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was probably feeling just as sheepish as he looked. The hospital had been named Löwander Hospital after the deceased doctor.
    “Apparently his wife found out about the affair and demanded that Tekla be fired. The hospital belonged to the family of Mrs. Löwander, after all. She’d inherited it from her father.”
    “So Sverker Löwander’s mother was wealthy?”
    “Yes.”
    “Tell me about his father … Hilding?”
    “I remember Hilding Löwander very well. He was a doctor from the old school. No one dared talk back to him. He performed surgery until he was seventy-five years old.”
    “What happened to Nurse Tekla?”
    “Gertrud told me all about this love affair. Nurse Tekla had just turned thirty, and he was twenty years her senior. What’s remarkable is that, according to rumor, Mrs. Löwander didn’t mind at first. All three of them even went on vacation together. According to Gertrud, this photograph was taken secretly as they left for one such vacation.”
    Andersson took the photo back and peered at it with renewed interest while Siv Persson continued.
    “The Löwanders had been married for many years when Mrs. Löwander unexpectedly became pregnant. She’d already turned forty. It was then she decided that Nurse Tekla had to go. Somehow Nurse Tekla found a job in Stockholm and moved there early in the fall of 1946. No one heard anything from her until March 1947. It turned out she was found in the attic of this building at that time. She’d committed suicide. Hanged herself.”
    The room was quiet. Irene realized that the superintendent had no idea how to interpret Nurse Siv’s story. She looked as if she truly believed she’d seen the long-dead Nurse Tekla during the night. In order to break the silence, Irene asked, “How did you find this photograph?”
    “Gertrud found it. The old medicine cabinets were going to be discarded, and she and a colleague were supposed to clean out all the expired medicine. She found the picture stuffed behind an extra shelf at the bottom of one cabinet. They had no idea what to do with it, so they put it back when the renovation was over. It became one of the nurses’ secrets. The picture has been there all these years, and every new nurse gets to see it when she starts working here. Naturally, everybody has heard of the hospital ghost. And whenever it’s discussed, we take out this old photo.”
    “Why? To prove that the stories are true?”
    “The stories are absolutely true! Nurse Gertrud was the person who cut Tekla down. She’d been hanging in the attic for a few days before someone noticed the smell.”
    “And you really believe she haunts this place?”
    “Lots of folks have seen her over the years,” Siv protested. “I’ve heard her before, but I’ve never seen her. Until last night.”
    She glanced at the superintendent, and Irene hurried to ask, “What do you mean when you said you heard her?”
    Nurse Siv answered slowly. “Sometimes there are rustling noises by the sinks in the disinfection room, even though nobody is there. Sometimes you hear her skirts swish in the hallway. Once I felt an ice-cold breeze pass right next to me. Most people here avoid this hallway between midnight and one in the morning.”
    “What about you? What do you do at that hour?”
    “We usually go to my office and have a cup of coffee and something to eat.”
    “You and the ICU nurse?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Are you the only two people working here at that time?”
    “Yes, we are.”
    “But after twelve A.M . you could be joined by Nurse Tekla, you say?”
    “Between twelve and one. She never appears after one.”
    Andersson said, “So she’s a classic ghost who observes the witching hour. In that case what happens during the summer when it’s still light? Does she come between one and two then?”
    Nurse Siv realized he was making fun of her and clamped her mouth shut.
    To steer the interview in another direction, Irene asked, “How long had