The Double Silence (Andas Knutas 7)

had all started when they went on holiday. Now two of them were not only dead, they had been murdered. And apparently the deaths had occurred only a couple of days apart. In Knutas’s opinion, there were two possible avenues to take. Either they started by digging into the past of these people, going way back in time; or they followed their footsteps very closely, trying to find out every nano-event that had taken place during that brief trip to Fårö and Stora Karlsö. Knutas had realized that the easiest thing for him to do was to start by finding out everything he could about the past of these friends.
    He’d been working on the case all weekend. By now he had separate piles of printouts detailing the story of each individual. On top of each stack was a photo of the person. It was a very tidy collection. He’d concludedthat no one could be described as average in this circle of friends, in terms of either appearance or background. He’d started by looking at their family relationships, their jobs and education, as well as memberships of any associations. He already knew that none of them had any debts or financial problems, and none of them had ever been convicted of a crime.
    Yet he had managed to uncover a few secrets. His eyes fell on the oldest member of the group: Håkan Ek. He seemed to be the one to worry about: he had the messiest past. This conclusion was reinforced by the fact that he’d been married three times and had children with three different women. He’d moved a lot during his life and had never lived very long in any one place. The exception was when he settled in Terra Nova with Stina. Then it seemed as if he’d finally found his home. He’d lived there fifteen years and had held the same job even longer; his colleagues had nothing but praise for him. Maybe he and Stina were two lost souls who had finally found each other.
    His gaze moved to Stina. He felt a pang in his heart when he looked at the picture of the young woman smiling so warmly at the camera. She was truly charming, thought Knutas. She reminded him of Karin because of her petite size. And she had that soft, feminine side that Karin was so good at concealing. Knutas had the feeling that Stina had been something of a loner who went her own way, choosing to remain more or less on the sidelines. In that sense she was also like Karin.
    And then there was Sam Dahlberg. The director had made his breakthrough five years ago with a film that attracted a great deal of attention. But after that, nothing. Only now had he started shooting another feature film. Dahlberg had studied at drama school and then done an internship with Swedish TV. After that he’d spent several years working as an assistant for one of the great directors, Bo Widerberg. Sam didn’t seem to have had any major difficulties in life. He came from a culturally involved family in Visby. His mother was a librarian, and his father ran the Roxy Cinema in town. Maybe that was where Sam had got his interest in film. When he was a little boy, he started going to work with his father, helping out at the cinema. He had grown up with movies. Both of Sam’s parents were still alive, and he had two sisters. He seemed to have had strong tiesto his family. What a tragedy for them to see their son fall victim to a murderer, thought Knutas.
    Then he moved on to Beata and John.
    John had left the United States with Beata, who was a native Gotlander from a stable middle-class family in Klintehamn. After a brief modelling career in New York and Los Angeles, she had met John Dunmar, a bartender from San Diego, who fell head over heels in love with the beautiful Swede. Beata soon became pregnant, and they decided to settle down in Sweden. John received both a residence and a work permit relatively quickly, and he learned Swedish so well that after only a year he was able to open his own bar in Visby. His business was thriving, and he was well liked by his colleagues and customers. Beata continued to work in the fashion world, as the buyer for a large clothing company. They’d had three children in quick succession and were the happy, proud owners of one of the biggest houses in Terra Nova. Knutas had found nothing noteworthy about them whatsoever.
    Finally he came to Andrea. Without a doubt, she was the most complex and interesting of the lot. She was also the one who seemed to have the most secrets. Knutas studied the picture of the dark-haired woman with the sharply etched