Mats freezes. ‘Yes. The studio, the tape recorder, the summer car. All of it. There was nothing left.’

‘Nothing?’ She is thinking of the charred skeleton of a car she saw in the outbuilding, and can’t help glancing in that direction. Mats follows her eyes.

‘Almost nothing,’ he adds.

‘Karl-Johan kept the car – or what was left of it.’

Mats nods. ‘I suppose he intended to renovate it, but he never got around to it. He had his hands full with . . .’ He raises his hand a fraction, indicating either the chapel or his own head.

‘The mural,’ Anna says. ‘Have you seen it?’

‘No.’ The answer comes a little too quickly, and he looks slightly uneasy.

‘But you know what the subject is?’

No response.

‘Your sister was there that night. Does she ever talk about what happened? About Simon?’

‘Nobody talks about Simon. Not my father, not Marie, not Bruno or Alex. Nor does anyone else, at least not in public. It’s as if he never existed. But Simon did exist. I liked him.’

He stares at the ground. Milo whines, edges closer, tilts his head to one side again, as if he’s picked up on the big man’s sorrow.

‘There’s one thing I don’t understand,’ Anna says quietly. ‘Your Aunt Elisabet – she’s angry with your father, Henry Morell, Alex, Bruno and Carina because she thinks they’re lying about what went on that night. But she talks to your sister, even though Marie was there too. Why is that?’

‘Her clothes,’ he mumbles.

‘Her clothes? What do you mean?’

He glances in the direction of the forest as if he really wants to get away.

‘When they saw Simon in the water that morning, Marie jumped in to try and get him out. Only her, none of the others. They stayed on the shore. Marie was soaking wet – their clothes were dry.’

‘So your aunt’s interpretation is that they didn’t think it was worth jumping in, because they already knew that Simon was dead.’

Mats shrugs. ‘The water in the quarry pool is freezing cold. They knew that from the previous evening – Carina was shivering, her lips were blue.’ He shuffles his feet. ‘I have to go. Thanks for the coffee.’

He gives Milo a farewell pat, then lumbers off across the yard and in among the trees. It’s only after he’s disappeared completely that Anna realises there’s something in his story that doesn’t make sense.

*

She finds it difficult to get to sleep that night. She and Agnes are barely talking, and she’s forgotten to call her solicitor to ask what’s going on with the internal investigation. And yet that’s not what’s occupying her mind.