The Double Silence (Andas Knutas 7)

her face had turned crimson.
    ‘Do we know this person’s name?’ Kihlgård patiently went on.
    ‘Andrea Dahlberg couldn’t remember her name, and she found it embarrassing to ask. Of course we’ve gone through the class lists from Andrea’s school years in order to pinpoint this person. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have any school photos from that time. That would have made it easy.’
    ‘Because I think it’s really strange,’ Kihlgård stubbornly continued. ‘On that afternoon Stina Ek meets an old friend from her school days – or from middle school, to be more specific – and the two of them go to a restaurant together. Then at almost exactly the same time Andrea Dahlberg runs into a childhood friend and they have coffee together at the Bergman Centre. Doesn’t it seem a bit odd?’
    ‘Who provided us with this information?’ asked Prosecutor Smittenberg.
    ‘Both Håkan Ek and Andrea Dahlberg.’
    ‘Håkan and Andrea – the spouses of the two murder victims,’ muttered Kihlgård. ‘Quite a coincidence.’
    ‘Yes, you might say that,’ replied Jacobsson. ‘Let’s stay with Andrea Dahlberg for a moment. She contacted the police over the weekend after she received that phone call from an unknown man who was apparently right outside her door. We need to check up on that. I want us to knock on more doors in the neighbourhood and talk to people who live in Terra Nova, to find out if anyone saw anything suspicious. Evidently Andrea has felt someone watching her for quite a while. Up until Friday night, she had dismissed it as just her imagination. But not any more. We’ve asked her to stay with a relative or a good friend for the time being, but she refused. At least the children are staying elsewhere.’
    ‘Did she recognize the voice?’
    ‘No. The person who called seemed to be disguising his voice.’
    ‘I went out there to talk to her, and she was really upset. But she had no idea who the person could be,’ said Kihlgård. ‘And none of the neighbours had noticed anything unusual.’
    ‘Then there’s Valter Olsson. We need to work out how he fits into the picture,’ Jacobsson went on. ‘We also need to knock on doors in both Hammars and Dämba – in fact, all of Fårö. From Broa up to Sudersand. We’ve received surprisingly few leads so far. We can only hope that the discovery of Stina’s body will jump-start things. We’ve checked out everyone’s alibi, but we’ll have to do it again. And if it’s true that Sam and Stina were having an affair, then there are two people of key interest to the investigation at the moment. Andrea Dahlberg and Håkan Ek.’

THE PHONE CALL that Johan Berg had been longing to receive finally came on the day after Stina Ek was found murdered in Hammars. He never would have thought that he’d be so happy to hear the voice of Max Grenfors, editor-in-chief in Stockholm.
    ‘Hi, how’s it going? Listen, we’re swamped right now because of the murders on Gotland, and we don’t have anybody else to send. Here at TV headquarters it’s swarming with summer replacements, and we can’t do without the few good reporters we have. Not a chance. So could you possibly fill in? Just for a couple of days, until the worst blows over. We’ve already sent over another cameraperson for Maddie, so you can take Pia with you.’
    Johan paused before answering. He was enjoying keeping his boss, who was usually so overbearing, on tenterhooks.
    ‘Hmm. I’m not sure. I’ve got a lot to do, with the kids and all.’
    ‘OK, you can consider the whole job as overtime. Every fucking hour of it. That means double pay.’
    ‘That’ll work. When do I start?’
    ‘Right now. The police have scheduled a press conference in an hour.’
    Fortunately it was no problem for Emma to take care of the kids. Her parents were out of town, as usual, so she had already planned to drive out to their house on Fårö for a few days. Her best friend, Viveka, was going with her so she wouldn’t be there alone. The weather was sunny and warm, which meant they’d have a good time. The house was in a beautifullocation, right on the beach. That eased his guilty conscience. So far he’d managed to make it through a month at home with the children without working. But he wondered again how he was going to make it through the lengthy paternity leave from his job as planned.
    At the same time he couldn’t help revelling in the adrenalin rush. He loved his job, especially when things