‘Fine,’ she says curtly. ‘Would you mind cutting to the chase; what did Gabriel tell you that might be of use to me?’

‘He told me who killed his grandpa.’

Karen stares at her cousin. Is this a trick to send her off on a wild goose chase or does Odd actually have a key piece of information?

‘I assume you have a name?’ she says with feigned disinterest.

Odd pulls out another cigarette with his lips and spins the metal wheel on his lighter. He studiously lights his cigarette, inhales deeply and holds the smoke in his lungs. Then he leans back and exhales.

‘Björn Groth.’

‘Björn Groth,’ Karen says, successfully hiding a tiny thrill of excitement. ‘So he supposedly killed Fredrik Stuub. And how did Gabriel know that?’

She shakes her head at Odd’s offer of another cigarette. The smoke is making her nauseous enough as it is, but she doesn’t want to risk asking him to throw his out. Instead, she rolls down the window on her side an inch or so. A few snowflakes find their way in through the gap and land on her cheek.

‘Apparently, the old man had information that could harm Groth’s. According to Gabriel, they have big expansion plans and Björn would have lost all the money he’d already invested if Fredrik Stuub had started blabbing.’

Baudoinia, Karen thinks to herself. Out loud, she says:

‘So he might have had a motive, but that’s hardly enough.’

‘Yeah, thanks, I’m not an idiot, Karen. The thing is that Gabriel actually saw Björn right when the murder took place, or so he claimed. Apparently, he was on his way to drop off his kids with his ex when he spotted Björn’s car.’

‘Where?’

‘The turning area where the road ends near Karby Quarry. Where people dump their rubbish when they don’t want to pay to get rid of it. Gabriel apparently swung by to get rid of some stuff on his way to the ferry. Said he was taking his kids to his ex-wife’s place in Thorsvik.’

‘And he saw Björn Groth there?’

‘Or at least his car. It was parked, but Björn himself was apparently not in it. Gabriel didn’t give it a lot of thought at the time, though he thought it was strange that Björn had parked his car there and gone into the woods.’

‘But he never actually saw Björn?’

‘No, he drove away after dumping his rubbish. He had the kids in the car and besides, at that point he had no idea his grandpa was going to be found dead in the quarry just a few hours later.’

‘And how sure was he it was Björn Groth’s car?’

Odd gives her an incredulous look.

‘He was his bloody boss. I assume he saw it every day.’

‘And why didn’t he tell the police about this?’