Through the glass of the double doors she saw that the foyer of the Tax Office was already full of people, but she was in no hurry. She had three days to find out what she needed to know; they wouldn’t be back until Wednesday. She had never been here before, but where else than at the Tax Office would it be possible to get hold of someone’s tax reference? If she had that, she imagined that everything else would go more smoothly. There was Kerstin’s revelation about something troublesome in Linda’s past. A piece of information that might be both interesting and useful. A white notice was taped up on the glass door: ‘Please take a number for the desired category.’ Desired category. It was probably better if she didn’t say. There were four alternatives: tax questions, overseas, national registration, birth certificates. National registration sounded good. She pressed a button for a number slip and sat down on one of the many chairs; there were fifteen numbers ahead of her. She looked around.
