‘I’ve no idea what he’s doing, but I’ll look into it and get back to you.’

They ended the call with a mutual promise to speak soon, and Alex recounted the conversation to Fredrika.

‘I don’t think Beata’s husband is involved,’ she said. ‘Nor her brother – not after what we saw today.’

‘I agree, but we need to turn over every stone, see what crawls out.’

See what crawls out. Something that might possibly explain why a murderer took the life of an elderly man and a young woman who didn’t appear to know each other. And how a ring made its way from London to Stockholm.

‘When do you want to go back to Benke’s house?’

Fredrika pushed away her carton of curry. ‘How about now?’

Alex wiped his mouth and put down his napkin.

‘Give me ten minutes to sort something out,’ he said.

*

Fredrika didn’t ask any questions. Alex went to his office, sat down at the computer and quickly found Noah’s original report. He narrowed his eyes as he searched the internal database for further information. A detective by the name of Stig Mattsson had logged several conversations with Noah. His notes were characterised by frustration and sheer condescension. His final verdict was that Noah must be both mentally ill and a fantasist. ‘Refuses to see counsellor in spite of this’ he’d written.

Alex sighed. He was beginning to understand why Noah didn’t have a very high opinion of the police. He carried on searching and found a decision not to conduct a preliminary inquiry. The investigation indicated that there was no reason to suspect that a crime had been committed, therefore there was no point in proceeding.

So why am I sitting here thinking they got it wrong?

Because that was how Alex felt when he read his colleagues’ conclusions. They had been satisfied by limited contact with Dan Johansson via email and phone, taken this as proof that he hadn’t been abducted against his will.

Alex glanced at his watch; his ten minutes were almost up. He gave Stig Mattsson a quick ring.

‘What the fuck – has he started hassling you now?’ Mattsson said when Alex explained why he’d called.

‘Not at all – I’m just wondering who else was involved, apart from you.’

After reading Mattsson’s notes he was hoping to hear that other officers had taken part in the investigation leading to the decision not to take things any further.

‘There were several of us, obviously,’ Mattsson assured him. ‘Plus I consulted an inspector from your department.’ ‘My department?’

‘He spent some time with us towards the end of the year, but he’s back at HQ now. He’s very knowledgeable and experienced, which was why I turned to him. He was very clear about the fact that it wasn’t worth proceeding.’

‘And who was this?’

‘Torbjorn Ross.’

Chapter 4