Agnes falls silent, looks away as if she’s caught herself doing something wrong. Anna wants to tell her it’s OK, that it’s all right to be happy even when you’re grieving. That Håkan would have wanted her to have fun, and that she herself would do almost anything to hear that laugh every single day. As usual, she can’t find the right words. Instead, they move on to the mural and Karl-Jo, and after a while she decides to tell Agnes what Morell and Göran in the bike shop had to say about Simon’s death. She hesitates, then mentions the fact that the other evening, Elisabet Vidje asked her to take another look at the case.

Agnes is very excited. ‘You have to do it!’

Anna shakes her head.

‘Why not?’

‘Partly because the incident has already been investigated, and partly because any possible crime, except possibly murder, is well beyond the statute of limitations after all these years.’

‘But what if it was murder? What if Elisabet is right, and someone killed her son? There could be a murderer out there who’s got away with it for twenty-seven years!’

Of course, Anna ought to make it clear that she has far more important things to think about than an old case of accidental death. The only problem is that she still hasn’t told Agnes the real reason why they’re here. Internal Affairs suspect that I had something to do with your father’s death. She simply can’t tell Agnes, because she wants to avoid the inevitable follow-up question at all costs. Did you?

Instead, she keeps the mask in place and once again rejoices that they are talking to each other without her having to be constantly on her guard.

‘We’ll see. By the way, did you manage to find out where that quarry is?’

Agnes nods. ‘I asked a girl on the train; she lives in Mörkaby. She said it’s the third turning on the left if you’re coming from Änglaberga. There’s a narrow logging track with a barrier.’

‘Good – maybe we can go there at the weekend?’

*

It’s dark when they reach Tabor, and the outside light is on. They can hear Milo barking an eager welcome in the hallway, and Agnes hurries over to the door. Stops dead a foot or so away.

‘Look,’ she says, pointing.

There is a dark shape on the top step. A dead rabbit with its belly sliced open. It has been disembowelled.

Chapter 16

16

28 August 1990