She can see Agnes and Lisa down below. She waves to let them know everything is OK, then cautiously makes her way to the edge. The cliff is higher than she thought – eight metres, maybe more. The water in the pool is black, but a faint ripple catches her eye. There is a rock just below the surface. If Simon came the same way as she has just done – if he stumbled down the little slope between the trees in the rain and darkness, exhausted from the wrestling match with Alex, feeling angry, upset and humiliated, drunk and possibly high – it’s not difficult to imagine him plunging over the edge, striking his head on the hidden rock, then floating out into the water just as he is portrayed in Karl-Johan’s painting – on his back, arms outstretched.

‘No, it’s fine,’ Agnes says, presumably in response to a question from Lisa. Her clear voice is carried across the quarry, bouncing off the rocks until all that remains is a melancholy echo.

‘Fine . . .’

‘Fine . . .’

‘Ine . . .’

Anna looks down at the dark water and shudders.

The incline on the far side is less steep, and the trees are more sparse, so it takes her only five minutes to get down to the turning area. If she puts it all together – the inadequate investigation, Alex Morell’s confession and her own observations – the likelihood is that Simon Vidje’s death was an accident. Admittedly, it was caused by the altercation between those who promised to be ‘friends forever’, but still . . . A tragic event where any possible crime has long since passed the statute of limitations. She ought to be satisfied with that, accept that the incident, as Alex described it, was serious enough. The fight is the secret that one of the four friends, or someone close to them, was prepared to kill for.

Caia Bianca has her brand to think of, and then there are the rumours about her first husband. Bruno Sordi is in the middle of a major building project, and is probably on shaky ground financially. Marie is involved in the same project, she is the leader of the local council, and she daren’t risk her husband or father finding out that she’s already told Elisabet Vidje the truth. Bengt Andersson seems to be obsessed with Nedanås and its reputation. Alex Morell has already admitted his part and has an alibi for the time of Rylander’s death, but he has a terrible temper and has already demonstrated violent tendencies. And last but not least there is Henry Morell, who has clung to the same job for twenty-seven years in order to ensure that this whole miserable story never came out.