anything interesting?’

‘We’re not sure yet. But at least we have the names of the women that Mats dealt with. Thanks for letting us look at the files.’ Patrik gathered up the folders in a neat pile, and then Leila put them back in the file cabinet.

‘You’re welcome. I do hope you realize that we’re willing to do whatever we can to cooperate with you.’ She leaned against the shelf that held three-ring binders.

‘We appreciate that,’ said Patrik. Then he and Martin stood up.

‘We were very fond of Matte. He was the kind of person who didn’t have a bad bone in his body. Keep that in mind as you work on the case.’

‘We’ll do that,’ said Patrik, shaking hands. ‘Believe me, we’ll do that.’

‘Why doesn’t a single person answer their damn phone?’ snapped Paula.

‘Not even Mellberg?’ said Gösta.

‘No. Nor Patrik. And Martin’s mobile goes straight to his voicemail, so he must have switched it off.’

‘I’m not too surprised about Mellberg. He’s probably home asleep. But we can usually get hold of Hedström.’

‘He must be tied up. In the meantime we’ll have to deal with this ourselves and bring them up to date later.’ She drove into the car park for Uddevalla Hospital and stopped the car.

‘I assume they’re in Intensive Care,’ she said, leading the way to the entrance.

They made straight for the lift and waited impatiently for it to carry them up to the correct floor.

‘A nasty business,’ said Gösta.

‘Yes, I can imagine how worried their parents must be. Where could they have got hold of shit like that? They’re only seven years old.’

Gösta shook his head. ‘I have no idea.’

‘We’ll just have to see what they say.’

When they reached the ward, Paula stopped the first doctor they saw.

‘Excuse me. We’re police officers, and we’re here regarding the boys from Fjällbacka school.’

The tall man in the white coat nodded.

‘They’re my patients. Come with me.’ He set off, taking long strides, and both Paula and Gösta had to jog to keep up with him.

Paula tried to breathe through her mouth. She hated hospitals and all the smells. It was the sort of place that she did her best to avoid, but given her chosen profession, she had to visit hospitals much more often than she would have liked.

‘They’re going to be fine,’ said the tall doctor over his shoulder. ‘The school reacted quickly, and there was an ambulance in the neighbourhood, so they were brought in relatively fast, and we were able to get the situation under control.’

‘Are they awake?’ asked Paula. She panted a bit as she ran along the corridor, enough to remind herself that she ought to go back to working out at the gym. She hadn’t done much of that lately. Plus she’d been eating too much of Rita’s good food.

‘They’re awake, and the parents have all agreed to let you talk to the boys.’ The doctor stopped outside a room that was almost at the end of the corridor.