Death of the man at the dam is presented not as a solved case but as a boundary between what the investigators suspect and what they can establish. Sejer studies the body on a stretcher and considers the possibility that someone helped the man die; he and Skarre acknowledge that the dead man has taken secrets with him. The scene closes without identifying a helper or explaining exactly what happened, leaving the death both an investigative fact and an unresolved moral question.

The Scene at the Water

Sejer stands by a tree, looking toward the body on the stretcher while a mobile phone continues to play its cheerful melody. The ordinary, buoyant sound persists beside the sight of a dead man, an abrupt contrast that makes the scene feel less like a conclusion than an interruption. Sejer does not immediately answer the phone. Instead, his attention remains on the body and on what its presence cannot explain.

The conversation turns to Bjørn Schillinger’s coming trial. Skarre says that the trial is in January and that Schillinger is counting on reasonable doubt; if he obtains it, he will be able to take home new dogs. This is a specific legal prospect, not proof of a connection between Schillinger and the death at the dam. The exchange places the prospect of legal judgment beside the unexplained death, while carefully leaving the two matters distinct.

Suspicion Without Proof

Sejer’s conclusion is explicitly tentative. He considers it very possible that somebody helped the man over the edge and says that he can think of several people with a good motive. He does not name them, establish what any of them did, or present evidence sufficient to prove assistance. The distinction matters: his professional intuition can identify a plausible shape for the mystery, but it cannot turn motive into a demonstrable act.

Skarre’s response accepts the image of secrets going to the grave, and Sejer agrees that some may never be disturbed. The exchange offers no confession or decisive revelation about the dead man. Instead, it defines the limits of what the investigation can know. The possibility of help remains alive, but so does the possibility that it will remain only a possibility. The phone’s continuing melody, the body, and the investigators’ restrained exchange leave the scene poised between suspicion and evidentiary silence.

Else Meiner as Witness

The following scene shifts attention from the investigators to Else Meiner, who watches two men from concealment. From a distance, her short red hair makes her resemble a little boy. She does not know the men, but studies their appearance and clothing as they come back from the water. When they walk toward her, she moves quickly away and crouches against a tree, keeping still despite the pain in her thighs and her fear that they might hear her breathing over the roar of the water.

Else also notes their vehicle: a Toyota Land Cruiser whose paint gleams gold in the sun. The men do not speak to each other, but glance around vigilantly before getting in. Their caution is observable; its cause is not explained. They fail to notice Else’s bicycle, which is some distance away in the heather. She stays hidden until they have driven off. Once the scene has become quiet, she gets on her blue Nakamura bicycle and leaves. Her detailed observation adds a witness’s perspective without resolving the men’s purpose or establishing what they know about the death.

An Unclosed Ending

The shift to Else changes the final emphasis from Sejer’s interpretation to the practical facts a concealed observer can retain: two men, their appearance, their careful glances, and the make and color of their car. Her fear shapes the scene, but she is not shown confronting them or reporting what she saw. The narrative therefore ends with a record of observation rather than an explanation. It gives the reader details that may matter while withholding the certainty needed to connect them conclusively to the dead man.

That openness resonates with the book’s other encounters with death, though they are distinct situations rather than causes of this event. Gunilla Mørk has recently celebrated her seventieth birthday and thinks about how uncertain it is that she will reach eighty; later, a fabricated notice declares that she has died in her sleep, using her correct birth date. In another thread, Astrid Landmark faces the progressive paralysis of her husband, Helge, and the practical as well as emotional questions of an anticipated death. Against those forms of feared, announced, and expected death, the body at the dam is physically present, but the circumstances remain uncertain. The contrast sharpens the event’s central tension: death can be unmistakable while responsibility for it remains beyond proof.