Free The Fire Dance by Helene Tursten

about the case. “We can all agree that it is a remarkable coincidence that Sophie burned to death in that shed. Especially the burning, I mean. Fifteen years have gone by since we questioned Sophie about what really happened at Björkil, but we could never get her to talk. I think we must start again there: the fire at Björkil when Magnus Eriksson died.”
    Fredrik Stridh swallowed the last bit of his slice of cake. He indicated that he wanted to ask a question. “Tommy toldme that you’d gone to the scene of the fire fifteen years ago. Why? You were working at the central station.”
    Since both Fredrik and Birgitta had still been in training when the Björkil fire had taken place and Hannu was just starting at the Police Academy, Irene and Tommy had gone through the case with the entire group last Friday. Obviously Fredrik had been wondering how Irene and her colleague, Håkan Lund, who both worked in the central district at the time, had come to be in the northwest corner of Hisingen.
    “Håkan and I were chasing a car thief. We lost him near Torslanda. When the alarm had come in at around five, we were the closest patrol car to the scene. All the cars in the seventh district were at the station for the shift change. We had been planning to head back to the station ourselves for the same reason, but as it turned out, we took the call on the fire in Björkil. We weren’t able to leave until about nine that evening, which is when we found Sophie next to her bicycle by the side of the road.”
    “Did she say anything to you?”
    “Not a word. I interpreted it as shock, but I’m not so sure.”
    The superintendent gave her a gloomy look. “So you really think we should drag up that old investigation again?”
    “I believe we
do
need to look at it.”
    “Well, yes, I am aware that you were unhappy about how the investigation had gone before you took it over. Still, it didn’t last long. It was written off as a case of smoking in bed.” He didn’t even try to hide the sarcasm in his voice. When he was in that mood, no good came from arguing with him. Irene knew her boss much too well after all the years they’d spent working together. Perhaps he was aware of the holes in the case and also thought that the investigation of the Björkil fire had gone wrong. Andersson stared at her, but when Irene said nothing, he decided to keep talking.
    “We must question everyone who was at the Park Aveny Bar the last night that Sophie was seen alive. There are no traces of her in the hotel, so she must have left. Why didn’t anyone see her go? There can’t have been that many young women walking around town in bright pink tights, am I right?”
    The superintendent had a point there. He fell silent and began to drum his fingertips on the table.
    How had Sophie left the hotel unnoticed? Her trail after that was still a puzzle. They’d grilled the security guard, Thomas Magnusson, to within an inch of his life, but no results. It had been a fine night with clear skies. There’d been crowds of people—most of them young and in various states of inebriation—walking up and down Göteborg’s main boulevard, Avenyn. Perhaps no one noticed Sophie because they were all too intoxicated.
    “She went out the rear door. She did not want to be seen,” Hannu said calmly.
    This was a theory they were all considering: the suspect had gotten Sophie to sneak out the back door of the hotel.
    “Still, someone must have seen her. Someone must have driven her somewhere. We will have to have an all-out search. Question everyone. Taxi drivers, hot dog sellers, doormen and the usual gang. Fredrik, Jonny, Birgitta, you’re on it,” Andersson said.
    He wrinkled his brow in thought for a moment. Then he hit the table with the palm of his hand.
    “Tommy and Irene. You’re the most familiar with what happened fifteen years ago. Go dig up that old crap again. And you, Hannu, since you’re a … well, you can go talk to that foreign kid who