They sat in silence for a moment. Alex thought back to the last time Spencer had been dragged into a police inquiry; a young female student had accused him of sexual harassment. He had been arrested on that occasion; they must have taken his fingerprints, fingerprints that had been wiped from the system because he’d been completely exonerated. If Ivan hadn’t gone through the wills, they wouldn’t have been able to identify Spencer. Alex almost wished that had been the case.

‘Don’t we have to do something about his admission in the letter?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘He says he ran over a woman then drove away from the scene.’

Alex lowered his chin. ‘We have no idea how long ago that was.’

‘Yes we do – it says their daughter had just been born.’

Ivan wasn’t stupid, and that wasn’t always a good thing.

‘Let me give it some thought,’ Alex said. ‘I mean, he doesn’t name the woman. Any kind of legal action would be problematic if the letter is all we have.’

‘They might still have the same car – in which case we could bring it in, let forensics take a look at it.’

Alex stared in silence at his colleague. Ivan’s shoulders slumped.

‘Although obviously this all happened years ago,’ he said.

‘Indeed.’

‘I saw his name in Johansson’s client database the first time I went through it.’

‘And you saw mine.’

Ivan flushed. Alex took a deep breath, unsure whether to share what was on his mind.

‘We need to tread carefully with this. Not leap to conclusions based on what we think we know. Okay?’

‘Okay.’

‘Not only because Fredrika’s involved,’ Alex went on. ‘Absolutely not because Fredrika’s involved, in fact, but because we must never, ever jump to conclusions based on too little material. The consequences for the individual can be devastating.’

With those words Alex closed down the discussion about the letter. If he had his way, it would never be spoken about again.

‘Where are the rest of the wills?’ he asked.

‘With forensics. People have already started calling, wanting them back.’

‘Return them right away. We don’t need them any longer.’

Ivan picked up the phone immediately and passed on Alex’s instructions. Alex listened in silence. Noah Johansson must have been killed because he kept on pushing to find out what had happened to his brother. Anything else was unimaginable. That could also explain the chaos in his office. Nothing was missing, nothing had been stolen. Someone had messed the place up to make it look like a robbery gone wrong. Or as if the killer had been searching for something. But what was there to search for at a funeral parlour? Surely there was nothing of value, nothing worth stealing?

No, Alex thought. What the killer wanted was Noah’s silence. And then he went after Tina Antonsson, but she got away, thank God.