Just as he’d hoped, she had scribbled something down and then ripped the page out, thinking she was leaving no trace behind. That stupid fuckwit had pushed down so hard on her pen he could read the grooves in the paper without difficulty. It was a ten-digit number. Probably a personal identity number or a mobile phone number. It didn’t matter which. Regardless, it would move him forward.

‘Thank you very much. You’ve been extremely helpful.’ Sleizner tore out the page and was just about to hand the shoebox back when he discovered even more notes on the next page. And these were fully visible in ink.

You can try if you want

But this is neither a personal identity number nor a mobile phone number

Just a random string of numbers

So for your own sake, stop looking

Because you’re never going to find me

But I’m going to find you

When you least expect it

Where it hurts the most

56

Fabian climbed out of his car, noted that the rain had stopped and locked the doors with a feeling of being precariously balanced on the edge of a cliff with his eyes blindfolded. He was alive but he didn’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed that Molander hadn’t shown his true colours. Everything was in flux again.

Even the murder of Inga Dahlberg had turned into a giant question mark in the form of an alibi from Berlin, and until he could break that, he had no choice but to try to go about his business as usual, just like Molander.

The hidden webcams were without doubt a very significant lead in the investigation. His first thought had been that Wessman must have chosen to instal them in her bathroom and bedroom herself. An exhibitionist streak would hardly be surprising, given her tattoo and membership of Spades. According to Molander, considerable time and money had been spent on concealing the cameras, but that could have been to avoid disturbing potential visitors.

But since Molander had been unable to locate the server the cameras sent their information to, and hadn’t managed to turn them off, short of cutting the wires, they had agreed that Wessman was most likely unaware she was being watched.

It was also clear that the cameras had been installed together with the building’s high-speed internet cables. A job that, according to the chairman of the housing cooperative, had been completed over the course of a week in the autumn of 2009 by Fiberbolaget AB.

He had called the company, trying to reach the owner, Eric Jacobsén, but according to the woman at the switchboard, he was out conducting an inspection and wasn’t expected back until sometime that afternoon. She had declined to give them a mobile phone number. She had, however, offered to pass on a message and ask him to call them back.