“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Gunnar continued, “but we exposed a gang that had for many years been trafficking drugs via illegal refugee children. We captured their leader, Gavril Bolanaki, and everything was handy-dandy until you took over and started negotiating with Bolanaki.”

“You know very well that he had important information.”

“Oh, yes. I know that you were going to protect him in exchange for his information. Names of middlemen, pushers, places. But he never got around to revealing anything, did he?”

“No. Exactly. What are you getting at?”

“That your ‘protection’ didn’t work very well. Admit it. You never got any information.”

“His case is closed. He killed himself. There wasn’t much more we could do there.”

“Who told you he had information anyway? Bolanaki himself?”

“I am convinced that Gavril Bolanaki would have been a resource for us,” Anders said. “But as I said, that case is closed.”

“Exactly. That must be a tidy way of solving an investigation. Say to hell with finding answers and just end it. It’s obvious you are very competent in this kind of operation.”

“Gunnar!”

Carin slammed her hand down on the table.

“Anders is claiming that we didn’t do our job,” said Gunnar. “But I disagree. We’re the ones who got Gavril Bolanaki, and I think it’s time to say it was you, Anders, who didn’t do your job because you were supposed to protect him.”

Anders smiled.

“That’s funny. You don’t understand what I’m saying, Gunnar. There is no ‘you’ and ‘us.’ The police are one single organization, and I hope you’ll have learned this when the new authority takes over.”

“Oh, yes, thank you. We know that the National Crime Squad is changing its name to the Department of National Operations. But we don’t know anything more than that. We have no idea how the organization will look in detail.”

“No, because it hasn’t been fully decided yet,” Anders interrupted.

Gunnar exchanged an angry glance with Carin, which Anders noticed.

“Maybe it’d be better if Carin explained it to you. Carin is very well-informed about the reorganization.”

“But I am not?”

“You will be now, because unlike you, I choose to share the information I have rather than hiding it.”

“How nice.”

Anders stood behind Carin and rested his hand on her shoulder.

“Carin has been offered the position of regional police chief for Eastern Sweden, and has accepted. Over the course of the year, she will work together with the six other regional chiefs to finalize the details of the new organizational structure and create an action plan for 2015. At the same time, she will be finishing out her assignment here as county police commissioner until she steps into her new position at the start of the New Year.”