She went feetfirst out onto the slippery roof. She was just about to take a step forward when she nearly lost her balance; something was holding her back.

Her coat had gotten caught in the hole from the ventilation shaft. She wriggled out of it and jerked and pulled until it finally came loose.

Then she disappeared without a sound across the roof.

* * *

Henrik Levin crouched down under the pipes in the ceiling and headed back into the room where he had encountered Axel Lundin, who was now being taken by police cruiser into custody.

They had also found two drunk men in the stairwell, where one of them had been in the process of pulling a knife out of the other man’s hand. After a brief hearing, they were now being sent to social services.

Mia coughed. She was right behind Henrik, pinching her nose with her fingers to escape the smell of mold and dried urine. In her other hand, she held a flashlight.

The floor was uneven and shards of glass crunched under the soles of their shoes. It was bitterly cold.

“It was right here,” Henrik said, pushing the door in front of him. “This is where the light was coming from.”

Mia went in, flipping the light switch to no avail—the naked lightbulb in the ceiling didn’t turn on. Someone had broken it. She swept the beam of her flashlight across the floor. The room was empty except for glass, gravel, newspapers and flattened paper food containers.

“Let’s look in the other room,” Henrik said, heading for the door.

“Wait,” Mia said, pointing the light toward one part of the cinder block wall, holding it completely still on one of the blocks.

“There,” she said, indicating a block on the left before kneeling by it.

It was sticking out slightly, and below it was a small pile of dust and tiny pebbles. Mia laid her flashlight on the floor and tried to get her fingers around the brick, but couldn’t get it to budge. Henrik tried as well, also unsuccessfully.

“It’s got to come out,” she said.

She picked up her flashlight, pointed it at the block and began pounding.

“This was probably why Axel had the crowbar,” Henrik said as he began to stamp his feet impatiently behind Mia.

“Come on, now,” he said as the block began to move.

Finally, Mia got hold of it and pulled it out. With a crash, the block fell to the floor, revealing a large hole.

She shined the light in.

There lay a number of well-packed bags.

All filled with small white balls...

“Totally crazy,” she said.

Chapter Twenty-One

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE