‘Nothing,’ Klippan repeated. ‘And this is where it gets interesting. You see, he’s claiming full disability and doesn’t seem to have worked at all for the past twenty years.’

‘What’s wrong with him?’

‘Who knows?’ Klippan shrugged. ‘We’d need access to his medical records, and to get that we’d need to get Högsell on board. And to be honest, I’m not sure we have enough for her to give the go-ahead. But I did find two convictions. One from 1977, when he was fined for sexual assault after going into the girls’ changing rooms at Åstorp Swimming Pool to masturbate.’

Lilja shook her head, even though deep down she was happy that they were finally pulling in the same direction and knew where they were going. ‘And the second one?’

‘It’s from 2007. I don’t know if you remember, but it was in the papers.’

‘What did he do?’

‘He assaulted a clerk in a corner shop. Apparently, he came in with his older brother and bought a scratch card, and when they didn’t win he went berserk and beat her up with the card reader.’

‘And this clerk, was she of foreign extraction?’

Klippan nodded.

‘How would you feel about heading out there together to bring him in?’

‘I thought you’d never ask.’

25

‘Hello? Excuse me,’ the yoga instructor called out when she noticed Molly Wessman starting to roll up her mat. ‘I don’t recommend leaving in the middle of a session. If you’re not feeling well, it’s better for you to just sit down and focus on your breathing.’

It was 40 degrees in the room and incredibly humid to boot, but that wasn’t why Molly ignored the instructor and kept walking towards the door. She didn’t feel unwell in the slightest. On the contrary, she enjoyed the heat, even though the main reason she had signed up for the Bikram session had been to clear her mind.

Unfortunately, the image of her sleeping face was always there, haunting her, and no matter how hard she tried to focus on her breathing, she was unable to stop thinking about who might have taken it, why, and what might be next. If anything was next?

It was now two and a half days since she’d woken up and seen the photograph of herself on her phone and then realized, soon after, that her fringe had been cut off. Since then, she had been unable to think about anything else. Even though nothing else had happened. Absolutely nothing. The only thing that had changed was her.

She had gone from being one of the high achievers in the office to feeling completely debilitated, reduced to a disorganized ninny who couldn’t take three steps without anxiously looking over her shoulder.

She didn’t just sleep poorly. She didn’t sleep at all.