‘Between you and me, Anna . . . Elisabet is seriously ill. She doesn’t have long left. So, when an old friend of mine who works in the office of the chief of police told me you’d applied for the job, Elisabet saw it as a sign. One last chance to get to the truth.’

He glances over at the closed door as if he’s afraid that someone will come in.

‘Änglaberga and its land are worth a great deal of money, and Elisabet is thinking about what will happen to the estate after her death. She has no direct descendants, so her niece and nephew, Marie Sordi and Mats Andersson, are her closest relatives. Elisabet almost regards them as her own children. Their father Bengt, however . . .’

Anna waves a dismissive hand. ‘Elisabet told me all this yesterday. She said she trusts Marie.’

‘She does, but she’s also convinced that the whole truth hasn’t come out, and that some people are prepared to do whatever it takes to keep it that way. She realised that the day after Simon’s death.’

‘You mean the garage fire.’

Call-me nods.

‘It was before my time, but my father has told me the story often enough. Elisabet tried to get Green, the former chief of police, to exclude Henry Morell from any involvement in the investigation; she wanted him to bring in officers from outside, who didn’t have a connection to anyone in the village. Green agreed at first, but later that afternoon he suddenly changed his mind. It was obvious that someone had put him under pressure. Elisabet took my father with her and went down to the police station to confront Green, but Henry Morell and Bengt Andersson were also there. In the end Elisabet and my father were thrown out, and that same night the garage at Änglaberga was burned to the ground.’

He pauses and manages to regain something of his normal composure.

‘With all of that in mind, maybe it’s understandable that Elisabet is still clutching at straws. We should of course have spoken to you right from the start, in fact I suggested it, but Elisabet refused to listen. She said you would form your own opinion – we were just setting things in motion.’

‘By installing me and Agnes at Tabor and sending out letters to the six people who were involved?’

He sighs. ‘I guess so. By the way, it turns out only five of them are still alive. Tanya Savic died in 2002.’

Anna had intended to run a check on Tanya as soon as she was back in the office, but now she didn’t need to. So Tanya had died before she turned thirty-five.