‘Surely that can’t be difficult to establish? Where do you hide an entire family?’

‘You tell me.’ In a few short sentences Alex filled her in on what he’d learned so far. As he spoke, Fredrika’s unease grew. A father and a mother. A son and a daughter. Gone. Vanished. And no one was looking for them.

‘We need to try and get a fresh investigation going,’ she said when Alex had finished.

‘We can certainly try, but remember – the police have been in contact with the brother.’

Fredrika shook her head.

‘No. I’m on Noah’s side. He knows, I mean knew, his own brother. I would have reacted in exactly the same way, particularly if the police were seriously relying on one conversation with the brother, which he cut short because he had to attend a business meeting. In the middle of the night. A psychologist. And do they actually know what his voice sounds like?’

She had to rein it in, curb the enthusiasm she was showing for a case that didn’t necessarily have any connection with the others.

But it would lead them away from Spencer.

‘You asked what I thought,’ Alex said. ‘But you weren’t talking about Noah’s missing brother, were you? You were talking about Ross.’

Fredrika fiddled with the necklace she was wearing – a present from Spencer and the children.

‘Yes, I was. Why was he so convinced that Malcolm Benke had been murdered by his son?’

‘I tried asking him, but he didn’t have a sensible explanation. He insisted he’d never said it in the first place.’

‘I suppose he might be feeling under pressure,’ Fredrika said, thinking aloud.

‘Under pressure?’

‘He must realise he keeps coming up in one case after another. That could put him on the defensive, even if he’s not involved.’

‘But that’s exactly what we want to know,’ Alex said. ‘Whether he’s involved or not.’

Fredrika felt the hairs on her arms stand up.

‘And we called him crazy,’ she said quietly.

‘Sometimes it’s hard to know how right we are,’ Alex replied, and this time they both smiled.

Alex got to his feet.

‘And I have to stress that we don’t know if we’re right,’ he added.

Fredrika bit her lip to stop herself from speaking. She thought back to the beginning of this conversation, when it had almost seemed as if Alex was about to confess something to her. He’d told her about Noah’s missing brother, but was that the whole story?

As if he’d read her mind, Alex said:

‘One more thing: I’ve spoken to Peder Rydh. He called me.’

‘Okay . . .’ She was surprised to hear Peder’s name.

‘I . . . This sounds stupid, but I’d just been talking to Noah, and I needed to run Noah’s story by someone.’

‘So you told Peder?’