‘You’ve worked hard for many years to build your relationship with Elisabet Vidje. The fact that you told her about the events leading up to Simon’s death wasn’t a way of easing your conscience, but a calculated risk to regain her trust. You hoped that she would eventually forgive you. Her niece, the only one who jumped into the water to try and save Simon, the only one who took responsibility.’

She pauses, cautiously slides her right hand closer to her pocket.

‘But then Joe Rylander shows up. He uses Simon’s song at the homecoming party to see what happens, and when his tactic succeeds beyond all expectation, Joe is convinced that the four of you have something to hide. He starts snooping around, determined to find out more – presumably here at Änglaberga, then after the party, when he thinks Bruno is still held by the police, at Kotorp.’

Marie raises her eyebrows – and the gun.

‘I mean Norrblicka,’ Anna says, slipping her hand into her pocket. She can feel the phone against her fingertips. She has to keep talking. ‘But, unfortunately, Joe stands on a gin trap that has been set to catch a different kind of predator, and has to call for help.’

She’s not at all sure about this part of the story, but she can’t stop now. She pushes her hand a little deeper.

‘So, you find him there, Marie. You help to free him, then take him back to your home. You even bandage his leg. At some point you work out who he is, and why he’s snooping around.’

She looks to Marie for confirmation, but the woman’s expression doesn’t change.

‘Unluckily for Joe, he can’t keep his mouth shut. He doesn’t know anything about Simon Vidje’s death, but he’s on the trail of another secret.’ She turns to Lisa. ‘He’s realised that Simon is probably your father, which means there’s a new heir to Änglaberga. Someone who, whatever it says in Elisabet’s will, has the right to at least half of the estate.’

She can almost feel the front of her phone now. If she’d had one with buttons, it would have been fine; she could easily have called the emergency number. With a smartphone it’s not that simple.

‘So, Joe demands money to keep quiet about you,’ she says to Lisa. ‘But he picks the wrong person to blackmail. Marie has put everything she has into the family’s building project, and is up to her ears in debt. She can’t afford to pay Joe, but to let him reveal what he knows would cost her even more, and all those years of hard work and sacrifice would be wasted.’

‘So, you killed him?’ Lisa says to Marie. She sounds horrified, as if she still hasn’t grasped the seriousness of the situation.