“Some drunk dude pissed in the doorway to number 8 just now, two dogs had a fight outside 10 just an hour ago, and a young woman in 12 punched her boyfriend rather skillfully early in the morning on their way home from what I would guess was a bar. So yes—just as calm.”

Piet Hoffmann sank down onto the only thing in the room resembling a free chair—an unpacked moving box, which had never found its place—and slurped down the last drop in his paper cup. He cleared his throat, tried to lower his voice as best he could, felt like the guard had already noticed the difference.

“Allergies. Nothing contagious—just an itch in my throat.”

“Got it, boss. Pollen is a motherfucker. And grass is the worst—whenever they mow it, I can’t stop sneezing.”

Hoffmann nodded and glanced at one of the monitors, saw an older couple washing their windows from the outside, the man in the flower bed balanced on a long metal rod with a squeegee in his hand, and a woman with the living room window half-open pointing and directing him.

Hoffmann and the guard exchanged a smile.

Watching people had its moments.

“It’s like this, Andy. I need you to listen to me.”

“Okay.”

“We’re adding another safe house.”

“A new one?”

“Seven new surveillance cameras. I need you to connect to them this evening and keep watch to make sure everything’s as it should be.”

“Which number?”

“Not here—a bit further away. Tallbacken, in the Gamla Sickla area.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“Emergency. As usual.”

“But if anything happens . . . I mean, I thought the whole point was to have them all in the same place—I can’t get there in time if something happens, and I’d have to leave the other three . . .”

Lie.

Piet Hoffmann was pretty good at it; only Zofia could see straight through him.

“A single woman in her forties. Three children, two boys, ten and eight, and a baby, a girl. Safe house has the highest level of security. Nacka Municipality called me this morning, and I said yes—so it is what it is. But I’ve gone through everything. Doors secured, windows secured, cameras in place. I’ll help them move in sometime tonight. And as far as you and Carlos and Bill are concerned, no change other than a few more cameras to follow, one more family.”

•   •   •