‘Bernhard – he was a year or so younger than Beata. A real hothead, if I can put it that way. He was obviously furious with his parents.’

‘Why?’

‘He accused both of them, but mainly his father, of doing far too little for Beata. He feared for his sister’s life, and of course he was proved right in the end.’

‘What on earth did he expect his parents to do?’

Mikael didn’t answer straight away, and Fredrika could feel his uncertainty.

‘I think he wanted them to do anything, literally anything, for her.’

‘I understand,’ Fredrika said quietly.

‘Of course it’s possible that I was mistaken, but I don’t think so. Bernhard was seething over his parents’ weakness.’

‘So why didn’t he do something?’

‘Quite. Maybe he thought they had less to lose by crossing the line, so to speak, and engaging in criminal activities in order to get Beata out of there.’

‘And all this was played out in front of you?’

‘It was. When their discussion spilled over into a stand-up row, I realised why Malcolm had contacted me. He wanted me to mediate between him and his son, but it was incredibly difficult. I had very little advice to offer, but I did tell them not to do anything stupid that they might regret.’

Fredrika continued to make notes; the conversation with Bernhard Benke was going to have a very different focus now.

Were you planning to murder your brother-in-law, Bernhard?

And did you murder your father because he failed to save your sister?

‘How did your meeting end?’ she asked.

‘They left without my having managed to broker any kind of peace between them,’ Mikael replied, sounding downcast. ‘I didn’t hear from them again until Malcolm turned up with his friends.’

Fredrika stiffened. ‘What friends?’ She opened her folder and took out a copy of the photo they’d found in Malcolm’s house. The one that had been taken in Beata’s living room at a time no one was prepared to remember.

‘Two childhood friends – Eskil and Sten.’

Bingo.

She allowed Mikael to continue.

‘They arrived in London ready for a fight, intending to confront Beata’s husband mob-handed and, as they put it, scare the shit out of him. They were also going to offer him a large sum of money to disappear from Beata’s life. They wanted me there as a witness to prevent him from claiming they’d beaten him up or something.’

‘The mention of scaring the shit out of him sounds as if they weren’t afraid to cross a line,’ Fredrika said. She stared at the photograph. Mikael was clearly uncomfortable, refusing to look at the camera.