There were lots of rumours about what was hiding down there. Old cars, the proceeds of robberies, the remains of people who had disappeared long ago. Rumours that couldn’t be verified, and therefore grew even more fantastical with each retelling. However, all those who had ever visited the quarry were agreed on two things: that the black water was so deep that even high summer in Skåne couldn’t raise its temperature above twenty degrees, and that one of the young men who chose to scramble up the steep rock face on the far side in order to dive from the highest point was going to kill himself – sooner or later.

*

It took four firefighters to get the body out of the water. The bank was slippery and covered in sharp stones that made it difficult to get traction. On a couple of occasions one of the men stumbled and lost his footing, almost as if the water was putting up a fight, trying to retain the body for as long as possible.

Seen from a short distance away, the young man looked as if he was sleeping. He was lying on his back with his eyes closed, the pale features so peaceful that it was possible to believe that he would wake up at any moment.

But when the body landed on the stretcher with a horrible, heavy thud, the illusion was shattered. Cold water poured from his clothes and his long, fair hair, carrying with it blood from the back of his head, which had been crushed. It formed pink, shimmering puddles on the stretcher before it gathered enough weight to make its way down among the stones on the hard ground and disappear into the darkness.

Water always finds the lowest point, thought the police officer who was standing just a metre or so away. He wondered whether he ought to jot down that observation. Turn to the last page of his notebook where he collected such thoughts, small reflections that didn’t really have anything to do with police work, but ought to be recorded anyway, possibly to balance out everything else he wrote. Instead, he stayed on the page he’d just started.

He had written the place, time and date only a minute or so after getting out of the police car.

Mörkaby quarry, 05.54, 29 August 1990.