PER ÅSTRÖM LOCKED his eyes on the ball. It made a loud smacking sound when it met his tennis racket. A straight, two-handed backhand, right at the baseline.

He moved quickly to the right, following the ball’s movement over the net with his eyes, and moved again. Another smack as Johan returned the ball. Per crouched further and found his center of gravity, moved again and swung. Forehand cross. His blond hair swung to the side, his forehead damp with sweat.

He had been playing for an hour, and only he and Johan remained in the tennis hall. Both had ended their planned matches but had felt too restless to go home, so they’d spontaneously agreed to play a match together. The night had gotten late and the other courts were empty. Outside, large, fresh snowflakes whirled down from the dark sky.

Johan held up his hand, saying he had to be done for the day. They met at the net and thanked each other for a good match.

“Do you dare play me again?” Per asked.

“Of course. Tomorrow, same time?”

“That could work. I’ll call you, Johan...”

“... Klingsberg.”

“Right. Klingsberg, it was.”

Per collected his water bottle and tennis balls and stuffed them into his bag. He heard the door slam after Klingsberg.

He went into the locker room and was greeted by warm steam. The mirrors were fogged up.

Water was running from the nozzle of one of the showers. Someone must have forgotten to turn it off, Per thought.

He put his bag down on the bench and went into the shower, reaching out his hand and turning the faucet until the water stopped.

He went back to the bench and sat down, pulled off his sweaty shirt and reached into his bag for his cell phone.

No missed calls.

No messages.

He dried the sweat from his temples with his shirt, wiping it slowly back and forth, finding himself lost in thought. He had called her yesterday to ask if she wanted to go with him to a hockey game. He’d also called her in the morning and left a message to ask if she wanted to have dinner with him. She hadn’t called back. He interpreted her silence as a no, and now he had found out that she had adjourned the hearing because a new witness had incidentally cropped up in the case of the assault at the bar. She wanted to have time to question the witness before the hearing could be revisited. Nothing strange about that, of course, but the fact remained that she still hadn’t called him back. Maybe he’d been too pushy? She could at least have said so.

He picked up his cell and typed her number again.

* * *

“Hi there.”

Mia Bolander smiled at Martin Strömberg’s confused look and thought about how he looked really unattractive when he raised his eyebrows like that.