‘Sure. But what do you want me to do about that when I’m there tomorrow?’

Of course. What was Molander supposed to do about that? ‘I just wanted to remind you to keep your eyes open when you’re here,’ he said, feeling himself sinking ever deeper into the quicksand.

‘Fabian, keeping my eyes open is my job.’

‘I know, I was thinking more about… about…’ He swallowed and wiped the sweat off his brow with his sleeve. ‘You know this thing about handymen and other people who shouldn’t really have keys to her flat.’

‘Yes. And?’ Molander was starting to sound annoyed. ‘Would you mind getting to the point? Everyone’s on me right now, and I really don’t have all afternoon.’

‘I just want you to react if there’s something that’s not right,’ he said, clueless as to what that was supposed to mean. ‘It could be anything in the flat. I mean in terms of fixing things. Do you get what I’m saying?’

‘No. But no need to fret. I’ll keep my eyes open. Are we done here?’

‘Absolutely. I just wanted to tell you that.’

‘Great.’

The phone call had been exhausting. The most important thing now was that Molander didn’t seem suspicious and Gertrud had most likely not said anything. Which gave him time to think about whether to contact her or not.

He started studying the mysterious plastic card from every conceivable angle and in every conceivable light. But the only information he could see was the six gold letters.

Spades.

It could mean anything. From an illegal casino to an informal network for career women. Predictably, a Google search generated over three million hits. He went to Hitta.se instead so he could limit the search to the north-west part of Skåne. The number of hits was reduced to two.

The bowling club Queen of Spades in Allerum and Club Spades in Glumslöv.

He dialled the latter’s number and was greeted by an answering machine.

‘Welcome to Spades, the club for all tastes.’

49

‘She’s going to die.’

He was so sick of them and just wanted them to go away.

‘She doesn’t deserve to live anyway.’

Wanted them to leave him alone.

‘The only thing she deserves is you.’

Stupid fucking prick voices.

‘You can do anything you want.’

But, as usual, they refused.

‘Absolutely anything you want.’

Though they did sound different this time; they did.

‘So long as it ends with her dying.’

More intense and urgent.

‘We know you want to.’

Nag, nag, nag.

‘That you’ve been looking forward to it.’

It was as though they’d got stuck on repeat and weren’t going to stop until he did what they told him to.

‘Looked forward to finally throwing all inhibition aside.’

At least that usually shut them up.

‘You really do deserve it.’

But he didn’t always want to.

‘You of all people.’