Anna’s prediction turns out to be correct; within ten minutes Milo is back. He looks as if he’s grinning with satisfaction when they open the door; there is a dead rabbit next to him on the step. He is covered in mud, and the two of them give him a bath in the big sink in the utility room. When they’ve finished, he has a good shake and sprays water all over the place, which makes Agnes burst out laughing. Anna enjoys the sound, the normality of it all.

The feeling lasts almost all the way through dinner. Agnes talks about her new school and class; she doesn’t say much, but it’s something. However, when darkness has fallen and they are sitting in front of the TV, something happens. Agnes has her iPad on her knee, and Anna is watching the news – yet another report claiming that the healthcare system is on its knees, with pictures from an oncology ward. A row of beds, white curtains, yellow blankets. Anna’s stomach contracts, she fumbles for the remote, but it’s fallen down between the sofa cushions, and it’s almost thirty seconds before she manages to swap the cancer patients for a harmless American sitcom. Much too long, as it turns out. When she glances at Agnes, it’s clear that the atmosphere has changed. She searches for something to say, anything to defuse the situation, but it’s too late.

‘You were there, weren’t you, Mum?’ Agnes says quietly. ‘When Dad died. You were there.’

‘Yes,’ she replies, without giving herself time to think or compose herself.

‘Why wasn’t I allowed in?’

Agnes has asked the question before. Never in words, but in looks, gestures, and long, painful silences. And just like before, Anna doesn’t have an answer.

Håkan is keen to respond, and she quickly turns up the volume on the TV so she doesn’t have to listen to him.

*

After Agnes has murmured goodnight and closed the bedroom door behind her, Anna goes out onto the top step and picks up the dead rabbit by its hind legs. It’s lighter than she expected, and she soon realises why. Its belly gapes open and its innards are missing. At first, she thinks this is somehow down to Milo, and is disgusted at the memory of him licking Agnes’s face earlier. However, when she holds the body up to the light, she sees that the belly has been neatly slit from top to bottom, and the animal has been completely gutted. She stands there for a moment trying to work out what this means, but can’t find an explanation. Milo must have taken the rabbit from somewhere, maybe over at Änglaberga, but the distance and the time he was away don’t make sense.