Ingrid looked back into the house, then pulled an overcoat from a hook near the door. She wrapped it round her shoulders, stepped outside, and shut the door quietly.

“What’s this all about?” she asked.

“You didn’t return my call.”

Her eyes cast down to the well-polished Italian marble. “No, I didn’t.”

“Arne isn’t returning them either. He’s turned off his phone and I can’t find him.”

“Has he done something wrong?” she asked.

“No. He’s on leave—it’s a medical issue. Has he told you any of this?”

“Yes, I saw him a few days ago. He said he’d quit, and that you and he had had a row.”

“We did. But that’s over and done. Arne and I have always had our differences, but I have a great deal of respect for him, both as a policeman and a person. Ingrid … I spoke with his doctor yesterday. Arne is ill, very ill. He needs to see a specialist right away.”

“What’s wrong?”

Sjoberg told her.

“Dear God, no. How bad is it?”

“They won’t know until they get in and do a biopsy.”

She seemed to stiffen. “Paul, do you think … do you think he might know about this?”

“I don’t see how. His doctor and I have been trying to reach him for days, but he seems to have taken a run after this killer we’ve all been hunting—which is another reason I’d like to talk to him.”

Sjoberg saw a woman who was visibly shaken. She almost seemed to age right there in front of him, her back more bowed, her face coming drawn.

He said, “Please, Ingrid. If you can reach him in any way, tell him to come home. He needs to see a doctor. That’s the only important thing—the rest we can manage.”

He turned to leave.

“Paul—” she said.

He turned.

“Thank you.”

Sjoberg nodded, then raised his collar and opened his umbrella, and stepped once again into the wet morning.

Back on the porch Ingrid stood gripping the door handle. She made no effort to turn it—it was more a matter of connecting herself to something steady when she realized what she’d done. Her ex-husband was ill, perhaps terminally. Certainly despondent.

And she had just sent him a gun.

*   *   *