“No problem,” said the policeman.

“You absolutely mustn’t contact him. Do you understand?”

“Absolutely. We’ve made that decision ourselves. We generally try to avoid precipitating rash responses from desperate people.”

“It could be disastrous. At least wait another few days.”

“That’s what we’re going to do,” the policeman reassured her. “Sooner or later, we’ll obviously have to question him, but at the current time we don’t want to take any risks. If subjecting him to questioning would put Erik’s safety at risk, then obviously we’ll stick to watching Hallin from a distance.”

“And you’ve been doing that?” Sandra wanted confirmation.

“We’ve had our eyes on Hallin for forty-eight hours now, but nothing suspicious has taken place.”

Which was unfortunately more or less what Sandra had expected. If Hallin had had anything to do with the disappearance, she would probably have heard about it almost straightaway. At the same time she was grateful that the police had listened and had taken what she had said seriously enough that they had put Hallin under surveillance, so the knowledge that it hadn’t paid dividends was crushing. He wasn’t keeping Erik captive anywhere with the intention of handing him back if certain conditions were met or once enough time had passed—what he had done had already reached its conclusion. That was what common sense told her, but everything inside her was in tumult and she desperately wanted to believe something else.

The rest of the conversation took place with her parents in the kitchen, but nothing emerged that provided any relief. There was no trace of Erik, and despite the huge search effort they were none the wiser. Sandra was tempted to give in to her emotions and just scream, but that would have been letting go and giving up, and she couldn’t allow herself to do that, even for one moment.

And now she was forced—despite all her promises and intentions—to contact Jan Hallin anyway. It was still too soon to drop him in it with the police completely, but she had to try and get hold of him. What else was she supposed to do? After all, doing the opposite would hardly help . . . Sandra knew that he was behind the threats, the sabotage, and Erik’s disappearance. She couldn’t just sit there and let something unthinkable take place. Unless it already had.

It was a desperate measure, but her tone of voice couldn’t be allowed to divulge her desperation. She had to show despondency, but not rage. That was why she initiated the call in a controlled voice.

“I’d like to apologise for calling on your wife. It was stupid of me, and I’m genuinely sorry if it’s caused any problems.”

“Yes, you can be sure it has. Do you think you’ll get any richer by getting my wife involved? Or do you think apologising will do it?”