Maybe sixty or seventy of them displayed in plastic boxes and on shelves. Some in cylindrical, glass jars. Others mounted on the wall. Most of them are skulls, bare bone. Small creatures: rabbits and mice. Some look fox-size or maybe badger-size. Taxidermy weasels and stoats. One with six legs and two heads. On top of the plastic boxes are deer skulls with small, sharp antlers. More like horns. And on the wall are the elk skulls. Seven. One with antlers and six without.

‘What the fuck is all this?’

‘There’s no rule against it in the contract,’ says Emil. ‘No explosives or flammable liquids. No generators. No weapons. No stolen items. This unit has stored hunting trophies for years, no law against it.’

I approach a long elk skull.

‘I’d say this was stolen.’

‘You don’t know that.’

‘Look,’ I say, pointing to its jaw.

Emil goes to touch the upper jaw-bone, but I put my hand in the way. ‘This might be evidence. Don’t contaminate it.’

I crouch to get a better look.

Perfect, gleaming white teeth.

One amalgam filling in a huge molar.

‘This one has braces,’ says Emil.

I check out the next skull and sure enough we have a moose here with braces.

‘I didn’t know elk get braces,’ says Emil.

There’s a Tupperware container of loose teeth and a box of disposable latex gloves. Unopened. Nothing else in the room.

Fifteen minutes later Sheriff Harry Hansson is taking a look in the unit himself.

‘Thord will be here before the hour’s out,’ he says, turning to Margareta. ‘Marge, who rents this unit from you and how long have they had it for?’

Margareta looks at Emil then looks at me.

The Sheriff puts his hand on his hip. ‘Police will get the information sooner or later, best if I can tell them you assisted with the enquiries.’

‘According to my files it was…’ she pauses, ‘Annika Persson.’

The Sheriff looks at Margareta and rubs his chin.

‘Annika Persson, you say?’

‘Since ninety-two.’

He rubs his chin some more.

‘You do me a favour, would you, and lock up the external door until Constable Thord arrives from Gavrik police?’

Emil trots off to check units and knock on more doors. I see Sven Edlund, the town’s only dentist, shuffling down the stairs, complaining as he goes.

Emil comes back and tells us the building is secure. Everyone else has left. Margareta offers the Sheriff coffee and he says, ‘If it isn’t too much bother, Marge.’

We drink the coffee by reception, not in the private apartment where I had dinner.

Thord arrives, and the Sheriff takes him up along with Emil.

Margareta says, ‘You have a boyfriend, Tuva?’

‘Nope.’

‘Well, isn’t that interesting news.’

Not really.

Thord comes back and talks in private with Margareta. He and I walk out together.

‘This damn town,’ he says.