‘Haven’t you read the papers? The funeral director who was murdered? They haven’t released his name yet, but I’m afraid it might be . . .’

‘I get it,’ Peder snapped.

Jussi remained silent for a few seconds, then said: ‘What do you think we should do?’

Peder switched lanes; he was a hair’s breadth from causing an accident.

‘We wait.’

‘For what?’

‘We can’t do anything until they release the name.’

Jussi considered what Peder had said.

‘Okay, but then we need to contact the police, tell them what we know.’

‘We don’t really know anything.’

‘Come on, Peder! You were a cop, you know what we have to do.’

‘We have to be discreet. That’s what we promise our clients, and that’s what we have to stick to.’

Jussi was worryingly quiet.

‘Hello?’ Peder said. He didn’t have time to wait, didn’t have time to be patient.

‘Fair enough. When the name comes out I’ll ring the police. We could be sitting on important information without realising it.’

Peder ended the call, then put his foot down.

Chapter 9

At first the lock protested when she tried to turn the key; it obviously wanted to keep her out. Tina was holding the key so tightly that her knuckles whitened. She was going to get into this house if it was the last thing she did.

She’d waited a long time, thought she couldn’t do what she was doing now. If you gave a friend a spare key to your house, it went without saying that you didn’t expect that person to abuse your trust.

‘I want you to have this,’ Malin had said. ‘If we lock ourselves out, or . . . well, you know. Sometimes we go away, and if anything happens, I’d like someone to be able to get into the house.’

Noah had also had a key, but no one else. And now Noah was gone.

That was when Tina had made her decision – when she heard he’d been murdered. She had to visit the house, take a look around, see if she noticed anything the police or Noah had missed. If the police had even been there, which seemed unlikely.

According to the man she’d spoken to, Noah’s death didn’t affect their view of Dan and Malin’s ‘disappearance’. That didn’t make any sense to Tina, and she found it deeply worrying.

Will I be the next one to die?

The question kept on going around and around in her head; it was making her paranoid. Please, please let the door open! She couldn’t stand here much longer in full view, fiddling with the lock.

At last! She let out a little whimper of relief as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. She locked it and tried the handle, making sure it wouldn’t open. Only to be overwhelmed by a fresh wave of panic.