Chapter 2 Summary

An officer takes the phone call about the murders and calls Detective Kurt Wallander, waking him from a sexual dream. Wallander orders two police officers to meet him near the scene to investigate. He quickly showers and dresses, wondering if there will be snow this winter and thinking of his wife, who left him three months previously. Wallander drives out and meets the police officers, and they all arrive at the farm in Lunnarp.

The man who discovered the bodies, Nyström, meets the police when they arrive and leads them into his neighbor's house. The bodies are in the bedroom, and the scene is gruesome. Johannes Lövgren is mutilated and dead. His wife Maria has been strangled with a noose and is barely alive. Wallander calls for an ambulance, and the medics arrive and take away Maria.

Wallander orders a full...