As they drive back up the ridge Lisa and Agnes discuss the autumn colours on the slopes, and when they reach the turning for Kotorp, Anna stops the car for a moment and points. ‘In that direction is the viewpoint where your father . . . where Joe . . .’ She hesitates, decides not to finish the sentence. ‘I wondered if you’d like to go there first, before the quarry?’

‘If it’s not too much of a diversion?’

‘Not at all.’ Anna sets off along the narrow dirt tracks. This time she finds the way easily. The rain over the past week has made the potholes even deeper, and on a straight stretch she drives into what looks like an innocent puddle, but is in fact such a deep hole that the undercarriage of the car hits the ground with an alarming crunch. The impact makes Agnes cannon into Milo. ‘Take it easy, Mum!’ she snaps crossly, rubbing the dog’s head. Anna is more worried that something beneath the car might have been damaged. She turns the wheel, tries the brakes. Everything seems to be OK, thank goodness.

After a little while they reach the spot where Rylander’s Saab was found. She tells Lisa about the car, then leads her and Agnes down the slope to the viewpoint. Milo snuffles around among the leaves and barks at a squirrel as it scampers up a tree only metres in front of his nose.

‘Here we are,’ Anna says, then decides it’s best to keep quiet. Agnes’s camera clicks away as she takes pictures of the view, then of Glarea’s lunar landscape far below them. Lisa goes up to the rusty fence, stands there for a while as the wind ruffles her short, fair hair. Something about the image makes a connection in Anna’s mind, and she almost expects Håkan to stop sulking and tell her what conclusion she has just reached. Instead, she hears Milo barking – a different sound this time.

‘Mum,’ Agnes says. ‘Someone’s coming.’

Two figures are moving through the trees. Two big German Shepherds are heading straight for them.

Milo is barking angrily now. He looks as if he’d like to rush straight at the dogs, but Agnes manages to grab his collar and pick him up at the last second. He carries on barking like mad as he wriggles and tries to escape. The German Shepherds are completely focused on the little dog. Anna steps in front of Agnes and tries to remember how Jens handled the Rottweilers at the scrapyard. Their tails are up as they run, but it’s definitely not a sign of friendliness. Milo is almost hysterical now, snapping at the air, desperate to get down in order to defend Agnes.

The attackers are no more than five or six metres away.

‘Mum . . .’ Agnes says.