'Sure, why not? A little return on my taxes wouldn't hurt. I'm just joking,' she added quickly, in case Martin misunderstood.

'No problem,' Martin laughed. 'Any special requests for what sort of food your tax should generate?'

'Something light would be good, maybe a salad. Most people try to slim down for summertime, but I seem to be doing the opposite. I'm trying to lose weight for winter instead.'

'A salad it is,' said Martin and hung up.

He took his jacket and stopped outside Gösta's door.

'Hey, we'll have to skip lunch today. I have to drive up to Strömstad and talk to Eva Nestler, the psychologist we usually consult.' Gösta's expression forced him to add, 'Of course, you can come along if you like.'

For a moment Gösta looked as though he wanted to do just that. Then the skies opened up outside and he shook his head.

'Heck no. I'm staying inside in this weather. I guess I'll give Patrik and Ernst a ring and see if they can bring back something edible.'

'You do that. I'm off now.'

Gösta had already turned his back and didn't reply. Martin hesitated a moment inside the front doors before he turned up his collar and jogged over to his car. Even though it wasn't parked very far away, he still managed to get soaked.

Half an hour later, he was parked by the river a stone's throw from Eva's office. It was located in the same building as the Strömstad police station, and he assumed they had a good deal to do with each other. The police often had occasion to avail themselves of a psychologist's services, for example when a victim of abuse needed professional help after an investigation was concluded. There weren't many practising psychologists in the county; Eva was one of the few. She had an excellent reputation and was considered highly skilled. Patrik had nothing but good things to say about her, and Martin hoped she could also help him.

In reality he wasn't quite sure why he wanted to consult her. Morgan was not a suspect, after all, but Martin's curiosity had been aroused by what lay behind his strange behaviour and character. Asperger's was something altogether new for Martin, and it couldn't hurt to know more about it.

He shook the rain off his jacket before he hung it in the cloakroom. His shirt underneath was also damp, and he shivered a bit. In a paper bag he had two salads that he'd bought at Coffee and Buns, and Eva Nestler's receptionist had apparently been forewarned of his arrival. She merely nodded in the direction of the door with Eva's nameplate. He knocked discreetly and heard a voice call out, 'Come in.'

'Hello, that was fast.' Eva glanced at the clock. 'I hope you didn't break any speed limits on the way over here.' She feigned a disapproving look and he laughed.

'No, no danger of that. Besides, I happen to know that the police are busy with other things today,' he whispered conspiratorially with a wink. He recalled that he'd liked Eva the first time he met her. She had a special talent for making people relax in her company. It must be a gift particular to people in her profession.

Martin set out the lunch on a little table in her office.

'I hope prawn salad will do.'

'That's perfect,' replied Eva, getting up from her chair behind the desk and sitting down on one of the four chairs around the table.

'Actually I'm only fooling myself,' she said as she poured the entire contents of the little container of dressing on the salad. 'After all this liquid fat has covered the veggies, I might as well have ordered a hamburger. But a salad feels better psychologically. That way I might be able to convince myself that I can indulge in a piece of cake tonight.' She laughed so hard her breasts jiggled.

Martin could see from her plump figure that she probably convinced herself of that quite often, but she was elegantly dressed and her grey hair was cut short in a style that looked modern yet suitable for her age.

'So, you wanted to know more about Asperger's syndrome,' she said.

'Yes, I encountered it for the first time yesterday, and at this stage I'm mostly just curious,' said Martin as he impaled a prawn on his fork.

'Well, I do know something about it, but I've never actually had a patient with that diagnosis, so I had to read up on the subject before you came. What is it you want to know, more specifically? There's plenty to say about it.'

'Let's see,' Martin said, giving it some thought. 'Maybe you could tell me a bit about what characterizes someone with Asperger's, and how you can tell that's what it is.'

'First of all, it's a diagnosis that hasn't been in use until quite recently. It probably appeared about fifteen years ago, but it was first documented back in the forties by Hans Asperger. It's a functional disorder. Some researchers now claim he may have had the malady himself.'

Martin nodded and let Eva continue.

'It's a form of autism, but the person most often has normal to high intelligence.'

Martin recognized this from what Morgan had said.

Eva went on, 'What makes it hard to describe Asperger's syndrome is that the symptoms can vary from one individual to another, and they're divided into several groups. Some people withdraw inside themselves, more like classic autism, while others are extremely outgoing. And Asperger's is seldom discovered early. Parents may be concerned that their child's behaviour is abnormal in some way, without being able to say exactly what's wrong. And as I said, the problem is that it can vary considerably from one child to another. Some Asperger's children start talking unusually early, some unusually late, and the same is true of starting to walk and lots of other developmental areas. Normally the problem doesn't show up before school age, but that's also when it can be wrongly diagnosed as ADHD or DAMP.'

'And how does the problem manifest itself then?' Martin was so fascinated that he was neglecting his lunch. Before he applied for the police academy he had toyed with the idea of studying psychology, and sometimes he wondered whether he might have made the wrong choice. Nothing was as interesting as the human psyche in all its myriad forms.

'The most obvious symptoms are probably the difficulties that arise with social interaction. The children consistently behave in an improper fashion. They don't understand social rules, and they may have a tendency to blurt out the truth, which obviously makes it hard to get along with other people. There is also a strong egocentricity. They have a hard time relating to other people's feelings and experiences and care only about themselves. Often they don't have much need to be with other people. If they do play with other children they either try to decide everything or they completely submit to the other children's will. The latter is more common among girls with the syndrome. Another clear indication is if the child develops a special interest that becomes an obsession. Children with Asperger's have the capacity to become incredibly detail-oriented, and they often learn everything about their special interest. For adults it's often exciting to watch the child develop his knowledge, but Asperger children have such one- track minds and are so often consumed by their special passion that others soon lose interest. When the children reach school age, obsessive thoughts and actions start becoming noticeable. They have to do things in a certain way, and they also force people around them to do things that way.'

'What about language?' asked Martin, recalling Morgan's odd way of expressing himself.

'Yes, language is another strong indicator.' Eva scraped the last of her salad from the plastic bowl and then continued. 'It's one of the big difficulties that people with Asperger's syndrome encounter in their daily lives. When we humans communicate, we usually express much more than what our words say. We use body language and facial expressions, we modify the intonation of a sentence, use different emphasis, and vigorously employ similes and metaphors. All these things present difficulties for someone with Asperger's. An expression such as "we'll probably have to skip coffee" could be understood as meaning that one should jump over a coffee cup. When speaking, they also have a hard time understanding hearing how they sound to other people. Their voice could be very soft, almost a whisper, or very loud and shrill. Often it is droning and monotonous.'