‘Would you like a top-up?’ She fetches the coffee pot, refills their cups. ‘There is one thing that strikes me as a little strange,’ she says when she’s replaced the pot and sat down again.

‘Oh?’ Jens is trying not to sound particularly interested, but Anna is too experienced to be fooled.

‘It’s the fact that Marie Andersson was the only one of the four who jumped in the water. The only one who tried to get Simon out.’

‘There could be a perfectly natural explanation,’ he says, revealing that he knows exactly what she’s talking about, and is a lot more familiar with the case than he would like her to think.

‘Go on.’

‘Maybe Marie discovered Simon before the others, and managed to get the body to the shore before they had the chance to jump in.’

Anna shakes her head. ‘There’s nothing to indicate that in the interviews.’

‘No?’ He is pretending he doesn’t know this already, but she can see right through him.

‘And besides, it was the firefighters who recovered the body. Apparently, the terrain was very difficult.’

‘Well, maybe there’s your explanation. Marie realised that Simon was dead, and that there was nothing to be done; it was impossible to get him out without professional help.’

‘Maybe.’ She maintains eye contact.

They hear footsteps on the stairs, then Grönwall appears in the doorway with one of his colleagues. ‘Good morning – are we ready for a house search?’

Jens leans across the table. ‘I wanted to ask . . .’ He pauses, waits until Grönwall comes over to join them. ‘Is it OK if I come along?’

She thinks for a moment. The easiest thing would be to say no, but Jens is a good police officer, and has already impressed the CSIs with his actions at the scene of Rylander’s death. Snubbing him now in front of Grönwall would lead to raised eyebrows; she doesn’t really have a choice.

‘Of course – we have room for one more, don’t we?’

‘Certainly,’ Grönwall says. ‘The more the merrier. We need to fill up on the way – Klippan is quite a distance. Anyone know where the nearest petrol station is?’

‘There’s one down on Reftingevägen,’ Jens says, and at that moment something clicks in Anna’s brain.

Reftinge

Petrol station

Klippan

She gets up without a word and goes back to her office. Unlocks the bottom drawer of her desk, takes out Simon Vidje’s case file and begins to leaf through the yellowing pages. Swears quietly to herself – why didn’t she see the connection before? It takes her only a few seconds to find the right sheet of paper – the note Henry Morell made twenty-seven years ago.

Two other individuals were present at the quarry during the evening – Joakim Jonsson, referred to by the others as Joe, and Tanya Savic, both aged 20 and resident in Klippan.