ELLEN

10.15 A.M.

Ellen tried to tell herself that she must have misunderstood the situation earlier at the hotel room and did everything to ignore the oppressive atmosphere in the car.

Carola babbled on about some new software that had been installed in all the police cars and had created a lot of problems. When she laughed, it was a little too loudly, and her gestures didn’t really match what she was saying, which made Ellen nervous.

They parked outside the TV4 building, and Ellen told her she needed to register the car to avoid getting a ticket. Together, they went over to the entrance. Before they separated, she asked Carola to find out which unmarked car had been active in Stentuna right before or at the time of the murder. Carola sighed and said she would see if it was possible to produce that. It ought to be on the surveillance cameras if nothing else, Ellen thought, and took the opportunity to also ask whether the Nyköping police had watched the surveillance footage from the McDonald’s from that same evening.

Carola stopped, turned to her, and gave her an unexpected look. ‘Of course they have, and no, they haven’t found anything of interest.’

‘Okay, sorry,’ said Ellen quietly. ‘I’m just trying to turn over every stone.’ They continued walking, and she wondered whether she should ask about Hanna, but decided to bring that up at lunch.

Ellen pulled out her pass card and walked slowly up the stairs to the fourth floor. The first thing she did when she walked into Editorial was look over at Jimmy’s office, which was empty with the lights off.

‘Where’s Jimmy?’ she asked Agatha.

‘Hi there. He’s sick. For the first time since he started working here. Didn’t think that worker ant could be sick. He’s not answering emails or the phone. I’ve been trying to reach him all morning.’ She shook her head, amused, and continued tapping on the keyboard.

Ellen sank down on her chair. Stared at the screen and didn’t know where to start.

After a while, she opened a new document and wrote down everything she knew about Liv Lind and all the loose threads. She dialled the number for Börje, who, for once, answered after just a ring or two. ‘Just one quick question,’ said Ellen. ‘How was it that you were the first person at the crime scene?’

Börje cleared his throat. ‘I was in the vicinity.’

‘Really? That was pretty early in the morning.’

‘Well, I don’t live far from there and couldn’t sleep anyway, so I decided to go to the office to get a stack of paperwork done. On the way in, I received the alert. There was no more to it than that.’

Ellen had to accept that answer; he was too shrewd to give her a more detailed explanation. ‘How did you find her?’

‘That’s not something I want to comment on.’

Of course. ‘Were you at McDonald’s the night before?’

‘What? No. What is this?’

‘Have you seen anything at the McDonald’s in Nyköping that could be related to the murder of Liv Lind?’

‘No, we’ve reviewed everything and there is nothing that indicates that. Why are you asking? Do you know something?’

‘That’s not something I want to comment on,’ said Ellen with a grin.

Börje sighed.

‘Just one last question, what police car was driving around Stentuna the night Liv was murdered? Did you have a hard time sleeping during the night as well?’

‘I don’t need to answer that type of question. If you know something that can facilitate the investigation, then I hope you’ll give us that information. I don’t know where you’re going with this.’

‘No, after all, Liv did get what she deserved, or how did it go again? Do you also think that the baby girl she was expecting got what she deserved?’

‘Listen, watch yourself! How do you know it was a girl, anyway?’

She didn’t reply, and they hung up. Ellen continued typing in question marks, which continued to grow in number.

Next to it, she opened another document. There, she wrote down everything that was bubbling up in her head. Her brain was spitting out the wildest theories, and she just wrote. Didn’t care that there was no logic in it at all. Liv and Elsa by turns.

She plugged her earbuds into her phone, clicked on the link that Internet had sent her, took a deep breath, and pressed play. Stared at herself and Didrik in the water. It all seemed so unreal, almost as if it hadn’t happened. Surreal to look at it from a distance like this. She watched the clip several times, but didn’t understand why she was tormenting herself. She felt dizzy. It was brutal. It hurt. She stared down at her arms, and her vision blurred.

She kept writing. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, and she barely had time to think before there were words and sentences on the screen.

Suddenly, the phone started vibrating, and Reception showed on the screen. She answered almost as if she’d just woken up, and they informed her that her lunch guest was there. Ellen looked at the clock. Time had simply run away.