‘Same here. Check it out, see what you can find. I’m sure our colleagues have already done that, but I’m afraid they might miss any links to our investigation.’

Fredrika swallowed. ‘What do you mean, links to our investigation?’

‘A man called Henry Lindgren has been found murdered. He was killed by an overdose of insulin, injected into the back of his neck.’

Fredrika almost dropped the phone.

‘Oh my God,’ she whispered.

‘So you remember that case too.’

‘I’ll never forget it. But . . .’

‘I really do have to go.’ And Alex was gone.

As Fredrika left the Lions’ Den she met Torbjörn Ross, ambling along the corridor.

‘Did Alex tell you what we found in Lovisa’s apartment?’ he asked.

Fredrika nodded.

Ross was wearing trainers and carrying a pair of Wellingtons. He looked at her for a long time.

‘The net is tightening,’ he said. ‘We’ll soon have the bastard.’

Chapter 13

It didn’t take Tina long to drive from her grandmother’s summer cottage in Högmora to the petrol station where she’d arranged to meet Alex Recht. The cottage had felt like a safe place to hide, but was that still the case? It had been locked up and deserted as usual when she arrived. Grandma was no longer around, and Tina’s parents didn’t like spending time there. They’d hung on to it for Tina’s sake.

‘Maybe you’ll have a family of your own one day,’ her mother had said. ‘It would be nice for you to have somewhere to escape to in the summer.’

There was so much wrong with that assumption that Tina couldn’t even be bothered to respond.

She had been thirty-five when Grandma died; she wasn’t exactly a teenager any more. The summer cottage was fun whether Tina had a family or not. Although fun wasn’t the right word. It was a place where Tina found strength and joy.

And safety too, on this occasion.

Unless she was wrong, and someone else was able to work out where she’d gone.

This isn’t how I intended to spend my holiday, she thought.

She’d been planning to take some of her annual leave later in the year and go over to Australia to visit Malin. That obviously wasn’t going to happen.

She felt weak in both body and spirit as she drove. She was wracked with doubt, could hardly breathe.

Should she have stayed away from Noah, realised it might be dangerous to look for Malin and Dan? The answer didn’t really matter, because Tina’s life had become so much poorer since Malin’s disappearance. Nobody could fill the gap she’d left behind, nobody could replace her. It was also a matter of right and wrong; you didn’t abandon friends you loved. You didn’t stop searching for them if you believed they’d been abducted, taken against their will.