She hadn’t meant anyone any harm, hadn’t realised that by saving herself she was sacrificing someone else. She hadn’t had the opportunity to grasp the violent consequences of her decision. She had known that her strategy was selfish, but fatal? No, that had been beyond her comprehension.

I just wanted to get home.

Her entire body was shaking as she crept into the hallway once more. She had no idea how long she’d been standing in the kitchen. All she knew was that she was shivering in her sweaty clothes; she ought to go and have a shower. But not until she’d peeped through the spy hole, made sure there was no one out there waiting for her.

She leaned forward cautiously, wanting and not wanting to know. At first she couldn’t see a thing. The light had gone out automatically, and no one had switched it back on. There was no natural daylight in the windowless stairwell, but gradually her eye grew accustomed to the darkness. And then she saw him. The shadow among the shadows. He was standing motionless outside the lift, staring straight at her door.

Straight at her.

Lovisa ran into the bathroom and locked the door. She sank down on the cold tiles, drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs.

How could she have been so stupid?

How could she have believed it was all over?

She felt incredibly naïve.

And terrified beyond all reason.

Chapter 6

They gathered in the Lions’ Den just after four to review what they knew so far. Everything was the same, nothing was the same. Alex Recht’s special-investigation team seemed to be the only one that had survived the restructuring. He was grateful, but the problems that the team had experienced from the beginning still remained. It was still difficult to bring in additional resources and support when necessary, and it was still difficult to explain exactly where the team fitted into the new organisation, although of course there was an official answer to that question. They were in Margareta Berlin’s department within the Stockholm police, and were based in police HQ at Kungsholmen. Fortunately they were able to work with a wide range of other departments; Alex would have gone crazy if he’d been working directly under Berlin.

Although on this occasion she had delivered, to be fair. They had been given additional personnel to help with the investigation into Malcolm Benke’s murder; in fact so many new colleagues had appeared that there weren’t enough chairs in the conference room. Alex noticed that Fredrika Bergman already seemed to have forgotten that this was supposed to be her day off. He must remember to thank her. He was really bad at expressing his gratitude and appreciation, as Diana often pointed out.

‘Okay,’ he said, raising his voice to silence the room. ‘Let’s make a start.’