‘Great,’ Alex said, then he fell silent. Was this a sidetrack worth pursuing, or not? He still hadn’t got his thoughts in order after the conversation with Karin; he didn’t really know what to think. They needed to speak to Sten Aber, the man in the photograph. And Mikael Lundell. And Malcolm Benke’s son, who lived in Vienna. Did they really need to drag a British detective into the circus as well?

‘It can’t do any harm to pick up more information, can it?’ Ivan said when the silence went on.

‘Okay.’

Ivan exhaled audibly.

‘Good – she’s coming in tomorrow at four.’

‘Okay,’ Alex said again.

He spent the rest of the evening watching a useless crime thriller, unable to get Malcolm Benke’s death out of his mind. Nor could he forget the change that he’d noticed in Fredrika. It had happened gradually during the late winter and spring. She had many excellent qualities, but she was still much too private, kept too many aspects of herself hidden from others. He could count on the fingers of one hand the few occasions when she’d dropped her guard and let him in.

The last time had been when they were out drinking wine. A lot of wine. A unique experience within their relationship; Alex had never seen Fredrika drunk before. It was the evening back in February when they’d found out that Margareta Berlin was to be their new boss.

‘This is such fucking bad news I can’t get my head around it,’ Alex had said. ‘Let’s go out and drink Berlin into oblivion.’

And they had.

Several years too late, Alex thought now. The two of us could have done with that evening when Fredrika was new to the job.

What worried him most was her reaction to Berlin’s appointment. At first she’d been just as angry and upset as Alex, but then – more or less straight away – it was as if all the frustration simply left her. As if she’d capitulated.

Surely she hadn’t given up, for God’s sake?

He could see that something was bothering her, making her unhappy.

His heart rate increased.

Just as long as he wasn’t left alone in Berlin’s empire. Then he would be lost.

Chapter 11

Evening came, night came. Fredrika crawled into bed and reached for Spencer. He rolled over onto his back so that she could rest her head on his arm. Her hand found its way to his chest and stopped over his heart. The body’s most amazing muscle.

She breathed deeply, in, out.

‘Tough day?’ Spencer said.