‘Are they bothering you?’ Fredrika asked. ‘The messages, are they stressing you out?’

No one else could ask such a question and expect an honest answer.

‘I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care.’

He avoided looking at her, didn’t want to prolong the discussion. She took the hint.

‘We’re meeting Bernhard Benke in two hours,’ she said. ‘Yesterday I was prepared to regard him as a suspect, but now I’m not so sure – not while there’s no clear link between Wahlberg and Benke.’

‘Same here.’

They had proof that Bernhard had been in Vienna when his father was murdered, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t involved. However, Alex didn’t believe that was the case, not after they’d found Lovisa, debased and defiled. He couldn’t stop thinking about how her body had been treated.

Where would someone get such an idea from?

They ate in silence. He still hadn’t told Fredrika about his conversation with Noah Johansson, nor Peder’s call. He felt bad going behind her back, but that wasn’t really what he was doing. Not intentionally. It wasn’t his fault that Peder had contacted him, said things he maybe shouldn’t have said. Besides, Alex didn’t know what to do with the information, if anything. What had Peder actually told him? Only that he’d seen Spencer in an agitated state with Noah. Not much to build on. Alex reminded himself to get in touch with whoever had dealt with Noah’s original missing-persons report, but he knew he wasn’t going to make it a priority. It wasn’t important, it wasn’t his responsibility.

Why did Peder have to mention Spencer?

What the hell was Spencer doing with a funeral director?.

‘The ring on Malcolm’s finger,’ Fredrika said. ‘His daughter’s wedding ring. I keep coming back to it. The question is, if it weren’t for the ring, would we have started to look into Beata’s murder?’

It was a good point. A mouthful of curry went down the wrong way and Alex started coughing. Fredrika thumped his back. The last time she’d done that was when they were out drinking, although then it had been more of a pat than a thump. She’d said she thought the world of him.

‘No,’ Alex said eventually. ‘I think we’d have missed the link to her death.’

‘When you say link, what do you mean?’

Alex looked up in surprise.

‘I mean that father and daughter were murdered in the same way, of course, but probably not by the same perpetrator. Beata was killed by her ex, her father by someone else.’

‘Exactly.’

‘Exactly?’

Fredrika poked at her food.