‘Gabi is many things,’ Klara says. ‘But paranoid is not one of them.’

‘You’re only paranoid if it never happens,’ Maria says.

‘Did she tell you anything else?’ Klara says. ‘Anything about why she was being followed, or why someone would follow her?’

‘No, she just gave me the envelope. I’m not one to snoop.’

Klara takes a drink and turns the envelope, hoping that the contents will in some way explain what happened to Gabriella this afternoon.

‘I told her she should go to the police if she was worried,’ Maria says, ‘but she didn’t want to.’

Klara nods, and without putting it off any more she slides her finger in under the flap and rips open the envelope. She puts in two fingers and grabs onto a folded piece of paper and pulls it out.

Maria rises from the sofa with the wine glass in her hand and walks over to the window. She stands with her back to Klara, looking out over the darkness and the rain and the lights from Kungsholmen on the other side of the water.

Eagerly, Klara unfolds the paper.

There’s a short handwritten message.

Klara,

I guess if you’re reading this something has happened to me. You know I hate melodrama, but I guess you’ll never see this if I’m wrong. And after everything we’ve seen and gone through, it feels like we can only really trust each other.

Anyway: I’m pretty sure someone is following me. Several different men, who don’t seem like cops – maybe Eastern Europeans. I’ve seen them outside my door and outside work. I don’t know what they want, but I noticed them after I received a few phone calls on 15 November from a Swedish guy calling himself Karl. He’s quite young and seems totally in over his head. He claims he’s come into possession of some important information, and he believes he’s being followed. It’s possible that he has some Snowden complex, but the more we talk, the more I trust him. And he’s very scared.

I set up a meeting with him in Brussels on 24 November at 4 p.m. at the glass elevator outside the Palais de Justice, but he’s incredibly nervous so I’m not quite sure how it will turn out.

As of now, this is all I know. But if something happens to me, it’s good to start there, maybe you could meet Karl if I don’t manage it?

But I hope you never have to read this.

Love, Gabi

PS. I’m leaving you one of my credit cards. Not sure how much cash you have, and I don’t want you to have to abandon your best friend for financial reasons.

14 November

Beirut

The gun is heavy – Jacob can barely hold it, his hands are trembling, and it’s a surprise he’s even holding it at all.