‘Exactly. A basement or some other space with a stone or concrete floor and walls that bounce the sound back instead of absorbing it.’

‘I’ll redirect the teams to focus on basement areas.’ Klippan pulled out his radio.

‘Hold on,’ Lilja said. ‘What other spaces do we have? It can’t just be basements?’

‘I would say there’s two obvious places,’ Molander put in. ‘The Maria Church and Kärnan. They both have hard walls and high ceilings.’

‘But he can’t be in the church, can he?’ Klippan interjected. ‘Don’t people come and go there all the time?’

Molander shrugged. ‘I haven’t been in one since my mother took me to midnight mass. Maybe there are out-of-the-way spaces. Like up on the balcony or behind the organ?’

‘Klippan to Team B, over.’

‘Team B here, over.’

‘What about Kärnan?’ Lilja said. ‘It’s the same thing there, isn’t it? A lot of tourists running up and down the stairs.’

‘Not at this time of day.’ Molander glanced at his watch. ‘It’s usually fairly quiet between three and five. The tourists are getting tired and prefer to have a sit-down at a café, and the rest of us mortals are rushing to get things done before we have to race home and pick up the children and make dinner.’

‘I want you to abort the search of the hotels right now and focus on the Maria Church,’ Klippan said. ‘Is that clear? Over.’

‘It’s clear.’

‘Sounds like you go there a lot,’ Lilja said.

‘A few times a year, certainly. At least. There’s no better place to reflect on the events of the day than at the top of the tower, gazing out across Helsingborg, Denmark and the sound.’

‘I haven’t been there since sixth grade. But I remember there was a person at reception to let us in, and I honestly have a hard time seeing how he would get past—’

‘As often as not, that reception desk’s unmanned. I guess they’re in the loo or checking their Facebook or something. What do I know? I’ve snuck in more than once. It’s hardly on me to stand there and wait, just because they can’t be bothered to do their job. Am I right? Or should I feel guilty?’

Lilja didn’t have time to answer. She’d already leaped out of the van and was hurrying across the cobblestones towards the terraced stairs leading up to Kärnan. There was a lift in the mountain on her left. But she’d tried that once several years ago when she’d been on crutches after crashing her Ducati. It had taken several minutes to arrive and once the doors finally opened, they’d had to wait for more passengers to come along before it began its slow climb.