It was still light, but the first signs of twilight were approaching as they left the city on a large highway headed east.

“I don’t just know that he makes his living selling off the Albania arms surplus—I can prove it, and in another country that would mean his conviction. I also know that the woman he’s with right now, where we are headed, is the same person who owns the house you were just inside.”

“Same woman?”

“The same.”

“Mistress and also technically the owner of their headquarters?”

“Mistress—yes, but she’s involved as more than just a legal technicality. I’m pretty sure they run the guns together. Vesa Lilaj. Forty-seven years old, and nothing more serious on her record than a few parking tickets. But she’s related to this on another, higher level—she’s the sister of the man who was once in charge of the gun smuggling network to northern Europe. And then he was murdered. Power struggle, if our information is correct. A clear execution in . . . Sweden, I think, your homeland, Larsson. His wife and children were shot, too. At least that’s the info we got. That will be—twenty years soon? The murder of a whole family that you, as a Swedish police officer, would of course know well?”

“What was his name? The brother?”

“Mirza. Mirza Lilaj.”

Piet Hoffmann wasn’t familiar with the names Mirza or Vesa Lilaj. But then again he wasn’t a police officer either. He wondered if Ewert Grens might have heard of them. Or the murders Latifi was referring to. He had to remember to ask him about it, later, when this was over.

“No, sorry, twenty years ago was before my time.”

“Mirza Lilaj was—and this comes from verified surveillance information, there were a few good cops before me—one of the network’s clearest leaders until his death. And he was replaced by King Zoltan, who was one of the only clear leaders until his death. That murder we talked about the first time we met, I’d guess there was another power struggle, even if I can’t confirm it. But when Zoltan was replaced four years ago, the leadership was again divided into two. If my info is correct, and it usually is. Hamid Cana and Vesa Lilaj. He’s the front, the outward face. She makes the big decisions, works behinds the scenes.”

Now twilight arrived. The dark gently pushing away the light. The car’s headlights became two searching eyes on a road that was getting more narrow, winding, and rough.

“There’s a map in the glove compartment. If you take it out, Larsson, you’ll see on page seven the property we’re heading to. I’ve circled it.”