Karen has kept quiet. Now she studies their host, watches him cast about for any explanation other than the one that has just occurred to him.

‘You’re thinking the Groths had something to do with the vandalism, aren’t you?’ she says. ‘And that Fredrik Stuub was onto them.’

‘No,’ Tryste says, looking like he’s still searching his memory. ‘Fredrik Stuub never set foot inside the distillery, as far as I’m aware. He couldn’t have known.’

‘All right, it’s time for you to just tell us plainly,’ Karl Björken says. ‘What have you seen up at the distillery that could connect the Groths with the drill holes?’

William Tryste seems to be arguing with himself while they silently wait for him to continue. At length, he takes a deep breath.

‘Self-stressing cement’, he says softly and exhales.

Helena Tryste gasps, like a delayed imitation of her husband.

‘Self-stressing cement?’ Karen says, looking queryingly from Karl to Tryste and back again.

‘The kind you fill drill holes with if you want to crack rock without dynamite,’ Karl explains. ‘Very practical if you’re looking to destroy an entire ship setting, no?’

William Tryste nods.

‘I suppose so. But that’s unthinkable.’

‘And this self-stressing cement is stored up at the distillery?’ Karen asks.

‘Yes, I found a few bags of it in a storage cupboard behind my office. I didn’t give it any thought at the time, though I couldn’t see what use we would have for it.’

‘You didn’t ask anyone?’

‘I believe I mentioned it to Björn. But he said he had no idea how the bags had ended up there. Said he hadn’t bought them, at any rate.’

‘And Fredrik Stuub never visited the distillery? Are you absolutely sure?’

Tryste meets Karl’s level gaze and nods.

‘As sure as I can be. And even if he had visited, he would hardly have been rummaging through a storage cupboard. I honestly don’t know why it came to mind. I suppose it was because you were talking about threats and those drill holes and my brain put the two together. But no, Fredrik couldn’t have known about those bags.’

But Gabriel Stuub might have, Karen thinks to herself. And he might have told his grandfather.

Chapter 49

49

‘What do you know,’ Karl says as he buckles himself into the passenger seat. ‘The question is whether this was Björn’s clever plan or if someone else in the family was behind it.’

‘I’m not sure it was so very clever,’ Karen says. ‘Think about it, what did they hope to gain? The road had already been greenlighted.’

‘Well, I assume not having to move the road because there’s nothing left but a pile of gravel would save them a few million.’

‘A few well-placed holes, a bit of self-stressing cement and boom! – all their problems are solved, you mean? I find that hard to believe.’