ELLEN

1.10 P.M.

Ellen was driving up Odengatan when Carola finally called her back.

‘Hi, thanks so much for arranging the interview with Sara,’ Ellen said in a put-on pleasant tone to conceal her irritation. ‘I need to ask you a few supplementary questions. Is now a good time?’

‘I’m on a late lunch at the moment, can we talk again later this afternoon?’

‘Absolutely,’ said Ellen. ‘Are you having anything good?’

‘Nothing special, a dry salad at Industry.’

‘Wonderful. Call me when you get the time,’ said Ellen and hung up. She made a sharp U-turn and drove up Tegnérgatan, across Barnhusbron, and over to Kungsholmen. Parked in a loading zone on Norr Mälarstrand and went into Industry. ‘May I sit down?’

Carola looked up from the newspaper and was not exactly over-enthused to see Ellen there. She folded up the newspaper before Ellen had time to see what she was reading. ‘Are you in a hurry or something?’

‘Yes, a little. I’m sorry to disturb you in the middle of lunch. By the way, I thought you police officers didn’t have time to eat lunch?’

‘No, but I felt like I had to get out of the office. There’s been far too much work for me recently. I don’t just work with the press now, I’ve had to assist the Nyköping police quite a bit from here.’

‘I was joking. You don’t have to explain yourself. I’m happy that you’re taking some time. It’s important.’ It occurred to Ellen that she hadn’t had any lunch herself. It smelt delightfully of fresh-baked bread, and she was hungry for a sandwich. ‘Great place, I haven’t been here for years.’ She looked around the scaled-back, industrial environment with concrete floors and sheepskins on the wicker chairs. There weren’t many people around, most of the customers were sitting outside, which meant they could talk undisturbed.

Carola was wearing a knit jumper, and it looked horribly warm. When compared with Ellen’s thin summer dress, it looked like they were sitting on opposite sides of the calendar year. The circles under Carola’s eyes were dark, and she had tried to put her hair up in a bun, but most of it had fallen down on the sides.

‘Would you like anything?’ a waiter asked.

‘A fizzy water, no flavour, please. Do you want anything?’

‘I’m fine.’

‘I just have a few questions,’ Ellen said, once again with a fake smile on her lips.

‘Okay, I’ll try to give you answers, but as you know, I don’t have full knowledge of the investigation — it’s actually better if you email me so I can check things.’

‘I understand, but I’m here now. Let’s see what you can answer here and now, and I’ll be grateful if you’re able to check the rest after lunch. According to my sources, it doesn’t seem like the Nyköping police are on board with that warning you wanted us to release yesterday.’

Carola raised her eyebrows. ‘Who have you been talking to?’

‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘There are always different ways of looking at things, and not everyone in the police can stand fully behind every decision, and by the way, not everyone has the competence to do so either.’ She shrugged and took a bite of her salad.

‘You’ve gone ahead and warned the general public, anyway.’ The waiter came and served her. She took several gulps of the ice-cold water before she continued. ‘Speaking of which, how come there aren’t any police reports on assaults, despite what you maintained yesterday?’

Carola stared at Ellen, and it was impossible to miss the irritation in her body language. ‘I’m your contact when it comes to Liv Lind.’ Her neck had turned completely red.

‘But you don’t answer when I call. Tell me, then, is this true or not?’

‘It turned out that both cases were dropped.’

‘But why didn’t Börje say that, then?’

‘Because he doesn’t think it has anything to do with you.’ She grinned then, but quickly turned serious again.

Ellen shook her head. Someone was lying, and she didn’t get why. What was the point?

‘But what other assaults are there that can be linked to the murder of Liv?’

‘I can’t answer that at the present time.’

‘At the present time, at the present time.’ She sighed deeply and decided to keep going. ‘I did meet up with Sara, and she told me, among other things, about a ring that she thought Liv had been wearing. Do you know if a ring was missing?’

Carola shook her head and finished chewing. ‘I don’t have all the details in my head.’

‘It looks like she had a secret relationship with someone. The father of the child presumably. They had clearly been seeing each other for several months, according to the sister — but don’t you already know that? Shouldn’t we release a picture of Liv? In case he might make contact?’

‘No, it’s too soon.’ Carola gave her a sharp look.

‘How so?’

‘Out of respect for the family. They would never go along with it.’

‘Don’t say that. I can try to talk to Sara, I actually think she’d understand the importance of it.’ Ellen took another gulp. ‘Someone must know about their relationship, and he is a suspect to say the least because he hasn’t made contact. What if he’s a danger to others?’

True, Ellen had a hard time believing that. Because the DNA from the sperm got no hits in any of the registries, it had to be someone with no prior convictions. Besides, maybe Liv hadn’t been raped, but had simply had sex before the attack, which didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the murder.

‘What other possible leads do you have?’ she pressed. ‘Have you checked the surveillance cameras from the local buses on the night Liv was murdered? Who was the last person to see her alive? What do you know about Liv’s previous relationships? Maybe there was something that didn’t end well. Someone who was still angry, betrayed, or who knows?’

Carola laughed a little too loudly, and then demonstratively crossed one leg over the other. ‘What, you don’t have any more questions?’

‘Yes, but I wanted to start with those.’

Carola pulled the sheepskin over her legs, even though it must have been thirty degrees Celsius inside.

‘Are you cold?’ Ellen asked, who wished she could tear off her clothes because it was so hot and stuffy in the place.

‘Yes, I may be starting to get sick.’

‘Oh, dear, do you want something? A pain reliever? Ginger?’ Ellen felt impatient and didn’t have time for illnesses now.

‘No, thanks. I did say that I was telling you about the assault lead in confidence, it’s clear that Börje isn’t talking to you about that. It’s important for us to trust each other.’

‘Exactly. And for that reason, I have to know that you’re giving me correct information.’

‘I’ve done that.’

‘But why did you ask us to give that warning to women?’

‘Because I thought it couldn’t hurt.’

Ellen let that hang for the moment. ‘Do you know if Liv’s mobile phone was turned off manually or if it’s been destroyed? I know there’s a way that can be detected somehow.’

‘It said “disconnected” when they searched on Find My iPhone so that’s still unclear.’

‘When was the last time you could see that she’d been active on the phone?’

‘She called her sister at 6.05 p.m. But when her sister sent her a text at ten minutes to ten, she didn’t reply.’

‘Anything new from the masts?’ Ellen already knew that the police had checked the cell towers to see what phones had been in the area during the night, but she also knew that it was an extensive process to go through the records, and you had to know what you were looking for if you wanted to actually get any results.

Carola shook her head.

‘Have you checked Åhléns City last Friday, lunchtime? I assume that a big department store like that has cameras. Apparently, Liv was there, and Sara thought she might have had someone with her.’

‘I’ll pass that question on. But just to clarify our cooperation: I decide what information I think is relevant for the media. It won’t work for you to sit here and ask a thousand questions and expect me to answer them all.’

Ellen nodded. ‘Okay. But you probably ought to check it all out, anyway, and you’ll have to confirm that you’re investigating the questions, otherwise I’ll start suspecting that something isn’t right in the investigation. Have you accessed Liv’s computer?’

‘Yes. I was actually the one who managed to guess her password.’ There was a little pride in her voice. ‘Passwords should be treated like toothbrushes, perhaps you’ve heard that before? Change them often, don’t loan them out, and never use the last four digits of your Social Security number.’

Her mood was so changeable that Ellen was no longer able to keep up. It was almost as if she wasn’t controlling her behaviour herself.

Ellen smiled and nodded. So true. She wondered when she herself had last changed her passwords and couldn’t recall when it would have been. ‘Did you find anything of value?’

‘The computer basically had nothing personal on it.’ Carola looked completely pale.

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’

‘Yes.’

‘Have you talked to her midwife? Surely she must know who the father is?’

‘Yes. Liv had visited her once, but didn’t want to talk about her partner.’

‘Maybe she’s been living in Denmark?’ Ellen suggested. ‘What do we know about her previous relationships, which she seems to have also concealed from her family … Carola, are you sure you’re feeling okay?’

Carola was clutching her chest and sweat was running down her temples. Ellen stood up and went over to her. Leant forward and placed her hand on her back. ‘What is it? Maybe you ate something strange?’ She looked down at Carola’s plate of Greek salad, which she’d barely touched.

‘I’m just having a little trouble breathing,’ she rasped. ‘There’s pain in my chest.’

‘Should I call an ambulance?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Is it your heart?’

Carola started to hyperventilate.

‘Help!’ Ellen shouted. ‘Can someone call an ambulance?’