‘Oh, you are, are you?’ Lilja said, looking for the right argument to prove to them why it was such a bad idea. But before she could find any at all, the phone started ringing. ‘Is that him?’

Molander nodded and pressed accept.

‘Hello?’ The voice on the other end sounded winded and stressed.

‘Assar, is that you?’

‘Who is this?’

‘My name’s Irene Lilja and I’m calling from—’

‘Why? What do you want?’

‘I just wanted to know how you’re doing and where you are?’

‘Not now. No time. We’ll have to talk some other time. Goodbye.’

‘No, Assar. Hold on. Can’t you—’

‘Everything’s fine. Great. Never better. I think I have to hang up now.’

‘The girl, Assar. Do you have her?’

‘What girl?’

‘Ester Landgren, the one you picked up at the playground.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have a girl.’

‘The one with the red hair and the blue tights with horses on them.’

‘I told you, I don’t have a girl! I know it’s not allowed.’

‘But lying’s not allowed either, is it?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re mean and probably have the wrong number.’

‘No, I don’t, and you know exactly what I’m talking about.’

The line went silent; the only sound was Assar Skanås’s heavy breathing.

‘Assar, listen to me when I tell you how it’s going to be.’ She made sure to inject a dramatic pause. ‘If it turns out you’re lying to me about the girl, I’m going to make sure you can’t watch any of your children’s films for the rest of the month. And you can forget about sweets.’

‘What, why? She’s mine. The girl belongs to me, just me!’

‘Assar, I hear you. But you do understand that you have to let her go, don’t you?’

‘No, I’m not letting her go. Do you hear me? Never ever! I’ve waited longer than anyone and now it’s my turn to do what I want. What I want! The voices said so, so there.’

‘But Assar, we—’

‘They’re in charge, not you!’

The call ended.

71

‘I honestly don’t know where to start. This isn’t something I like to talk about, as I’m sure you can understand.’ Karolina Jacobsén, dressed in a knee-length skirt and bone-white blouse, straightened her dark, shoulder-length hair, even though it was already perfect. ‘But Eric’s behaviour around intimacy and sex has never been particularly normal.’

Fabian had tried to shut down the two computer screens as quickly as he could when Jacobsén’s wife had stormed in to the office. But she had literally torn him away from the keyboard and stared at Molly Wessman being subjected to the cowboy’s rough treatment.