‘You don’t have much time if you’re going to get to school,’ I said, gesturing at the clock with my head.

Tobias stopped at the bottom of the stairs but said nothing.

I pulled on my waterproof trousers. It was pouring down outside – solid, hard rain.

‘Well, get a move on then,’ I said, trying not to sound like a nag. ‘School starts in half an hour.’

Tobias didn’t answer. Just shuffled off into the kitchen. ‘There’s no milk left, by the way,’ I called after him. ‘Don’t think there’s any corn-flakes either. I can get some later.’

‘Awesome,’ he said, then closed the door behind him. For some stupid reason he had started to use that word a lot lately. Awesome. Like he meant the opposite. I wondered if he had any intention of going to school at all. Perhaps you should wait, I asked myself, just to make sure. Mum wouldn’t be around to check, or care, even. She was at Knut’s.

Then I thought about Mari again. I wanted to see if I could catch her before the bell, so I could finally get her to talk to me. I decided to let Tobias be.

It was a young girl, probably no more than sixteen years old. She was lying on her back, eyes wide open. The skin on her face was pale white, lips light blue. She had dark-brown eyes and a small crack in her upper lip. The pink winter coat she was wearing had been opened, as if someone had tried to undress her.

‘I know who she is,’ Therese said almost soundlessly. ‘She came by the station the other day. Her name’s Mari Lindgren.’

Yngve turned to Therese. ‘Why did she come to see you?’

‘Not me specifically. She just came by, asking questions about an old car accident. I think she was working on a story for the school newspaper.’

Yngve turned to face the dead girl again. Her hair was neatly spread out across the floor. As if she was posing for a picture.

‘She has dark spots on her neck’, Therese said. ‘Perhaps someone strangled her.’

Yngve wasn’t listening. For a brief moment it was Åse lying there, staring up at him. Just as she had one of the last times he had visited her at the hospital.

I can’t do it, Åse.

You have to. For me. Please.

‘This is going to get nasty.’

‘Hm?’

Therese pointed at the dead girl.

‘Two murders in a school in this tiny little town? People will go crazy with fear unless we catch the bastard quickly.’