“I thought it’d be good to let you know that we’ve made some progress in the case with the Thai woman. First of all, we’ve gotten the likely name of the girl who was in the room with her. We think it’s Isra. Second, we know with a fair amount of certainty who the man was who picked Pim up at the train station and held her captive. Pim picked out a photo of a man named Danilo Peña and...”

She didn’t hear any more after that. Her eyes darted across the walls and doors and the people sitting in the courtroom. She slipped out, punched in the code to a conference room, rushed in and put her hand in front of her mouth to stifle a scream. Her chest began to hurt, but she listened to Henrik’s voice mail one more time.

“...picked out a photo of a man named Danilo Peña and...”

She threw her phone against the wall and a large crack appeared on the screen. She sat down, trying to breathe calmly, to think, but she couldn’t. She got up again, trying to find a way out of the panic that gripped her.

Had it been Danilo who’d held Pim captive?

She heard the summons over the loudspeaker again and left the conference room. She was breathing just as heavily when she returned to the courtroom. She felt like being there was a huge waste of time now. She had to protect herself, her life.

Far off she heard the district court judge, together with the chairperson, begin by greeting everyone, introducing the three lay judges as well as the law clerk. Jana wasn’t listening, though; all her attention was focused on the closed door. She was solely focused on one person now—Danilo.

“The Swedish Prosecution Authority is represented by Prosecutor Jana Berzelius,” he said, introducing the defendant, the plaintiff and their respective lawyers, as well as the counsel for the injured party.

Her heart was pounding in her chest. Her gaze was still locked on the doors.

“At the prosecutor’s request, we have called the witness Samir Ranji, who has been informed of the summons and from what I understand is waiting outside these doors. I don’t believe there is anything in the way of holding the main hearing today.”

“Yes, there is,” Jana said, standing. “Chairman, I must request that we adjourn the proceedings.”

* * *

Henrik Levin stroked the fingers of his right hand over one eyebrow, back and forth in a slow rhythm, and thought about how odd it was that Axel Lundin had given them the name of the man who had held Pim captive. Everything hung together. Robin Stenberg had led them to Axel Lundin, who now led them to Danilo Peña, the mysterious, dark man... Would he lead them to The Old Man?