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convicted murderer, but then was interrupted when Carolina Glanz swept into the office in a pair of thigh-high red boots, a short, red, vinyl skirt, and a black leather jacket.

Huddinge Hospital
     
    SOFIA ARRIVED AT Huddinge just after half past ten and parked in front of the vast complex.
    The entire building was clad in grey and blue panelling, in sharp contrast to the surrounding houses, which were painted in a range of bright colours. She had heard that during the Second World War this was meant to confuse any potential bombing raid on the hospital. The intention had been to make it look from above as if the hospital were a lake, and the buildings around it were supposed to look like fields and meadows.
    She stopped in the cafeteria and bought coffee, a sandwich and the evening papers, before heading towards the main entrance.
    She left her things in a locker, then went through the metal detector and on into the long corridor. She walked past Ward 113, and as usual heard shouting and fighting inside. That was where they kept the most difficult patients, under heavy medication, while they were waiting to go to one of the other care facilities around the country.
    She walked along the corridor, then turned right into Ward 112 and made her way to the consulting room that the psychologists shared. She glanced at the time and noted that she was fifteen minutes early.
    She closed the door, sat down at the desk and compared the front pages of the two evening papers.
    MACABRE FIND IN CENTRAL STOCKHOLM and MUMMY FOUND IN BUSHES !
    She took a bite of the sandwich and sipped the hot coffee. The mummified body of a young boy had been found out at Thorildsplan.
    More dead children, she thought with a heavy heart.
    The door was opened by a thickset psychiatric nurse. ‘I’ve got someone out here that I gather you’re supposed to talk to. Nasty piece of work, with a load of shit on her conscience.’ He gestured over his shoulder.
    She didn’t like the language the nurses used among themselves. Even if they were dealing with serious criminals, there was no reason to be offensive or condescending.
    ‘Show her in, please, then you can leave us alone.’

Mariatorget – Sofia Zetterlund’s Office
     
    AT TWO O’CLOCK Sofia Zetterlund was back in her office in the city. She still had two appointments left before the day’s work was over, and she realised it was going to be hard to stay focused after her visit to Huddinge.
    Sofia sat down at her desk to formulate a recommendation that Tyra Mäkelä be sentenced to secure psychiatric care. The meeting of the members of the consultative team had led to the lead psychiatrist moderating his position somewhat, and Sofia was hopeful that they would soon be able to make a final decision.
    If nothing else, then for Tyra Mäkelä’s sake.
    The woman needed treatment.
    Sofia had presented a summary of the woman’s background and character. Tyra Mäkelä had two suicide attempts behind her: as a fourteen-year-old she had taken an intentional overdose of pills, and she was put on disability benefit at the age of twenty as a result of persistent depression. The fifteen years she had spent with the sadistic Harri Mäkelä had led to another suicide attempt, then the murder of their adopted son.
    Sofia believed that the time she had spent with her husband, who had been deemed sufficiently sane to be sentenced to prison, had exacerbated the woman’s condition.
    Sofia’s conclusion was that Tyra Mäkelä had in all likelihood suffered repeated psychotic episodes during the years in which the abuse took place. There were two documented visits to a psychiatric clinic during the past year that supported her thesis. In both cases she had been found wandering the streets and had to be hospitalised for several days before she could be discharged.
    Sofia also saw other mitigating factors regarding Tyra Mäkelä’s culpability in the case. Her IQ was so low that it meant she could hardly be held