‘No, thank you, I just had a drink.’ The man chuckled and sat down in the visitor’s chair. ‘I mean, water, or, actually, tea.’ He laughed again. ‘I’m sorry, I’m a bit nervous. I’ve never been called in for questioning by the police before.’

‘There’s no need to worry. We just need to clear up some things. Hopefully you can help us with that.’ She and Hampus almost never discussed politics. But she remembered him saying during one of the election debates that he was going to cast his vote for the Social Democrats.

‘Can I just ask how long it’s going to take? Because I have an important—’

‘Fifteen, twenty minutes, tops.’ Lilja cut him off and flipped to a blank page in her notepad. ‘Let’s jump right in, shall we?’ That prick had lied right to her face. ‘According to our information, you rented a car from Hertz on Gustav Adolfsgatan here in Helsingborg last Wednesday. Is that correct?’

‘Yes,’ the man said with a nod.

‘Then you drove to Bjuv that morning and parked the car on Norra Stationsgatan, next to the mall.’

‘I don’t know what the street’s called, but I’m sure that’s right.’ The man smiled and nodded again.

It wasn’t that you had to vote for the same party just because you were a couple. ‘Were you visiting someone?’ On the contrary, she felt vague contempt for couples who always voted for the same party and agreed with each other on everything just so they wouldn’t have to think for themselves.

‘No, I don’t know anyone in Bjuv.’

‘So what were you doing there?’ But the Sweden Democrats, that was a different matter. That’s where she drew the line. ‘I assume you didn’t rent the car just to go to Bjuv Mall and eat at the Amore Pizzeria.’ If he voted for them, his world view had to be so fundamentally different from hers she simply couldn’t see how they could stay together.

‘Pizza? Oh no, I’d be the size of a whale.’ The man chuckled. ‘I was just scouting locations.’

‘What do you mean, locations?’ She had no choice but to leave him. As soon as she got home, she would have to pack her bag and go.

The man shrugged. ‘Anything that might work as a backdrop for my dog pictures.’

‘Dog pictures? I’m sorry, I’m not sure I understand,’ Lilja said as she declined another call from Klippan. ‘Is that your job?’

‘Yes, people send in pictures of their dogs or cats. I edit them into different backgrounds. Like mountains, meadows or behind the wheel of a car. Completely up to the client. Then I filter the picture and tidy it up a bit before I print it and frame it.’ He added a smile as though what he had just described was the most natural thing in the world.