‘He’s a detective, for fuck’s sake!’ Fredrika snapped, feeling her cheeks flush. ‘He knows how we work, he knows we’ll be carrying out a search. And if he couldn’t come up with anywhere better to stash the books and the revolver than in the wardrobe and the garage, then he must realise we’re going to find them.’

Berlin stared at her as if she’d lost her mind.

‘Are you saying someone planted the books and the murder weapon?’

Fredrika didn’t bother pointing out that they didn’t actually know whether the gun was the murder weapon, even though it seemed likely.

‘Yes. Yes, I think we have to consider that possibility.’

Berlin was having none of it.

‘Go back to the department. I’ll finish the interview on my own.’

‘Fine by me.’

Fredrika turned and walked away. Away from Berlin, away from Ross.

Back to the department, where she was sure Alex was following a lead he had no intention of sharing.

Chapter 13

‘They’ve got him,’ Ivan said.

Alex looked up. ‘Who?’

‘Ross. They’ve found two copies of Morgan Sander’s book in his wardrobe, plus what looks like the murder weapon.’

Alex dropped the papers he was holding, stared at them as if they’d just burst into flames.

‘Thank God.’

The fingerprints had shown that Spencer Lagergren was the most likely person to have written the letter Alex had found in Noah’s office. Spencer, who Peder claimed had attacked Noah on a previous occasion. Noah, who had been threatened and had turned to a security firm. Noah, who was economical with the truth. All this was according to what Peder had said to Alex, but when he’d gone to see Berlin that same afternoon, Peder hadn’t mentioned Spencer, or the fact that Noah had needed help with security issues. Peder had lied to Alex.

And now both the Johansson brothers were dead.

Alex wanted to believe they’d been murdered by the same person.

And that that person was Torbjörn Ross.

‘So what do we do with this?’ Ivan gestured towards Spencer’s letter.

‘We know Spencer Lagergren wasn’t involved with Dan Johansson and his family, and we haven’t found the slightest connection between him and any of the other victims,’ Alex said.

He didn’t want to think about the rest of it, the indication in the letter that Spencer was going to die in the near future.

‘He does say he’s putting everything right,’ Ivan pointed out. ‘Quoting an author he doesn’t name.’

‘True, but Spencer is a professor of literature. He told Fredrika he’d supervised a student during the spring who had looked at Morgan Sander’s work, among other things.

‘We need to double-check that,’ Ivan said.

‘Fine, but try to be discreet. Then we’ll drop it.’