Sure, she could blame the fact that they were severely short-handed and that Klippan’s muddled leadership had undermined any kind of logical thinking and made it virtually impossible to deal with the most straightforward of routines. But the truth was that she was to blame.

That said, it was very unusual for a suspect on the run from the law to not even bother buying a pay-as-you-go SIM card. Though she supposed it tallied somehow with his remarkable decision to drive the Volvo all the way to his home and do nothing more to conceal it than to throw a tattered tarpaulin over it. It was as though he hadn’t given the consequences a moment’s thought.

At least she had now belatedly talked to Molander about doing a triangulation for the number, but since he had spent the whole morning triangulating Igor Skanås’s phone, he’d made it clear she would have to wait until he was done processing the brothers’ house. It went without saying that was an important task, too, but she was far from convinced it was the right way to prioritize.

Not an hour passed without a reminder of how badly understaffed they were. In less than six weeks, their team had been halved. She would never see Elvin again and Risk would, if she’d understood it right, not be back until sometime in late summer.

Normally, his way of keeping everything to himself would irk her. Now, she missed him and his unexpected ideas, which though not always accurate were invariably interesting.

Not to mention Tuvesson. God, she missed her so badly. No one could direct their work or put their foot down without causing offence like she could. Now they were drifting, each on his or her own, almost as unstructured as Assar Skanås. It was in large part her own fault. She hadn’t been able to take Klippan’s leadership seriously. His theories about the underlying motive even less so. And yet, he’d been right and she’d been wrong.

He could have rubbed her nose in it, but he was apparently so cowed he hadn’t even said I told you so, let alone demanded that she follow his instructions from now on. It was as though he’d completely given up on being in charge.

The best she could do was to apologize. Hopefully that would give him enough confidence to take the tiller again. Maybe he would even dare to grab Molander by the scruff of the neck and order him to start the search for Assar Skanås’s phone before it was too late.

She left her office and walked down the corridor past the kitchen. That’s as far as she got before her phone rang, and at more or less the same moment that she saw it was Klippan calling, the man himself burst out of his office.

‘There you are.’