It is strangely quiet. It’s almost impossible to imagine that what just happened on the football field really happened. Klara turns to the police officer who’s leading her forward.

‘Why am I being arrested?’ she asks. ‘What am I wanted for?’

The police officer doesn’t react, as if he doesn’t hear; he just pushes her forward towards the parked transport.

‘You can’t let that Russian go,’ she continues. ‘You know that, right?’

Fifty metres to her left she sees the passenger door of one of two black Volvo SUVs sliding open. Somebody jumps down onto the asphalt and heads in her direction. It’s not until he’s just a few metres away that she sees who it is.

Anton Bronzelius turns to the black-clad police officer with a firm grip on Klara’s arm. ‘I’ll take it from here. Säpo.’ He holds up his badge to the faceless man.

The officer nods and releases her arm.

Over by the vans, Klara sees doors open and two people in civilian clothes and flak jackets and stocking caps start to move towards them. Bronzelius grabs hold of her arm firmly and leads her quickly to the parked Volvo. ‘Get in,’ he says.

He pushes Klara into the back seat and gets in on the other side. She hears shouting from outside just as Bronzelius pulls the door closed again, maybe one of the two people in civilian clothes. Without having to say a word, the car starts driving across the parking lot. Klara turns around and looks out the back window, her heart pounding.

‘What the hell is going on?’ she asks. ‘Are you kidnapping me?’

‘I guess you could call it that,’ Bronzelius says.

Klara turns to him and looks at his grey face, at his blue, straightforward eyes. There’s something in his eyes, something in that naive calm that makes something suddenly quite clear to her.

‘You have no idea what this is about,’ she says. ‘Not when you arrested Gabi. Not now.’

He looks at her without changing his expression. ‘For someone whose life I just saved you sure aren’t very thankful,’ he says.

Now she looks at him, quite composed again. ‘You’re just a cop. A good cop. But you don’t understand what this is about. Do you?’

She knows she should be grateful. Without Bronzelius she’d be dead now. But she can’t resist the feeling that if it weren’t for him she and Gabi wouldn’t have landed in this mess either.