Now he was forced to return to reality. They had yet another dead girl on their hands, yet another death. That had not yet been leaked to the press. He was stressed by the thought. He looked at the clock and realized it was 4:30. He hoped more than anything in the world to avoid seeing Anders Wester, his accusatory gaze and disgusting grin, and hearing his sour comments about “defects” in the investigation.

It took four minutes to walk to his department.

He felt out of breath. He stopped, drawing in air as if he had been holding his breath.

Then he continued straight ahead, past his office, and stopped short, facing the conference room.

Not because the team was sitting there waiting, as he had expected, but because Anders Wester had already begun the briefing.

He hesitated, feeling the overwhelming urge to walk away from all of it.

Let that idiot take over.

In pure rage, he pulled out his cell phone, flipped through his contacts, went back to his office and shut the door, hard.

County Police Commissioner Carin Radler answered on the third ring.

“Are we so fucking slow here in Norrköping that you’re letting a Stockholm snob take over the whole investigation?” he said, without even saying hello.

She sighed.

“Nice to hear from you, too... Listen now, Gunnar...”

“I just want to know what you’re thinking.”

“You know what I’m thinking.”

“That the rest of us are incompetent?”

“I’ve said it before, but maybe I need to say it again. Anders Wester is just trying to help. His experience and knowledge in the area of narcotics...”

“Shut up.”

“Gunnar!”

“We’re just a bunch of idiots, right?”

“I’m really beginning to lose faith in you.”

“Goodbye.”

Gunnar sighed. He knew he was hammering the last nail in his own coffin. But he couldn’t take it anymore. He put on his jacket, left the office and went out onto the street. He walked through downtown again. He knew every street, every sidewalk, every stairwell. Still, he felt like a stranger in his own town.

He wasn’t thinking about the idiot anymore.

He was thinking about Anneli.

He felt furious and upset at the same time.

Scared.

He had never before been so fucking scared.

* * *

Through the glass walls of the conference room, Mia Bolander had seen her boss disappear down the hall. At first she thought he was just going to fetch some reports or data for the meeting, but when fifteen minutes had passed, she realized he wasn’t coming back. That meant that Anders Wester would continue the briefing. She turned her gaze to where he stood with his jarring posture next to Ola. He looks like a bag of shit, she thought, sighing. She felt irritated by everyone and everything right now.