‘I think it’s called Solid Security.’

‘British?’

‘Swedish, as far as I know.’

‘Of course. Everything has to be in English these days.’

For the first time during their conversation, Alex seemed old to Tina. Everything has to be in English. Why not?

‘You must have been close to the family,’ he went on. ‘You seem to know a great deal.’

His words made Tina feel sad.

‘So did you find anything in the house?’

She didn’t answer immediately; her brain had somehow slowed down.

‘You said you used your spare key. Did you find anything?’

A police officer. With Wellingtons.

‘I didn’t think so at first, but then when I went into Hedvig’s room, there was a book on her bedside table with the corner of one of the pages turned down. When I opened it, I saw she’d made a note.’

Quickly, so quickly that she stumbled over her words, Tina told Alex what Hedvig had written, and what had happened next. She couldn’t stop herself, it all came pouring out. Except for one detail: the fact that the man who’d tried to get her into his car had said he was a police officer. That she’d recognised his voice.

But maybe I was wrong.

‘I saw the Wellingtons when I was passing the open car door. I was terrified; if that cyclist hadn’t come along I don’t think I’d have got away.’

Only then, when she paused for breath, did she register how quiet Alex had gone. He was sitting there motionless, his expression grim and forbidding.

‘Where did he say he was taking you?’ he asked.

Tina hesitated.

I don’t know who I can trust.

‘To the police station,’ she whispered.

‘What?’

‘He said I had to go with him to the station to make a statement, but I didn’t believe him. Well, I believed he was a police officer, but . . .’

Alex waited patiently for her to continue. His jaws were working, as if he were chewing something.

‘I just didn’t trust him. I thought he was dangerous, that he was going to hurt me.’

‘What was his name?’

‘I don’t know.’

The rain was hammering on the windscreen and the wind had got up. Tina still wasn’t prepared to close the door, and cold air swept into the car.

‘But he had a pair of Wellington boots behind the front seat, and that bothered you because you’d just read the note in Hedvig’s book about a man wearing Wellingtons.’

Tina shrank down in her seat, feeling stupid.

‘I mean, I don’t really know what the note meant,’ she said. ‘Maybe I’ve got it all wrong, I’m just so stressed out.’

Alex didn’t answer. He’d taken out his mobile and was searching for something.

‘Is this the man who tried to get you into his car?’