Given the occult manner of the Vällingby murder, the Sunday papers label the murderer “The Ritual Killer.” Though the public wants justice served, this “justice” takes on shameful consequences as the police arrest Lebanese foreigners and the public begins associating the murders with strange, foreign customs. A young girl who spotted the murderer in the forest later gives police a loose idea of what he looks like. This sketch appears in the paper as well. Despite the public’s focus on the murderer, a Soviet submarine runs aground in Sweden. This event will soon dwarf the public’s interest in the murder. 

Though the murderer has been the topic of conversation at school—many kids lie by saying they’ve seen the murderer—everyone now focuses on the gossip that the Russians are purportedly invading Sweden. Oskar and a boy named Johan talk about Russian nuclear weapons, then pretend to decimate a “town” with weapons by hurling rocks into a sandbox. When Jonny and Micke show up, they taunt Oskar and tell him to clean up the rocks. Shockingly, Oskar refuses. Because of this, however, the boys threaten to make his punishment worse at a later date and leave. Oskar can’t really explain why he stood up to them, though the jungle gym on the sandbox might have reminded him of the one in his courtyard.