She decides not to wake Agnes before leaving for work. Yesterday was tough for both of them, and Agnes needs to sleep more than she needs to go to school.

Anna knows she should have taken the opportunity this time, told her daughter the truth. Håkan makes his opinion very clear by reverting to stubborn silence, and yet she still can’t bring herself to speak out.

In her office she sits down and stares at the phone, waiting for the commissioner’s call. With the benefit of hindsight, she shouldn’t have let herself be provoked by Morell, shouldn’t have exploded. It’s the second time within a few days that she’s allowed her temper to make life difficult for her. Having Morell and his pal Santesson against her is bad enough, but now she’s managed to add the commissioner to the list. The question is whether her outburst gives him sufficient grounds to sack her. Probably not. She’s only just taken up her post, and had a good reputation within the service – at least until that article was published. Plus, she’s a woman – a factor that mustn’t be underestimated. Sacking her because she stood up to a man who is no longer employed by the police, and who challenged her authority, could easily backfire on the commissioner himself. She thinks he will wait for stronger grounds, for example if she is formally suspected of having been involved in Håkan’s death.

She is in no doubt about what will happen to the Rylander case. The commissioner is a desk jockey, not a real police officer. He has never interviewed a suspect, and he certainly hasn’t led a murder investigation. He’ll be looking for things he recognises from TV: a murder weapon, fingerprints, DNA. Mobile phone tracking, blood spatter patterns and other forensic evidence that is always so plentiful in TV cop shows. He won’t spend a single krona of his precious budget on something as simple and unscientific as good old police officer’s intuition. She can already imagine how the conversation will play out.

So, Rylander’s phone is missing – maybe he lost it earlier on? Or perhaps he’d sold it, who knows? And as for the position of the seat, well maybe Rylander liked driving around half-lying down, without being able to use the mirrors or pedals properly. The leg injury? What makes you think that has anything to do with his death?

The worst thing about this imaginary dialogue with the commissioner is that certain points might well be valid. She still has no definite proof that Joe Rylander’s death is murder. She’s convinced that the four friends are lying, but she has no means of exposing their lies. And worst of all, she’s run out of leads to follow up.