My descent of the stairs was not half as nimble as Håkan’s and the mouse’s; it was more akin to the dead man’s. At least that’s how it felt, mentally. The determination that had filled me was fading now. I stepped out on the front porch and looked around; after I confirmed that the coast was clear with a look, Håkan grabbed the belt again and dragged the body outside. Halfway to the grave, he had to stretch out his back and rest for a moment.

‘His baseball cap,’ I said.

I hurried into the house and up the stairs. My heart was pounding. Fetching the cap was almost worse than fetching the man who had worn it. It felt so calculated. Murder, Gudrun. This is murder. I pushed all such thoughts down, found a napkin in my handbag and grabbed the vizor with it, because you never know.

When I got back down, Håkan had already wrestled the man into the pit. He was not going to have a comfortable eternal rest; he looked like he had failed to do a backflip.

‘Should we try to turn him over?’ I asked.

‘Let’s just fill it up. Throw his cap in.’

We grabbed the shovels and started filling the hole. The first few spadefuls of dirt were the worst; as soon as the body was out of sight, it got easier. I think we both drew strength from that.

The mouse was very interested in our work. It dashed about around the grave and when I accidentally almost ran my shovel through it, I had a sudden impulse to kill it.

I had no time to think, I just whacked it.

It probably died instantly, but I followed up with a few more blows, both to make sure and to vent. Håkan tried to stop me, but it was too late. Once he was sitting there with the little beast in the palm of his hand, it had been thoroughly dispatched.

I gave him a moment. After a while, he stood up and threw the mouse in the pit. Neither one of us said a word about what I had done or what he thought about it.

*

We filled up the hole, then studied our handiwork. A black rectangle in the lawn. A noticeable one. Not to say conspicuous.

‘What were we thinking?’ I said.

‘We weren’t thinking.’

‘Well, we can’t leave it like this.’

‘No.’

‘We’re going to have to cover it up.’

‘If we cover it up, it’ll never grow over.’