Patrik sat up with a jolt. Something was buzzing. He looked around and at first couldn’t tell where he was or identify where the sound was coming from. Finally he woke up enough to reach for his mobile. He’d turned off the ringer, but the vibrate function was on, and the phone was frantically hopping around on the bedside table, with the display glowing in the dim light of the room.

‘Hello?’

He was instantly wide awake and started getting dressed as he listened and asked follow-up questions. A few minutes later he was fully dressed and on his way out the door when he saw the note that Erica had left, and he realized that she hadn’t been lying in bed next to him. He swore and ran back upstairs. Maja was in her room, but she had climbed out of bed and was sitting on the floor, playing quietly. What the hell was he going to do? He couldn’t leave her home alone. Annoyed, he tried Erica’s mobile, but it just kept ringing until her voicemail took over. Where could she be this early in the morning?

He ended the call and instead punched in Anna and Dan’s number. Anna answered, and he sighed with relief as he quickly explained his dilemma. Then he stood in the front hall, impatiently shifting from one foot to the other during the ten minutes it took Anna to jump in her car and drive over.

‘I can’t believe all the emergency calls I’ve been getting from the two of you lately. First Erica needing to make a trip to Göteborg yesterday, and now you call, sounding as if there’s a fire somewhere.’ Anna laughed as she swept past Patrik and came into the house.

He quickly thanked her and then ran for his car. Not until he was behind the wheel did Anna’s remarks sink in. A trip to Göteborg? Yesterday? He didn’t understand. But it would just have to wait. Right now he had other things to think about.

The whole police force was on site by the time he reached Badholmen. He parked his car in front of the Coast Guard boat and jogged out to the island. Torbjörn Ruud and the other techs were already at work.

‘When did the call come in?’ Patrik asked Gösta, who had come over to meet him. Torbjörn and his team must have driven over from Uddevalla, and shouldn’t have been able to get here faster than he had. Gösta and Martin either, since they had to come from Tanumshede. Why hadn’t anyone phoned him sooner?

‘Annika tried to reach you several times. Apparently last night too, but you didn’t answer.’

Patrik pulled his mobile out of his pocket, prepared to show Gösta that he must be mistaken. But when he looked at the display, he saw that there were six missed calls. Three from yesterday and two from this morning.

‘Do you know why she phoned me yesterday?’ said Patrik, cursing himself for turning off the ringer, even for just one evening. Of course something had to happen the minute he allowed himself not to think about work, for the first time in ages.

‘I have no idea. But this morning it’s because of this.’ He motioned towards the diving tower, and Patrik gave a start. There was something so primeval and dramatic about the sight of a man swinging in the wind with a rope around his neck.

‘Damn it to hell,’ he said, and he really meant it. He thought about Sanna and the children. And about Erica. ‘Who found him?’ Patrik tried to step into his professional role, to lose himself in the work that needed to get done and push aside any thought of all the repercussions. Right now he couldn’t think of Christian as someone who had a wife and children, friends, and a life. At the moment he was just a victim, a mystery that had to be solved. The only thing Patrik could allow himself to think about was that something had happened here, and it was his job to find out what and why.

‘The old man over there. Sven-Olov Rönn. He lives in the white house.’ Gösta pointed towards one of the houses on the slope across from the row of boathouses. ‘Apparently he’s in the habit of surveying the area through his binoculars every morning. And that’s when he caught sight of something hanging from the diving tower. At first he thought it was some sort of kids’ prank, but when he made his way over here, he saw that it was for real.’

‘Is he okay?’

‘A bit shaken up, of course, but he seems to be made of stern stuff.’

‘Don’t let him leave until I have a chance to talk to him,’ said Patrik. Then he went over to Torbjörn, who was cordoning off the area around the tower.

‘You’re certainly keeping us busy, and that’s an understatement,’ said Torbjörn.

‘Believe me, we’d prefer a little peace and quiet.’ Patrik prepared himself to take another look at Christian, and then turned his gaze upwards. The body’s eyes were open and the head had fallen forward a bit when the neck was broken. It looked as if he were staring down at the water.

Patrik shuddered.

‘How long do we have to leave him hanging there?’

‘Not much longer. We just need to take our photographs before we cut him down.’

‘What about transport?’

‘On the way,’ said Torbjörn tersely. He looked keen to get to work.

‘Do whatever you have to do,’ said Patrik, and Torbjörn immediately began issuing orders to his team.

Patrik went over to join Gösta and the elderly man, who looked like he was freezing.

‘Patrik Hedström, Tanum police force,’ he said, holding out his hand.

‘Sven-Olov Rönn,’ said the man, shaking hands as he practically stood to attention.

‘How are you feeling?’ asked Patrik, studying the man’s face for signs of shock. Rönn was a little pale around the gills, but otherwise he looked quite composed.

‘Well, this wasn’t exactly pleasant,’ he said, ‘but I’m going to have myself a small fortifying drink when I get home, and then I’ll be fine.’

‘Would you like to talk to a doctor?’ asked Patrik, prompting a horrified expression to appear on the face of the man standing in front of him. Apparently he was the type of old man who would rather amputate his own arm than consult a doctor.

‘No, no,’ said Rönn, ‘that’s not necessary.’

‘All right then,’ said Patrik. ‘I know that you’ve already talked to my colleague here,’ and he nodded towards Gösta, ‘but I’d like to hear for myself how you happened to find… the man in the tower.’

‘Well, you see, I’m always up at the crack of dawn,’ Rönn began, and then he went on to tell the same story that Gösta had reported to Patrik a few minutes earlier, although with a few more details added. After asking several follow-up questions, Patrik decided to send the old man home so he could get warmed up.

‘So, Gösta. What do you think this means?’ he asked after Rönn had left.

‘The first thing we need to find out is whether it was suicide. Or whether it was the same…’ He didn’t finish the sentence, but Patrik knew what he was thinking.

‘Have you seen anything to indicate a struggle, or some type of resistance?’ Patrik called to Torbjörn, who had stopped halfway up the steps to the diving tower.

‘Not so far. But we’re just getting started,’ he said. ‘We’ll take the photographs first.’ And he waved the big camera he was holding in his hand. ‘Then we’ll see what else we can find. I’ll let you know as soon as I can.’

‘Good. Thanks,’ said Patrik. He realized that there wasn’t much more he could do right now. And there was another task that required his attention.

Martin Molin came over to join them, his face as pale as it always was whenever he had to be near a dead body.

‘Mellberg and Paula are on the way too.’

‘How nice,’ said Patrik without enthusiasm. Both Gösta and Martin knew that it wasn’t Paula who had prompted that tone of voice.

‘What do you want us to do?’ asked Martin.

Patrik took a deep breath as he tried to form a plan in his mind. He was tempted to delegate the task that he was dreading, but his sense of responsibility took over, and after another deep breath, he said: