Piet Hoffmann had a small backpack with him. Now he pulled out a laptop and held it up toward the gun.

“There you go.”

“And what am I supposed to do with this?”

“I grabbed it while you were sitting on the roof of a warehouse keeping watch for me. It belonged to Hamid Cana, and its information is only accessible with a twenty-character decryption code. But no one can keep track of that many letters and numbers, so it has to be written down and hidden. The code for this computer was in a safe behind a secret wall, and in order to get a hold of it I had to waste a hell of a lot of water. As you can see, the paper ended up a little wrinkled.”

Hoffmann handed the Albanian policeman a folded sheet.

“But the code is intact—we were lucky, he’d written it down with a regular ballpoint pen, waterproof. When you and I split up, you use this code and read all the text in its original form. This is my first repayment for your help. You’ll get the solution not only to what happened yesterday, you’ll have proof of several years of extensive organized weapons smuggling. The names of employees here in Shkodër and Tirana and Pristina. Their colleagues all along the entire Balkan route. My Swedish employer is content with just the Swedish names—you’ll have the honor of arresting the rest of them.”

Latifi just sat there, without any hint of movement.

“If what you have with you contains what you say it does, that’s good. But it changes nothing—you’re a murderer and murderers have to be arrested.”

Hoffmann turned the computer screen toward the policeman, then unfolded the wrinkled piece of paper.

“Latifi, take some time to look at this. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see that what I have to say is true. My small thanks to you. Then we’ll get up and head to your car parked behind the police station. And go on our excursion. We’ll drive to Lake Shkodër, and at a jetty quite far from the nearest house, we’ll find a simple motorboat. That will take us to repayment number two—and my much bigger thanks. You can take your gun with you, I’ll remain unarmed like now. Once we’re there you can decide if you want to arrest me or let me go.”

Chapter 53

Ewert Grens had no idea how long he lingered out there on the balcony. Long enough to make his legs feel much stiffer than usual. When he came back inside again, Sven was with the two patrol cars and Mariana was with the medical examiner and forensic technicians, while Amelia still sat with Zofia and the Hoffmann kids, speaking to them in her pleasant voice. He walked closer, listening. It felt so good to see them all safe and sound.

“Ewert!”