‘If you’ll ex-cuse me,’ she says, separating the third word to avoid a stammer.

Friberg remains where he is for a second or two, his eyes locked on hers. Anna feels as if the oxygen in the cramped room is running out. She raises her eyebrows a fraction to indicate that she wonders what he’s doing. His eyes dart from side to side, then he clears his throat and moves aside.

‘Have . . .’ – breathe – ‘a nice evening,’ she says over her shoulder as she walks out and along the corridor with the file still clamped to her side.

*

Back in her office she locks the door then flops down in her chair with an enormous sense of relief. Spends a couple of seconds congratulating herself on the way she handled the whole situation with Jens Friberg, then turns her attention to Simon Vidje’s case file, which comprises only a handful of documents – seven, to be precise. There is the report itself, written by the police officer who was first on the scene; his name is not familiar to Anna. Then four short interviews with the witnesses, the pathologist’s report, and a final note.

It takes her only a few minutes to realise that the contents of the file don’t tell her much more than she already knows, but at least it gives her a summary, helping her to put together the scattered pieces she has acquired so far.

Simon Vidje and his four friends are camping in the former quarry at Mörkaby up on the ridge. Alex and Bruno arrive in one car, the girls in another, while Simon, who lives at Änglaberga only about a mile away, comes by bike. Apparently camping out overnight is a tradition, something they’ve done many times before, which means they are all very familiar with the area. They build a fire, talk, eat, drink alcohol, and eventually retire to their three tents. Alex and Bruno are sharing, as are Marie and Carina, while Simon is on his own. During the night it begins to rain, and just as Morell said, the rocks become slippery, and the rain hammering on the tents drowns out any other sounds. Early the next morning Simon is found dead, floating on his back in the pool.

The autopsy report shows several crush injuries to his body, all consistent with a fall. The most serious is a wound to the back of his head, which according to the pathologist almost certainly killed Simon instantly. This conclusion is backed up by the fact that his lungs didn’t contain any water, which means that Simon had already stopped breathing when he ended up in the pool. The pathologist also states that the cold water has made it difficult to establish the time of death; his estimate is between 01.00 and 03.00 on the morning of 29 August.