‘That’s the book. Henry was supposed to receive it before he died, but he didn’t pick it up in time.’

In time for his own death, in time for his murderer to get into his apartment.

‘Should we put out a warning?’ Berlin wondered.

‘Are you crazy?’ It wasn’t exactly polite, but Alex didn’t care. ‘We have nothing to suggest that these books are being given out with a particular degree of forward planning, plus there would be total chaos if we issued such a warning.’

‘On the other hand, there could be chaos if we don’t,’ Berlin countered. ‘We’ll be in a very difficult position if there are more deaths.’

‘There won’t be,’ the head of surveillance stated firmly. ‘That’s why we’re keeping a close eye on Ross.’

‘Yes, that’s gone really well so far,’ Fredrika said quietly.

Her colleague gave her a dirty look, full of excuses no one wanted to hear.

‘Henry Lindgren,’ she went on. The note on his fridge. I can’t stop thinking about the sentence “Do you understand now, Alex?” It sounds like a plea. The perpetrator wants us to see something that’s clearly passing us by.’

Alex spread his hands wide.

‘I’m so sick of these guessing games!’

He’d also wondered about that sentence; it had haunted him during the night. Do you understand now, Alex?

No, he had to confess. He didn’t understand. And he couldn’t help feeling that the day he did understand he would be deeply, deeply unhappy.

Chapter 4

It was decided that Fredrika would accompany Ivan to the bookshop in the Söder district. She didn’t say a word during the entire journey. She drove, while Ivan sat in silence in the passenger seat, staring out of the window. He was clearly uncomfortable, but Fredrika did nothing to alleviate the situation. She’d spent the night on the sofa; she was worn out, but totally focused on the tasks ahead.

First of all she wanted to be absolutely sure that it was Ross rather than someone else who’d bought Morgan Sander’s books. Then she wanted to get to the bottom of the story of Ross’s dead daughter.

She’d put all other thoughts aside for the time being. She couldn’t keep brooding over what Spencer had done, couldn’t think about the letter found in Noah’s office. And she definitely couldn’t face worrying about what would happen when they took fingerprints from all the wills and compared them with those on the letter. Why did Ivan have to be so keen?

A young girl had once accused Spencer of forcing her to have sex with him in exchange for good grades. He had been arrested, held in custody, and eventually released, completely exonerated. Fredrika wondered how it would end this time, and how she would cope if he went to prison.

She parked outside the bookshop.