He got up, his back creaking, and took his seat again. With a triumphant expression he raised his glass to Vivianne in a toast, and she replied in kind. For a second he thought he saw that strange look in her eyes again, but he pushed the notion aside and took another sip of his wine. Tonight he had no intention of falling asleep on the sofa.

‘Is everyone here?’ said Patrik. The question was purely rhetorical. He could see exactly who was present; he was merely trying to cut through the buzz of voices in the kitchen.

‘Everybody’s here,’ said Annika.

‘Then there are a few things we need to discuss.’ Patrik brought out the big flip-chart that they used for jotting down notes at their meetings.

‘First of all: the boys are continuing to improve, and they don’t seem to have suffered any permanent injury.’

‘Thank God for that,’ said Annika, relieved.

‘Before we discuss the cocaine discovery, I’d like to run through what else happened today. Paula, how did you get on with your examination of the briefcase?’

‘So far we haven’t come up with anything specific,’ said Paula briskly. ‘But we’re hoping to know more very soon.’

‘There was a load of financial documents inside the briefcase,’ Gösta clarified, after glancing at Paula. ‘We couldn’t make much sense of them, so we gave them to Lennart, Annika’s husband. He’s going to take a look before we send them on.’

‘Good,’ said Patrik. ‘When does Lennart think he can get back to us?’

‘Day after tomorrow,’ said Paula. ‘As for the mobile phone, there was nothing of interest on it. I sent the laptop over to the tech division, but God only knows when we’ll get a report from them.’

‘It’s frustrating, I know, but there’s nothing we can do about that.’ Patrik crossed his arms. He’d started writing notes on the flip-chart. In big letters it now said: Lennart, Wednesday.

‘What did Sverin’s old girlfriend say? Did she have anything to tell us?’ asked Mellberg. Everyone gave a start, and Patrik looked at his boss in astonishment. He hadn’t thought Mellberg paid the slightest attention to what was happening with the investigation.

‘Mats went out to see her on Friday evening, but he left sometime during the night,’ he said, adding the information to the chart. ‘That narrows down the time frame for the murder. The earliest it could have happened is in the wee hours of Saturday morning, which also fits with the sound that the neighbour heard. I’m hoping that Pedersen’s report will help us to pinpoint the time of death even further.’

‘Did she strike you as fishy? Maybe this was all a lovers’ quarrel?’ Mellberg went on. Ernst, who was lying at Mellberg’s feet, reacted to his master’s tone of voice by lifting his head inquisitively.

‘“Fishy” isn’t exactly the word that I’d use to describe Nathalie, but she did seem a bit distracted. She and her son are living out there on the island at the moment. Apparently she and Mats hadn’t been in contact for many years, which tallies with what his parents told us. The pair of them were probably reliving old memories that evening.’

‘Why did he leave in the middle of the night?’ asked Annika, turning automatically to Martin, who looked insulted. He was a steady family man these days, but there had been a time when he’d had quite an active love life. The object of his affections had a tendency to change from week to week, and sometimes his colleagues still teased him about that. He’d turned his back on that sort of life the minute Pia came into the picture, and he’d never regretted his decision.

Now he reluctantly thought back to the old days.

‘I don’t see anything strange about that. Sometimes a guy just wants to avoid all that chatter the morning after.’ Everyone looked at him in amusement, and he shrugged. ‘What? Boys will be boys.’ He blushed, making his freckles turn bright red.

Patrik couldn’t help grinning, but then he forced himself to turn serious again.

‘No matter what his reason, we now know that Mats went home in the early hours of Saturday morning. But the question is, what has happened to his boat? He must have gone home in it.’

‘Have you checked the adverts in Blocket?’ Gösta reached for a biscuit and dipped it in his coffee.

‘I checked all the classified ads yesterday, but so far nothing,’ said Patrik. ‘There’s an alert posted for the boat, and I’ve talked to the Coast Guard, so they’ll keep an eye out for it.’

‘It seems like a strange coincidence for the boat to go missing right now.’

‘Yes, it does. Has anyone searched his car?’ Paula sat up straighter and looked at Patrik.

He nodded. ‘Torbjörn and his team went over Sverin’s car. It was parked outside the building where he lived. But they didn’t find anything.’

‘I see,’ said Paula, leaning back in her chair again. She thought they might have missed something, but Patrik clearly had the situation under control.

‘What did you find out in Göteborg?’ asked Mellberg as he slipped a biscuit to Ernst.

Patrik and Martin exchanged glances.

‘Well, it turned out to be a very productive trip. Would you like to tell everybody about our meeting with social services, Martin?’

Patrik’s decision to let his youngest colleague take the lead a bit more often had an immediate effect. Martin’s face lit up. He delivered a clear and concise report on their meeting with Sven Barkman and the information he’d given them about the Refuge and its collaboration with social services. After casting an enquiring glance at Patrik, he went on to describe their visit to the Refuge office.

‘As far as we know, there were no threats directed at Mats because of his work with the organization. At least, the director of the Refuge claims to be unaware of any such threats. She did, however, allow us to look through the documents pertaining to the women who received help from the Refuge during the last year that Sverin worked there. We’re talking about approximately twenty cases.’

Patrik nodded, and then Martin continued:

‘Without more to go on, it’s impossible to determine whether one or more of the cases might be of interest and warrant further investigation. We took notes and wrote down the names of those women that Mats was the contact person for. So we can follow up on that. I have to say, though, it was bloody depressing to sit there and read through those files. Many of the women were living in a hell that we can’t even begin to imagine … It’s really hard to describe.’ Embarrassed, Martin fell silent, but Patrik understood exactly what he meant. He too had been affected by the hellish lives that they had glimpsed in those files.

‘We’re considering talking to the other staff members,’ said Patrik. ‘And maybe also some of the women who received help from the Refuge while Mats worked there. But that might not be necessary. We now have a statement from a witness that could give us a potential lead.’ He paused for effect, noting that he had everyone’s full attention. ‘From the start I’ve felt there was something odd about the assault on Mats. So Martin and I took a chance and went over to the building where Mats used to live in Göteborg. As you know, the attack took place right outside the front entrance, and we managed to speak with a neighbour. We wanted to confirm what Sverin had reported about the teenagers who beat him up. But according to the neighbour, who actually witnessed the incident, the assault was carried out by a much older gang. “Motorcyclists”, was the term he used.’

‘Oh, shit,’ said Gösta. ‘Why would Sverin lie about that? And why didn’t the neighbour say anything before?’

‘As far as the neighbour is concerned, it’s the usual story. He was scared and didn’t want to get involved. A lack of civic courage, in other words.’

‘And Sverin? Why didn’t he tell the truth?’ Gösta persisted.