Even so, he was far from ready to trust that impression. For Molander to have called when he was actually at his house, discussing him with Gertrud, could, of course, have been a coincidence. But it could equally well have been because his colleague had been listening to their conversation via some hidden microphone and decided to cut their meeting short before it could go too far.

If so, the question was what Molander’s plan was. It seemed unlikely that he would choose to liquidate him in Molly Wessman’s flat, though he couldn’t disregard the possibility. One person had already died there recently, and besides, Molander himself was in charge of the investigation. What made it unlikely was his two assistants; so long as they were present, he should be safe.

Even so, he took out his gun, pushed in a loaded magazine and placed it in his shoulder holster, under his jacket. Then, as an extra precaution, he sent Tuvesson a text saying Molander claimed to have found something interesting at Wessman’s and that he was on his way over to check it out.

He left his car with the key in the ignition and hurried towards the front door. A distance that, despite being barely more than fifteen feet, was long enough for him to get soaked. A doorstop was propping the front door open and outside the lift, next to a tool bag, stood a number of buckets adorned with red warning triangles, so he took the stairs.

Outside Wessman’s flat, he waited to give the water a chance to drip off before running his hands through his hair, turning on the recording function on his phone and entering.

He had considered not going, naturally, but had concluded that would only serve to raise a lot of questions, if Molander really had found something.

Bringing Klippan and someone else from the team had also crossed his mind. That would likely stop Molander from executing his plan, if in fact he had one. But only temporarily. If the man had decided to take his life, making sure they were never alone was not a sustainable solution, and nor was running away.

No, that left him with just one option – direct confrontation. And that might as well happen now as some other time. Paradoxically, it might be to his advantage, since he hadn’t been able to come up with any binding proof yet. A failed murder attempt would be more than enough to arrest him and launch an official investigation.

So his best option was to get ready and not hesitate to take charge the moment something out of the ordinary happened. Whatever out of the ordinary might mean when it came to Molander.

‘Hi there, come in, come in!’ Molander pulled off the hood of his protective suit as he walked towards him through the hallway. ‘Emil and Janos just popped out for lunch, so we have the whole place to ourselves.’