In the light of that experience, she now decided to skip the bus to the station and instead hurried over to the other side of the street and got into the back of a taxi, even though the driver was busy reading about that awful laundry room murder in Bjuv in the evening paper.

‘Are you free?’

‘Absolutely.’ The man shot her a smile in the rear-view mirror as he folded up his paper and turned the engine on.

‘I’m going to Stuvaregatan 7 in Helsingborg. Do you know where that is?’

‘No problem.’ The man pulled out and once again met her eyes in the mirror and smiled.

Why was he smiling so much? Was it simply because he’d just scored a ride from Landskrona all the way to Helsingborg? But this could hardly be the first time he’d driven that way today. If that was even what it was about? If this was even a taxi? There had been a sign on the roof. Hadn’t there? She’d been so stressed and had just wanted to get away from all the people. She couldn’t see a taximeter. And then that damn smile again.

It was him. Of course it was him. Who else could it be? She had fallen straight into his trap. He had obviously tailed her and sat outside waiting for her to come out of the yoga studio. But she’d come out earlier than he’d expected, which was why he’d been unprepared, reading the paper, when she got into the back seat.

Why hadn’t she just got on the bus like she’d planned? It was better to be surrounded by people, even if they did stare. She turned around and saw her bus pulling up to the stop. ‘I’m sorry, could you pull over, please?’

‘Pull over? Why? We’re still in Landskrona.’

‘I changed my mind. I want to get out.’

‘You can’t get out here,’ he said, slowing down for a red light. ‘Besides, the taximeter is already running, so it—’

‘Taximeter? I don’t see a taximeter.’ She pushed the door open before the car had even come to a full stop.

‘Hey, wait, you can’t just— Hey,’ the driver called out after her. But Molly was already narrowly escaping a collision with a Vespa that zipped by.

‘Look where you’re going,’ the man in black on the Vespa yelled after her as she hurried on, gesticulating wildly to catch the bus driver’s attention.

Out of the far corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a car slamming its brakes to avoid her, tyres screeching. But she didn’t care. The only thing she wanted was to get as far away from that taxi as possible.