Only now could he look past his own perception of Gunilla—the perception of the world at large too. He could see clearly how she emerged from the shadows in the car park outside PN Auto. The irresistible Gunilla, who had seen Norling coming out of the garage for his lunchbreak and persuaded him to get into her car. He had accompanied her south to where her broken-down SUV was, the one that had been lent to their son, who had a house not far from there. Charming Gunilla, who despite the cheeky imposition and the time it had taken, had kept him sweet all the way down to Digerrojr, and had somehow managed to switch off his mobile. Or destroy it. Inexorable Gunilla, who had lured him to his future burial site in the woods, where the pit had already been dug and the supposedly broken-down SUV might have been, or perhaps not, even if it was the pretext for getting him there. Hard-boiled Gunilla, who had whacked him with a shovel when he was least expecting it, who had mobilised all her strength and repeated the movement as many times as required for her life to continue as normal. Whereupon Peter Norling had fallen or been helped into the pre-dug grave and had thus disappeared.

It was terrible. The fact that Jan’s wife of more than twenty-five years was capable of such acts was a complete surprise to him. It transpired that he didn’t know her at all, while for her part Gunilla knew him better than he knew himself. She had duped him without him noticing and deceived him into thinking and believing only the things she had wanted him to think and believe.

What they had recently read in the newspaper while at the breakfast table about Peter Norling’s body being found hadn’t particularly bothered Jan. The man had been missing for a long time and Jan hadn’t liked him much when he had been alive—why put on a show now? On the other hand, Gunilla had been very agitated. She had expressed the view that the blackmail attempt didn’t show his best side, but that she wouldn’t wish the fate that had befallen Peter Norling on her worst enemy. Not to mention the situation faced by his loved ones. A premeditated and most brutal murder—on the island of Gotland of all places. What was the world coming to?