Unknown

SUNDAY, AUGUST 1

The call came just as Knutas was nodding off on a deck chair out in the garden. He had spent the whole morning at the office without making any headway. By lunchtime he gave up and went home. He made himself an omelet and then went to sit outdoors, where he dozed off. He had only managed to sleep for five minutes before the phone rang. Startled awake, he picked up the phone.

"Hi, it's Jonsson out here at the airport."

"Yes?"

"We're out here, Ek and I, to meet Gunnar Ambjornsson. His girlfriend is here too."

"Yes?"

Knutas could hear how impatient he sounded.

"He's not here."

"What?"

"He wasn't on the plane from Stockholm like he was supposed to be."

"Are you sure that you didn't just miss him?"

"All three of us have been standing here the whole time. He couldn't possibly have slipped past us."

"What about the plane from Marrakech? Was he on board?"

"We don't know. We haven't checked yet."

"See that you do. Right away. Call me back as soon as you find out."

Knutas got up and went to the bathroom to splash cold water on his face. Where the hell was Ambjornsson? Had he decided to stay in Marrakech?

When he came out the phone was ringing. Jonsson had been amazingly fast.

"He was on the plane from Marrakech. He checked in and went to the gate and showed his boarding pass, so we can be absolutely certain that he was on board. He must have disappeared somewhere between the international and domestic terminals at Arlanda airport in Stockholm. He never checked in for the Visby flight."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes, I'm sure. I checked with the airport staff."

"How could he just disappear like that?"

"I suppose he changed his plans. Things like that happen."

Knutas leaned back in his chair to think. Had Gunnar Ambjornsson suddenly decided to stay in Stockholm?

That was actually quite possible. Maybe he'd met someone on the trip who made him want to stay in the capital. Although, considering everything that had happened, it was disturbing that the man had disappeared.

Knutas punched in the number for the Stockholm police.