The envelope is postmarked 17 September – only a few days after she signed the lease on Tabor. Newly renovated Tabor, which has never before been rented out. Karl-Jo’s studio, which houses his final and possibly most important piece of work. Anna had already had her suspicions, but now they are confirmed – literally in black and white. She has been manipulated, not only by Henry Morell, but also by Elisabet Vidje.

‘I think you’ll want to see this,’ Jens says. Something in his tone makes her put the letter in her pocket and go over to the sofa.

‘Here.’ He turns the laptop so that she can see the screen. An email program is open. He moves the cursor to the last message in the Sent box.

‘On 25 September, Rylander sent an email to Alex Morell, Bruno and Marie Sordi, and Caia Bianca.’ He double clicks to open the message. ‘The account was created the same day – look at the username.’

‘Simon Vidje,’ she reads aloud. ‘What did he write?’

Another click and the message fills the screen. It is one single line. Seven words, seven syllables, but more than enough to constitute a motive for murder.

Time to pay for what you did!

Chapter 37

37

Autumn 2017

Anna remains silent during the drive back to Nedanås. Searching Joe Rylander’s rundown cabin has occupied most of the day. They have taken away a considerable amount of material – mainly suspected stolen goods and drugs equipment, but also the laptop and cassette tape, each in its neatly labelled evidence bag. She has asked Jens to keep the contents to himself until tomorrow morning because she needs to work out a strategy overnight, which is perfectly true. For the same reason she hasn’t mentioned the letter to him or anyone else; it is tucked away in her jacket pocket. The journey gives her the opportunity to go over everything in her head, and to interrogate the chain of events with all the scepticism she can muster. However, the chain still holds, from the day she applied for the job in Nedanås until Henry Morell announced at the scene that Rylander’s death was definitely suicide.

Anna knows that she is going to have to interview the four friends, asking questions not only about Rylander, but about the initial investigation – what really happened on that August night in 1990? But before that she has a number of points to clarify, and she also wants to talk to the person whose spirit hovers over everything.

When they arrive at the station, she turns to Grönwall. ‘Can you make sure the laptop and cassette are logged and locked away in the evidence room?’

‘I can take care of that,’ Jens offers. ‘Would you like me to make a copy of the song and send it to you as an MP3 file?’

She hesitates for a second, sees that he has noticed.

‘Good idea,’ she says, but the damage has already been done.

*