‘A relative of mine owned the land next to Tabor, before old man Vidje bought it off him,’ Morell says, his voice sounding more or less the same as usual – and yet she detects a hint of bitterness. ‘The house has recently been done up, I believe.’

Anna nods. Thinks she sees the connection, and turns to the man by the window. ‘Oh, that was you, Alex – it’s fantastic.’

He looks up in surprise. ‘No, no, it wasn’t me. Elisabet Vidje didn’t want anything to do with me . . .’ He glances at his father. Morell’s lips have set in a thin line.

Anna has clearly made a big mistake, but doesn’t understand why. ‘Sorry, I just assumed . . .’ She turns to Morell. ‘Because you knew so much about the house, and Alex is . . . is . . .’ She pauses, takes a deep breath. ‘Sorry if I’ve trodden on someone’s toes.’

Morell’s expression softens. ‘It’s fine.’ He leans closer, lowers his voice. ‘Unfortunately, Elisabet Vidje has a grudge against our family.’ He pauses, glances at Alex. Scratches his beard.

‘It’s an old story. When my relative sold Tabor to the Vidje family, he was allowed to keep the hunting rights up there. It was an agreement between him and Elisabet’s father, a kind of compensation for the fact that he sold at a very low price. My cousins and I eventually inherited the rights, and Elisabet was fine with that. Änglaberga has plenty of other hunting grounds.’

He scratches his beard again. ‘But one autumn towards the end of the ’80s, a cousin of mine happened to shoot a deer that then found its way into the garden at Tabor and lay there injured and screaming. We dealt with it as quickly as we could, but unfortunately Karl-Johan saw the whole thing. He came running out, shouting and crying – he was completely beside himself. We had to ring Bror Klein in the end.’ Morell scratches his beard for the third time. His eczema is more noticeable today, angry and red.

‘Karl-Johan has always been a sensitive soul – a typical townie who loved painting nature without having the slightest idea of how it actually works. Hunting is hunting, sometimes bad shit happens.’ He shakes his head.

‘Anyway, for some reason Klein took Elisabet with him, although we asked him not to. By the time they got Karl-Johan into the car, he was shaking like a leaf and completely out of it. I tried to apologise, but Elisabet was having none of it. Instead, she yelled at me in front of the whole hunting team. Used words I’d rather not repeat.’

Morell shakes his head again. Out of the corner of her eye Anna sees that Alex has stopped working on the blind. He has his back to them, but he’s obviously listening.