Page 71 of The Sleepwalker (Joona Linna #10)

The fierce snowstorm from Russia is currently surging across the Baltic, and is expected to hit Sweden’s east coast later that afternoon. The public has been urged to secure any loose objects, fill jerry cans with water, prepare for long power cuts and barricade themselves in their homes.

As he drives, Joona thinks about the case.

Veronica Nagler’s files were all marked private and confidential, but the team has already submitted a request for her medical records from her former doctor at Sankt Goran’s Hospital.

After going through the footage from Nina Silverstedt’s camera, they discovered that she had inadvertently captured the Widow outside the house, but unfortunately she is too far away and the resolution too poor for it to be of any use.

His thoughts turn to the latest hypnosis session and the fact that it was the closest they have ever come to the killer, that Hugo was just seconds away from seeing her face when Dr Grind intervened.

He understands the doctor’s concern and takes full responsibility for Erik having pressed Hugo so hard, to the brink of almost unbearable anguish.

The helicopter search for the Opel in Uppland and V?stmanland has been called off due to the worsening weather.

The fact that they have only one sighting of the car suggests careful planning.

The killer likely missed their exit as a result of unforeseen circumstances – a minor accident or temporary road closure – meaning she had no choice but to pass the camera.

Joona hasn’t yet had time to listen to his recording from the hypnosis session, and can’t shake the niggling sense that he is missing something important.

He feels as though he was just about to touch upon a key piece of the puzzle when his train of thought was interrupted and redirected – just like when the session itself was stopped at the most decisive moment.

The traffic up ahead begins to slow as he approaches Rosersberg Palace, as though hindered by some invisible force.

A string of red brake lights twinkle in front of him.

On the train tracks to the side of the road, the Arlanda Express is approaching at high speed, and the turbulence makes his car shake.

Joona has just started recapping the hypnosis session in his mind, thinking about Hugo’s description of the sturdy canvas bag, the crowbar and the bloody tooth in a plastic pouch, when he remembers exactly what it was that jumped out at him.

Attached to the zip, Hugo had seen a keyring featuring a train and a large G.

A G and a train.

One of the small hamlets close to the road camera that captured the Opel was the former station community of Grillby.

Joona takes the first exit, pulls over to the side of the road by a Burger King and runs a quick search online. He finds the logo for Lokomotiv Grillby, the local floorball team, almost immediately.

A train inside a large letter G.

He contacts the national command centre over the comms unit.

Due to a fallen tree, there are long tailbacks just before Rotebro, so he turns around and heads north again, towards M?rsta.

Enkoping Police send four officers in unmarked cars to scope out the area, and one of them reports back to say that they have spotted an Opel matching the APB parked outside the large silo before Joona reaches Grillby.

He asks the local officers to hold back and put up roadblocks around the whole of the community, then requests backup from a specialist operative unit.