Grönwall and his colleague have made a start at the far side of the room and are methodically working their way through everything. Anna wants to get her head around the cabin. The sofa and the coffee table seem to have been the centre of Rylander’s activities, but there is one other place that could be of interest.

She pushes open the broken bathroom door. The narrow space is every bit as unpleasant as she’d expected. There is no door on the shower cubicle, and some of the tiles have fallen off, exposing a large area mottled with mould. She had hoped to check out the bathroom cabinet, but all that remains are two holes in the wall where the screws once sat. The toilet is making a constant rushing sound. She lifts the lid of the cistern and finds that the ballcock is obstructed by a bag containing a couple of hundred grams of what is probably marijuana.

When she has fished it out, she discovers a basket pushed between the toilet and the wall. It is full of Donald Duck comics and porn magazines. The corner of a white envelope is sticking out. She removes it from the basket. It is made of thick paper, and has Rylander’s name and address printed on the front. Rylander seems to have opened it with his fingers; the edges are torn and ragged, partly obscuring the name of the sender, which is pre-printed on the upper left-hand corner. However, she manages to work it out.

Gunnarsson & Son Solicitors.

She inhales sharply. Why has Call-me been in contact with Rylander?

She cautiously opens the envelope and takes out a single sheet of neatly folded paper.

Dear Joakim,

Twenty-seven years have passed since our dear Simon left us. He was a wonderful son, a good friend and an incredibly gifted musician who touched all those he met. Even though his death was written off as an accident, we are convinced that the truth never came out. That is why we are turning to you and everyone else who was at Mörkaby quarry that night with the following request:

If you have anything to tell us – a detail that you happened to miss out, a memory that came back to you long after the event – or if you simply want to take the opportunity to unburden your heart at long last, please contact Detective Inspector Anna Vesper at the police station in Nedanås. Anna will be taking up her post as district chief of police on 9 October. She has no connections to anyone in the area; she has an excellent reputation as an investigator, combined with many years’ experience. We are very hopeful that she will be able to discover what really happened to Simon, providing us, his parents, with long-awaited peace of mind.

Your help in this matter would be very much appreciated.

With best wishes,

Elisabet and Karl-Johan Vidje

Änglaberga