I pulled an old milk carton from a paper bag sitting in the cupboard under the sink. I pulled the sealed flaps apart and started filling the carton with shards of glass. Several drinking glasses had been smashed.

‘Maybe you could take this out?’

Håkan took the bin bag and got up, slowly, and when he moved, he hopped along as though his foot were in a cast. After a few steps, the mouse had had enough and slipped back down onto the floor.

When he came back in and sat down, the mouse ran up his leg and onto the kitchen table, where it submitted to inspection by Håkan, who took off his glasses and examined its fur.

‘Did you know Diana cheated on me once?’

I shook my head. He was speaking unnaturally loudly and I didn’t like it.

‘With an old course mate, at a conference in Gothenburg. I think that’s why I reacted like I did. Because she’d told me it was just going to be her and Susso here. And then that bloke was on the bed. I just snapped.’

‘You certainly did.’

‘You can never trust each other again after something like that.’

‘No, it can be difficult.’

‘It can’t be fixed.’

We had decided not to start digging until late that night. There were no neighbours around but better safe than sorry. A person could come sailing down the river. But when I noticed that the mouse was already beginning to burrow into Håkan, I realised waiting that long might come with risks.

‘Maybe it’s time?’ I said.

He looked up, with a vacant, indifferent look on his face.

‘Time for what?’

*

I went outside and walked over to the henhouse. There were some gardening tools just inside the door, including two shovels. One for digging and one for scooping.

Digging a hole deep enough to fit a full-grown man is not the work of a moment. And if the soil is stony and criss-crossed with roots that seem to serve no other purpose than to make digging harder, then it’s terrifically tiring work. Håkan had to do the digging, of course. He was unwilling at first, but I turned the conversation back onto the topic of adultery; that got him moving. He dug with gritted teeth and boundless, furious energy.

I ambled about in the yard, on the lookout. Not primarily for people. A feeling of being watched had crept up on me and it wasn’t hard to figure out who it might be. My eyes searched the pine trees, but furtively, because I had no intention of appearing inviting.