Is this someone’s sick idea of a Halloween prank? Because I can tell you, I do not need this shit in my life right now. I’m tempted to tear up the card but I stick it in my bag and leave.

Toytown is cold and there’s still rain in the air. Clouds heavy and full right above us all. Waiting. Biding their time.

I go straight to the cop shop.

Deserted.

A bloodstain on the wall above a patch of shiny floor and a ‘Careful Slippery’ sign.

I take a numbered ticket and ring the bell screwed down into the pine counter. The door opens.

‘Moodyson,’ says Chief Björn.

‘Can I talk to you, Chief?’

He looks at me with no emotion in his eyes whatsoever.

‘Reckon you already are.’

‘It’s about Ragnar Falk.’

He swallows hard. ‘Come back through here and let’s do this properly. We got the heat on.’

I follow him through the key-code door.

‘You manning the station alone?’

‘Not exactly. Thord and Noora are in Visberg checking on one or two things. You drink coffee, do you?’

This is the first time he’s ever offered me a cup of anything. Am I being accepted into this town, his town? Feels like it takes me a year to move forward one per cent.

‘Yes. Yes, I do. White, no sugar, please.’

He looks at me with a face that says do I look like waitress?

‘Over there,’ he says, pointing to a kettle next to the sink.

I walk back toward the three cells and pour myself coffee into a mug that says ‘Värmland’s finest.’

When I get back to the Chief’s desk, there’s another dude sat next to him.

‘This is Detective Shadid from Karlstad homicide.’

‘Hello detective, I’m Tuva Moodyson.’

The guy just nods. Clean-shaven, navy shirt and navy trousers.

‘Falk,’ says the Chief.

I think about the paperclip attached to my coat sleeve. ‘I’ve been researching historical events connecting certain members of the Visberg community to Arne Persson.’

The detective makes a note. The Chief looks at the note the detective made.

‘And?’

‘Ragnar’s daughter was killed in a hit-and-run incident in 1994.’

The Chief leans back in his chair. ‘That is correct.’

‘I have reason to believe Ragnar Falk was investigating the accident over the years, as would be understandable.’

‘I’d say,’ says the Chief.

‘Arne Persson was the individual Ragnar Falk suspected of driving the hit-and-run car that was never recovered.’

‘Falk told you this, did he?’

‘I gleaned it from the information available and from my extensive interviews of multiple Visberg residents.’

‘You gleaned it?’

I nod.

‘Gleaned it?’

I nod again.

The Chief says, ‘I’ve reports from the neighbourhood-watch coordinator…’ he takes a deep breath and then carries on… ‘Coordinator, Harry Hansson, tells me Ragnar Falk suspects someone was casing his building yesterday evening, sometime between eight and ten.’

‘Casing?’ I say.