“Well, I wouldn’t have hardly noticed him if he hadn’t been acting so nervous, as if he didn’t want to be seen. In any case, he was wearing dark clothes, had his jacket collar pulled up to his nose, was wearing a hat.”

“Did he have a mustache? Beard? Light or dark hair?”

“He had dark hair. It was sticking out on the sides. I thought he looked foreign.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it was his hair that made me think that. And his eyes.”

“Which were?”

“Also dark.”

“A dark-haired man, possibly foreign. How old?”

“Oh, hard to say. Around thirty, maybe.”

“Anything else that stood out about him?”

“No...it was mostly that he was acting so nervous...but I hope I’ve been able to help anyway.”

Mia closed her notebook.

“Your observations are very important to us,” she assured him, getting up from the chair to leave.

“Wait!”

Stefan held his hand up in the air, smiling.

“GUV!” he said. “I just remembered the license plate. GUV 174.”

* * *

“We have a description of a man who might have picked up the girl,” Mia said into the phone.

Henrik Levin sat in his office with the phone to his ear. His gaze was fixed on his bulletin board as he listened to Mia tell about her meeting with the teacher at Vittra School.

“You’re saying that we’re looking for a foreign-looking man, with dark clothes and dark hair,” Henrik said. “I know that this isn’t going to sound good, but there are quite a few people who fit that description.”

“I know,” Mia said. “I’ll check with the convenience store and see if they have a security camera, since he poked his head in there. Maybe we’d get a better description.”

“That wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

“The teacher seemed a bit unsure, but ask Ola to search for license plate number GUV 174 or something similar. It should be a Volvo or Fiat, a dark color.”

Henrik combed his hand through his hair and shifted his weight in his chair, feeling a pang of hope.

“Bye,” Mia said, ending the call with a normal closing. No swearwords, nothing cynical, no sighing. Just “bye.” Henrik was almost shocked. What had happened to her?

“Did you get somewhere?”

Ola Söderström suddenly appeared, leaning against the door frame, smiling. His ears were sticking out from under his striped hat. He always wore a hat, no matter whether he was inside or outside, no matter what the season.

“Good thing you came by. I have some new information for you. First, I want you to look for a car with the license plate GUV 174.”

“Okay,” he said.