Without waiting for a reply, he introduced his colleague, Javier. He was even bigger than Ulf, if that was possible, and in considerably better shape. Apparently he wasn’t the talkative type, and he shook their hands in silence.

‘Do you want to follow us?’ Ulf squeezed in behind the steering wheel of an unmarked police car.

‘Sure, as long as you don’t go too fast. I don’t know my way around here,’ said Patrik. He and Gösta headed for their own vehicle.

‘I’ll drive as cautiously as a driving instructor,’ laughed Ulf.

They headed through town and then entered an area with fewer buildings. After another twenty minutes, there were almost no buildings at all.

‘We’re really out in the country,’ said Gösta, glancing around. ‘Do they live out in the woods?’

‘Maybe it’s not so strange that they live way out here. There are probably a lot of things they don’t want the neighbours to see.’

‘True enough.’

Ulf slowed and turned into a driveway in front of a big house. Several dogs came running out to the cars, barking loudly.

‘Shit. I don’t like dogs,’ said Gösta, staring out of the windscreen. He jumped when one of the big dogs, a Rottweiler, began barking outside his door.

‘Their bark is worse than their bite,’ said Patrik, switching off the engine.

‘That’s what you think,’ replied Gösta, making no motion to open the door.

‘Come on.’ Patrik got out of the car but froze when three dogs surrounded him, baring their teeth and growling.

‘Call off the dogs,’ shouted Ulf. After a minute a man came out of the front door.

‘Why should I do that? They’re doing their job. Keeping uninvited visitors away.’ He crossed his arms with an amused smile.

‘Come on, Stefan. We’re just here to have a little talk. Call off the damn dogs.’

Stefan laughed, raised his hand to his lips, and whistled. The dogs stopped barking at once. They ran over to their master and lay down at his feet.

‘Satisfied?’

Patrik couldn’t help noticing that the leader of the IE was quite good looking. If it hadn’t been for the coldness in his eyes, he might even have been called handsome. His clothes detracted from that impression: worn jeans, a stained T-shirt, and black motorcycle vest. On his feet he wore wooden clogs.

More men began appearing, all of them with the same wary and hostile expression.

‘So what do you want? You’re on private property,’ said Stefan. He was following their every move.

‘We want to have a chat, that’s all,’ Ulf repeated, holding up his hands in the air. ‘We’re not here to make trouble.’

There was a moment’s pause while Stefan considered this. Nobody moved a muscle.

‘Okay, come in,’ Stefan told them at last, shrugging as if to say that he didn’t really care. He turned on his heel and walked towards the house.

Ulf, Javier, and Gösta took him at his word. His heart pounding in his chest, Patrik followed the others.

‘Have a seat.’ Stefan pointed to several armchairs standing next to a dirty glass coffee table. He sat down on an ostentatious leather sofa, stretching out his arms along the back. The table was covered with beer cans, pizza boxes, and cigarette butts, only some of them in the ashtray.

‘We didn’t have time to clean up,’ said Stefan with a grin. Then he turned serious. ‘What do you want?’

Ulf glanced at Patrik, who cleared his throat. He was feeling nervous, and that was putting it mildly, to find himself in the headquarters of a biker gang. But there was no turning back now.

‘We’re from the Tanumshede police,’ he said, noticing to his dismay that his voice was shaking. Not a lot, but enough to bring an amused glint to Stefan’s eyes. ‘We have a few questions with regard to an assault that took place back in February. On Erik Dahlbergsgatan. The man who was attacked was named Mats Sverin.’

Patrik paused while Stefan continued to stare at him.

‘And?’

‘According to a witness, he was assaulted by some men who wore your emblem on their backs.’

Stefan laughed scornfully and glanced at his men, who were keeping a close eye on the police officers from the far side of the room. They started laughing too.

‘So what does the guy have to say about it? What was his name? Max?’

‘Mats,’ said Patrik. It was obvious that the bikers were putting on a show, but he didn’t yet know enough to be able to puncture Stefan Ljungberg’s smug facade.

‘Oh, excuse me. So what does Mats have to say? Did he say it was us?’ Stefan stretched his arms out even further. It looked like he was taking up the whole sofa. One of the dogs came over and lay down at his feet.

‘No,’ Patrik said reluctantly. ‘No, he didn’t.’

‘All right then.’ Stefan grinned.

‘It seems a little strange that you haven’t asked who this man is that we’re talking about,’ said Ulf, trying to entice the dog to come over. Gösta stared at him as if he were crazy, but the dog got up and padded over to Ulf to have his ears scratched.

‘Lolita hasn’t learned to hate the smell of a cop,’ said Stefan. ‘But she will. And as far as this Mats is concerned, I can’t keep tabs on everybody. I’m a businessman and have contact with lots of people.’

‘He worked for an organization called the Refuge. Does that sound familiar?’

The longer they sat there, the more Patrik’s loathing for this man grew. He was finding this charade frustrating. Stefan knew exactly what they were talking about. It would have been better if they could have taken him down to the station so that the witness from Erik Dahlbergsgatan could identify him. Though they had no proof that Stefan had participated in the beating of Mats Sverin, Patrik was convinced that he had. Considering how personal the situation was, he didn’t think Stefan would have turned over the task to his thugs.

‘Refuge? No, never heard of it.’

‘That’s odd. Because they know you. Quite well, in fact.’ Patrik could feel himself boiling inside.

‘Is that so?’ said Stefan, feigning ignorance.

‘How’s Madeleine?’ asked Ulf. Lolita was now lying on her back so he could scratch her stomach.

‘You know what chicks are like. Things are a bit dodgy at the moment, but nothing that can’t be resolved.’

‘Dodgy?’ said Patrik tersely, and Ulf gave him a warning look.

‘Is she home?’ he asked.

Javier hadn’t said a word. He radiated sheer muscle power, and Patrik understood why Ulf had decided to bring him along.

‘Not at the moment,’ said Stefan. ‘But I’m sure she’ll be sorry to have missed you. Chicks love having visitors.’

He seemed totally calm, and Patrik had to restrain himself from punching the guy in the face.

Stefan got to his feet. Lolita instantly jumped up and crept over to her master. She pressed close to his legs, as if to apologize for leaving his side. Stefan leaned down to pat her.

‘If that’s all, I’ve got other things to do.’

Patrik still had a thousand questions to ask. About the cocaine, about Madeleine, about the Refuge, and about the murder. But Ulf gave him another warning glance and nodded towards the door. Patrik realized the other questions would have to wait.

‘I hope that guy’s okay. The one who was attacked, I mean. That sort of thing can be a bad business.’ Stefan stood in the doorway, waiting for them to leave.

Patrik stared at him. ‘He’s dead. Shot to death,’ he said, his face so close to Stefan’s that he could smell stale beer and cigarettes on his breath.

‘Shot?’

The grin was gone, and for a fraction of a second, Patrik saw a look of genuine surprise in Stefan’s eyes.

‘So was the house still standing when you got home last night?’ Konrad looked at Petra through the small, round lenses of his glasses.

‘Yeah, it was,’ said Petra, but she didn’t really seem to be listening. Her attention was focused on the computer screen. After a moment she rolled back her chair and turned to Konrad. ‘I’ve found something in the records. Wester’s wife owns property in Bohuslän, in the archipelago outside of …’ She leaned forward to read what it said. ‘Fjällbacka.’