‘The only thing you need to know is that he’s dangerous. Because he won’t let go until he feels like it.’

‘Like a parasite.’

‘There is nothing to be done about it.’

‘We were lucky, Nänne. Do you hear me? He had no interest in us. Not even you, with your angel’s hair.’

‘He finds a secret way into your head and when he’s inside, he goes looking for things. Things you’ve hidden. Every time I went over to Susso’s, when she lived here, I left feeling lower than low. Everything turned black and I sat around dwelling on all kinds of misery that bubbled up, my divorce and other things, and you can back me up here, Roland, I got depressed. And it obviously took me a while to figure out the squirrel was causing it and I think he was doing it so I’d leave them alone. And he got his way, in the end.’

‘Gudrun,’ Roland said. ‘Tell them about the mouse.’

‘When we were there, at Susso’s, that night, when it happened, there was a mouse there, and it was because of the mouse things turned out the way they did. It got into both our heads but especially Håkan’s. And Håkan, he flew into a rage, because he thought that person had something to do with Diana going missing. And things went pear-shaped. It was the mouse’s fault. One hundred per cent. I’m certain of it. That’s why I killed it.’

‘You killed it?’ Harr said.

‘Yes.’

‘Wasn’t that risky?’

I shrugged.

Now Roland leaned forward.

‘The question is whether we shouldn’t give the squirrel the same treatment.’

‘If I thought it was possible,’ I said, ‘I would have done it a long time ago, obviously. This mouse, it was so naïve. I don’t even think it was aware of what it was doing to us, it was just dashing about, completely high on all the hatred and confusion emanating from us. The squirrel, on the other hand, is anything but naïve. I don’t even think it’s possible to trick it. I wouldn’t dare to try, anyway.’

‘It has to go,’ Roland said. ‘If Susso’s ever going to have a chance to be herself again, it has to go.’

‘How many times have I told you just that? But you haven’t believed me. But when your pals show up and tell you the squirrel is bad news, then you’re suddenly on board.’

‘If these two gentlemen tell me the squirrel is a troll, it’s a troll. They would never lie to me.’

‘I wouldn’t go so far as to claim the squirrel is a troll,’ Harr interjected, ‘but I suppose we can call it that, for the sake of simplicity.’

‘But I would?’

‘Not lie, exactly. But you’ve grown up with this—’