‘But there’s one thing I don’t understand about all of this.’ It was the first time Klippan had spoken in a while; the others turned to him as if they’d forgotten he was in the room. ‘What’s the motive?’ he continued. ‘Let’s assume it’s the same person. What’s his motive?’ He looked them all in the eyes. ‘He spies on a bunch of women in their homes. I’m with you so far. Most of them are, as far as I understand, between twenty and forty years old, and they’re all reasonably good-looking. No obese couch potatoes, but real Bettys, as my father would have put it. Nothing weird about that, either. At the same time, going by Fabian’s theory, he’s moving around in swingers’ circles where, if rumour is to be believed, women line up to have sex with him and have their privates branded. I’ve never heard of anything like it, but there’s a lot to hear in this world before your ears fall off, so let’s roll with it. But, and this is where you lose me, why would he kill Molly Wessman?’

‘Wasn’t it something about them belonging to him?’ Lilja said. ‘That’s why he brands them, right?’

Fabian nodded, even though he felt Klippan had in fact pinpointed the weakest link in the motive chain.

‘And I suppose that’s why he keeps an eye on them,’ Molander said. ‘To make sure they don’t stray.’

‘But in that case, they should all be branded, not just Wessman,’ Klippan said.

Fabian nodded. Klippan was right. No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t add up. On the other hand, logic wasn’t always the foundation of a perpetrator’s motives. In fact, the opposite was usually closer to the truth.

‘Besides,’ Klippan continued, ‘I have a hard time imagining Wessman would be the first and so far only woman who has ever stepped out on him. Especially considering how many there must be, if we assume the numbers are ordinals.’

‘Or—’ Tuvesson said, but broke off when Molander’s phone beeped and he picked it up.

‘Or what?’ Klippan said.

‘Maybe she’s just the first one we’ve come across.’

65

‘Hello? Excuse me?’

Fabian heard the distant voice but chose to keep walking across the car park outside the station. Flätan had just agreed to meet to go over a list of recently deceased women whose deaths had not been considered suspicious. Naturally, he would never admit that he himself had been incorrect or missed something. His colleague Arne Gruvesson, on the other hand, had, if Flätan was to be believed, a habit of overlooking the most obvious of cases.

‘Hello, have you a moment, please?’

Fabian, who had just opened the car door, turned around and saw a man hurrying after him across the car park.