The Double Silence (Andas Knutas 7)

coastguard? What could that mean? Hmm. OK. What time?’
    She held out her wrist to look at her watch. Johan noticed that today her fingernails were purple. A nice combination with the lilac-coloured gemstone in her nostril.
    ‘All right. I understand. Thanks. Talk to you later.’ Pia turned towards Johan. ‘You’re not going to believe this. That was my friend who works as a guide on Stora Karlsö. She told me that the coastguard has just been over there to pick up two people.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘Guess who they are? None other than Knutas and Andrea Dahlberg.’
    ‘What’s that all about? What were they doing out there?’
    ‘That’s a good question. At any rate, it seems that they’re on their wayto the police station. They left Stora Karlsö half an hour ago, so they can’t have arrived yet.’
    Pia Lilja stomped on the accelerator, making the tyres shriek.
    Outside police headquarters a crowd of reporters had already gathered, hoping for an interview. At the moment that seemed unlikely to happen. Johan tried ringing every officer in the Criminal Division. The police spokesman was not available, and he’d asked the officer on duty to say that for now the journalists would have to be content with the press release. Johan was filled with impatience.
    ‘Come on, Pia. Let’s go over to the other door, the side entrance that leads to the crime-tech offices,’ he said. ‘Maybe they’ll try to slip in that way.’
    Discreetly they started moving away. Pia pretended to be filming the façade of the building so as not to draw attention. When they came around the corner, they caught sight of a police vehicle just turning into the small car park near the entrance. Then Knutas got out.
    And he had Andrea Dahlberg with him.

IT WAS WITH mixed emotions that Knutas arrived at police headquarters late in the afternoon with Andrea Dahlberg and two colleagues.
    He studied Andrea as she quietly sat beside him in the back seat of the police car, her hands cuffed in front of her. She had insisted that he sit next to her. She seemed to find his presence soothing. And she was clearly relieved that the whole thing was over. In silence, she stared out of the window. He wondered what she was thinking. Suddenly she turned to face him, putting her hand on his.
    ‘Thank you,’ she said in a low voice. ‘Thank you for coming.’
    As the police vehicle was about to turn into the car park in front of headquarters, they saw a crowd of journalists gathered outside.
    ‘Damn it,’ swore Knutas. ‘I should have known this would happen. Let’s go around to the side.’
    Before the reporters noticed the car, it turned in the other direction. When it came to a halt everyone quickly got out and hurried towards the entrance. Knutas immediately caught sight of two people standing near the door. Johan Berg and Pia Lilja. Of course. Making no decision how to handle them, he approached the door.
    ‘Can you tell us what’s going on?’ asked Johan, looking down at Andrea’s cuffed hands. Pia was unabashedly filming, without even considering asking for permission. As usual.
    ‘Nothing that I can discuss at the moment. I’m sorry, but I can’t comment.’
    ‘Why is Andrea Dahlberg under arrest if the perpetrator has been caught?’
    Knutas stopped abruptly to stare at Johan.
    ‘What the hell do you mean by that?’
    ‘Prosecutor Birger Smittenberg arrested a man on suspicion of murder just a couple of hours ago.’
    Then something happened that no one could have expected. Before Knutas or any of the other police officers could react, Andrea leaned forward and looked Johan right in the eye.
    ‘I’m the one who killed them. It was me.’
    Then she continued moving forward, keeping her gaze fixed on the façade of the building.

THE PLANE LEFT at two in the afternoon. Karin had a window seat, so she watched as the flat Gotland landscape disappeared far below. About a week had passed since the murder drama of the summer had finally been resolved – and what a commotion there had been. Two potential perpetrators had been arrested almost at the same time, with a disappointing result for Jacobsson. She and Wittberg had been on the wrong track. It turned out that Sten Boberg was a stalker, but he’d had nothing to do with the killings.
    Andrea Dahlberg had confessed, and technical evidence had also been provided by the crime lab. They discovered that the skin underneath Stina Ek’s fingernails had come from Andrea. So the game was