She couldn’t even bring herself to speculate how Erik was doing. Either he was alive or he wasn’t—she didn’t allow herself to go any deeper than that. Not right now, when she might run into someone else at any moment. She wanted to be alone in the dark when she unleashed that particular worry.

She pulled on her anorak and walked to work. It was very early in the morning, but there was always someone in the newsroom, no matter what time it was. The odd time of day meant she didn’t risk running into more than one or two of her colleagues, which meant she would avoid having to endure all her colleagues’ apologetic looks aimed at her at once.

It was just the head of news who was in, and he was tactful enough not to inquire after her emotional state. He settled for asking whether there was anything he could do, or anything new to report, but there wasn’t. She glanced through the day’s headlines and reviewed the pieces about Erik. She made sure that the serial was running as it was supposed to, and that it was being given the prominence it needed. Her eye settled on Kerstin’s name, which reminded her that Kerstin had asked her a favour.

She couldn’t remember what it was. Kerstin had rung at some point over the weekend, and she should probably have dealt with whatever it was sooner. But the days had merged into one, and nothing seemed all that important any longer. Oh yes, she reminded herself—the serial was important. Whatever the outcome of the awful thing that was happening just now, the book would avenge Erik. It would get redress for her, too, as well as for Kerstin and Karl-Erik. Jeanette and Peter Norling deserved to have their story told; not everything was black and white.

Peter Norling—that was it. Sandra had promised to find out whether he owned any properties, and that was no more difficult than checking up on him in the InfoTorg database. The head of news was already at his computer, so she asked him to do it for her. It was quick to accomplish—Sandra took a photo of the page of results and forwarded it to Kerstin. Then she set off home again to carry on writing.

She changed her mind en route however and decided that she wanted to see whether Hallin was really under surveillance with her own eyes. Maybe that policeman had never believed her, and had only been playing along to calm her down. Maybe they didn’t have the necessary resources. And maybe they had called off the operation when the surveillance had turned up nothing. Or because there was no longer any hope of Erik being found alive.