He freed himself from the woman who stood pressed against his back and followed the redhead, who disappeared with a man through a door painted the same dark green as the wall. The door opened into a long corridor and he had to dash to reach the door at the far end before it closed completely behind them.

After hanging back for a minute, he pushed it open and continued down a flight of steps that led to a room with a tiled floor and a number of other doors, one of which was closing.

If not for the distinctive buzzing sound, he wouldn’t have understood what he was looking at in the adjacent room as the crack in the door in front of him grew ever narrower. But the sound left him in no doubt. Inside, in what looked like a spa, Eric Jacobsén was leaning over a woman, halfway through tattooing his personal brand between her spread legs.

He hurried up to the door and opened it, only to be greeted by the man he’d seen enter with the redhead.

‘What are you doing here?’ The man shut the door behind him. ‘There’s nothing for you here. You should head back upstairs.’

‘My name’s Fabian Risk and I work for the Swedish police in Helsingborg.’

‘The police?’

‘I’m here to arrest Eric Jacobsén, who is suspected of murder and quite a few other things.’

‘There’s no Jacobsén here.’

‘There is, in fact. But he also goes by the name Columbus, which might ring more of a bell.’

‘Now, listen to me. Unless you want me to throw you out, you’ll turn around and—’

‘Maybe you didn’t understand me. I’m—’

‘I understood just fine!’ The man started ushering Fabian towards the stairs. ‘But until you can show me ID, you’re nothing but a stupid Swede who’s going to leave here as quickly as possible.’

‘For Pete’s sake, are you slow or something?’ Fabian said, deciding not to hurry upstairs to fetch his clothes and ID. ‘I’m a police officer!’ The risk of Jacobsén slipping away was too great. Instead, he shoved the man in the chest with both hands, pushing him back into the anteroom.

The man, who was completely unprepared, tried to resist but didn’t get a chance because Fabian managed to grab his lapels and pull his jacket up over his shoulders and all the way down to his elbows. Then he kicked the man’s legs out from under him. He collapsed on the floor, and Fabian put a knee in his back while he tied the sleeves of his jacket together.

The man was writhing around like a wounded snake when Fabian flung open the door to the spa, where Jacobsén was now about to straddle the red-headed woman who was reclining in the jacuzzi, caressing his erection.