‘Well, it’s high time I made a start on that chapter I promised the police academy. After all, they’ve already paid me the advance! Good luck everyone.’ He raises his cup in a farewell toast and heads for his office.

Anna waits until she hears his door close.

‘I am aware that most of you know Henry Morell,’ she says slowly. ‘He has many years of service behind him, and the police . . .’ she pauses, breathes, ‘authority has a great deal to thank him for. However, as of yesterday he is no longer in active service, and cannot be allowed access to any information covered by the requirement for confidentiality. This includes all information relating to this case – is that clear?’

The CSIs and the officers from county HQ don’t seem to have any objections, but she sees a couple of her own officers exchange meaningful glances. Jens Friberg, however, doesn’t react at all.

‘Good. If you’d like to top up your coffee cups, I’ll see you down in the briefing room.’

*

She doesn’t start the meeting until the door is firmly closed. There is no hint of a stammer as she goes through the circumstances in which the body was found, then hands over to Grönwall, the senior crime scene investigator, who has just linked his laptop to the overhead projection system.

‘The victim is a man in his early fifties,’ he says, bringing up a picture of the man’s battered face.

‘Height five feet five inches, and at the time of death he weighed approximately eight stone. According to the forensic pathologist’s preliminary assessment, death is thought to have occurred between ten to twelve hours before the body was discovered. This wide time frame is down to the cold and the rain, but it leads us to the early hours of Sunday morning. More on that after the autopsy.’

He takes a sip of coffee, then continues: ‘As you’ve probably already worked out, the primary cause of death is severe trauma to the entire body, consistent with a fall. Again, the autopsy will provide further detail – there are a great many injuries that will need to be examined more closely.’

He clicks onto the next slide, a photograph of the man lying on his back on top of a tarpaulin. His arms and legs have been straightened, yet there is still something unnatural about their position. The branch that had penetrated the body has been sawn off and still protrudes from the chest, which combined with the angle of the limbs and the empty eye socket makes the corpse look like a macabre marionette. It is so unpleasant that it takes a moment for Anna to realise what is really bothering her.

‘Wasn’t he wearing any shoes?’ she says.