‘Definitely not from the left. Sort of diagonally from the right, but more like from straight behind.’

‘So, the same direction as the taxi, in other words?’

She hesitates again.

‘Yes, I think so. Yes, he did. Why do you want to know? I never saw him.’

Because he probably circled the block on his damn moped and came back, Karen thinks.

Out loud, she says, ‘We’re just trying to get as complete a picture as we can. And I promise we won’t knock on your door anymore.’

*

‘So, do you think that was the perpetrator she saw on that moped?’ Karl asks. ‘And if so, how do you explain the fact that she didn’t hear him come back?’

The investigation team has gathered in the conference room again.

‘He might have parked up the street and walked the last bit,’ Cornelis Loots suggests and is rewarded with a grateful look from Karen.

Evald Johannisen is unconvinced.

‘And how the hell did he know she wouldn’t be able to find her keys? That he’d have time to catch up?’

‘I don’t know,’ Karen replies. ‘But I think we would be unwise to ignore that two of the victims heard or saw a moped right before being attacked.’

‘And one didn’t,’ Johannisen counters.

‘And one’s dead, so we’ll never know,’ Karl adds. ‘But it’s all we have. We’re going to have to go with it and see if anything shakes loose.’

*

Evald Johannisen’s mood is not at all improved when he’s tasked with going through the list of all men whose driving licences have been revoked since September last year or earlier. It’s a long list.

And it grows even longer after Karl Björken decides to expand the age parameter.

‘Check everyone between twenty and fifty,’ he’d said. ‘Just to be on the safe side.’

Evald Johannisen looks unhappy. Really unhappy.

*

As does Karen Eiken Hornby that evening when she leans back in her office chair and pushes her notes away.

Four victims:

Sandrine Broe, 25, student, Moerbeck

Loa Marklund, 34, unemployed, deceased, Moerbeck

Greta Hansen, 27, nurse, Odinswalla

Anita Kollbar, 56, administrator, Lemdal

In two cases, it has been confirmed that the perpetrator took trophies in the form of locks of hair. In a third, he likely did. And Loa Marklund has long since been cremated.

Two of the women observed a moped right before being attacked. One didn’t.

In none of the cases has semen been found on or near the victim. In all cases, the perpetrator penetrated his victims with broken glass bottles. Both bottles and broken glass have been recovered from the crime scenes. In two cases it was beer bottles of the brand Budweiser, in another a half-bottle of Groth’s Old Stone Selected Single Malt Whiskey. In yet another a half-bottle of gin of the brand Frisel Ginever. Two domestic brands, one foreign.

Whatever that’s supposed to signify.