‘He started to take things into his own hands, you could say. Of course, we knew nothing about it, me and Anita. It wasn’t until our other sons told us that we realized Göran’s illness had come back. And that it was worse than any of us could have imagined.’

‘His illness?’

‘His dark side got him into a heap of trouble. He started molesting girls. He was tired of being turned down all the time and that led to the physical abuse. We’re not proud of it and we tried as hard as we could to put a stop to it. We set him to work, tried to get him to take out his frustration in a more positive way. And it succeeded. To start with. He spent a whole year building his own bunker down by the lake. He didn’t want any help. Naturally, I had taught him all the basics. We already had two bunkers on our land, but Göran wanted one of his own. And of course, we didn’t have anything against it. We were proud of him, proud of the initiative he had taken. Never could we have guessed what it would lead to.’

Lelle leaned back heavily against the wall and tried to keep his head still to avoid the nausea. Birger pushed a fat finger under his glasses to wipe his eyes.

‘It took several months for us to realize what he had done. Göran has never been able to tell the difference between humans and animals. He can’t see any difference between hunting moose and hunting girls. To him they are prey to be caught. He doesn’t understand that people can’t be had by brutality.’

Birger’s face became animated, while Lelle sat frozen against the wall. The feeling of unreality seemed to have wrapped him in a thick daze. He didn’t want to hear more, but his tongue wouldn’t let him speak.

‘It was my other sons who came and told us that Göran had a girl in his bunker,’ Birger continued. ‘It came as a total shock to us, as you can imagine. It was around midsummer three years ago, and by now you have probably realized that it was your daughter he had taken. Your Lina.’

Lelle heard the scream, a primal howl that made his guts freeze. He heard it, but it took a long time for him to realize that it came from him.

Birger got up from the chair and began moving towards the door, away from Lelle. A weapon Lelle hadn’t noticed before glinted in his hand. He waited until it was quiet.

‘I hate to say this, but we lost her last Christmas. Göran told us it was an accident, a game that went wrong. He didn’t mean to kill her. I’m sorry, Lennart. From the bottom of my heart.’