It just wasn’t him. This whole I’m the one in charge and you’d better do as I say role was a bad fit for him, and to be honest, he’d never been particularly interested in it. But the hierarchy was what it was and he hadn’t had any choice but to grit his teeth and try to do his best until Tuvesson came back.

A few deep breaths later, he got out of the car and walked towards the crowd outside the entrance; once there, he heard himself order everyone to remove their cars from the car park then give the uniformed officers clear instructions on how to expand the police cordon.

When he entered ICA Maxi, he only had to walk through the automatic barriers and the plastic toys section before he spotted two of Molander’s assistants putting on protective clothing in the fruit and veg section. And over by the bread aisle, a few members of the staff were comforting a colleague who had gone to pieces.

‘There you are,’ Molander called out as he emerged from the Tex-Mex and spice aisle, wearing his white work coat. ‘Where have you been? We’ve been here for over an hour already.’

‘As you know, we have a number of other cases that need seeing to as well, and speaking of which, we’re going to need another triangulation now we have Assar Skanås’s number.’

‘Yes, yes, Lilja’s already been on to me about that.’ Molander snorted derisively. ‘If only she’d thought to check the phone book before we spent the entire morning locating his brother.’

‘I know, but the worst thing we can do now is to turn on each other. Tell me how you’re getting on instead.’

Molander shook his head. ‘So far, we’ve only really been able to do your job. We’ve talked to the staff and a handful of customers who witnessed the event.’

‘Why haven’t you got started on the technical investigation?’

‘The answer to your question starts with F and ends with lätan.’ Molander snorted again. ‘Don’t ask me why, but he seems to think the coroner has first dibs on the scene. He has categorically refused to let us in for almost half an hour now. Bloody crank. Thinks he’s so special with his striped trousers and long hair.’

‘All right, I’ll take care of it,’ Klippan said, even though conflicts were not his forte.

‘If anyone should have first dibs, it should be me and my team.’

‘Ingvar, I said I’ll take care of it.’ There was nothing unexpected about Flätan and Molander rubbing each other up the wrong way. They were both extremely competent in their fields. Their egos and posturing were the problem. They had never been able to fit into the same room and likely never would. ‘Tell me about the witness statements instead.’