A Swedish literary critic is found tortured to death in a janitor's closet at Newark Liberty International Airport. When the police realize that the murderer made off with the victim's ticket to Stockholm, Swedish authorities are alerted immediately - but the killer eludes the dragnet. When Detectives Paul Hjelm and Kerstin Holm of the Intercrime unit take over the investigation, they find clues that steer them toward darker waters. The torture method used was not only a highly specialized form of information extraction - it allows the victim to whisper, but not scream - but it was also the modus operandi of a presumably deceased serial killer. . . .