‘That’s fine.’ Ebba smiled but she still seemed exhausted.
‘What did your parents say? Patrik felt terrible that they had to hear about the fire and the shooting in that way, but he assumed you’d already told them.’
‘I should have done, but I was putting it off. I know how worried they get. They would have wanted us to give up and move back.’
‘Have you considered doing that?’ said Erica as she put in the Lotta on Bråkmakargatan DVD. The twins were asleep, worn out from the expedition to Gösta’s house, but Maja was sitting on the sofa, waiting for the movie to begin.
Ebba paused to think before answering. Then she shook her head. ‘No, we can’t go back home. If this doesn’t work out, I don’t know what we’ll do. I know it’s idiotic to stay here, and I am scared, but at the same time… the worst thing that could happen to us has already happened.’
‘What…’ Erica began. She had finally gathered her courage to ask about their son, but at that moment the front door opened and Anna walked in.
‘Hello!’ she called.
‘Come on in. I’m just putting in the Lotta DVD for the thousandth time.’
‘Hi,’ said Anna, nodding to Ebba. She gave a cautious smile, as if not sure how to act after what they’d been through the previous day.
‘Hi, Anna,’ said Ebba, equally hesitant. But in her case, the wariness seemed part of her personality, and Erica wondered whether she’d been a more open sort of person before her son died.
The movie started playing, so Erica stood up. ‘Head on into the kitchen, and I’ll be right there.’
Anna and Ebba went into the kitchen and sat down at the table.
‘Did you get some sleep?’ asked Anna.
‘Yes, I slept more than twelve hours, but I feel as if I could sleep for another twelve.’
‘It’s probably the shock.’
Erica came in to join them, carrying a stack of papers.
‘What I’ve collected isn’t comprehensive, by any means, and you’ve probably already seen some of it,’ she said, setting the papers on the table.
‘I haven’t seen anything,’ said Ebba, shaking her head. ‘This may sound odd, but I never thought much about my background until I took over the house and we moved here. I had a good life, and it all seemed a little… absurd.’ Her eyes fell on the pile of papers as if she might absorb the information merely by staring at it.
‘Right then.’ Erica opened a notebook and cleared her throat. ‘Your mother, Inez, was born in 1951 and was only twenty-three when she disappeared. I haven’t been able to find out much about her before she married Rune. She was born and raised in Fjällbacka, got average grades in school, but that’s all I could find in the archives. She married your father, Rune Elvander, in 1970, and you were born in January 1973.’
‘January third,’ Ebba added with a nod.
‘Rune was significantly older than Inez, as I’m sure you know. He was born in 1919 and had three children from a previous marriage: Johan, who was nine; Annelie, who was sixteen; and Claes, who was nineteen when they disappeared. Their mother, Carla, who was Rune’s first wife, died one year before Rune and Inez got married. And according to the people I’ve talked to, it wasn’t exactly easy for your mother to become part of that family.’
‘I wonder why she married a man who was so much older,’ said Ebba. ‘Pappa must have been…’ she silently did the calculation in her head, ‘fifty-one when they were married.’
‘Your maternal grandmother seems to have had a lot to do with it. She was clearly – how should I put this…’
‘I have no relationship with my grandmother, so I won’t mind if you speak bluntly. My family is in Göteborg. This part of my life is purely of academic interest so far as I’m concerned.’
‘Then you won’t be offended if I say that your grandmother was considered a real bitch.’
‘Erica!’ said Anna reproachfully.
For the first time since they’d met Ebba, she laughed heartily.
‘Don’t worry.’ She turned to Anna. ‘It doesn’t upset me. I want to hear the truth, or at least as much of it as we can find out.’
‘Okay,’ said Anna, but she sounded sceptical.
Erica went on: ‘Your maternal grandmother was named Laura, and she was born in 1920.’
‘So my grandmother was about the same age as my father,’ said Ebba. ‘That makes me wonder even more about what went on.’
‘As I said, Laura seems to have played a major role. Apparently she was the one who got your mother to marry Rune. But it’s not something that I can prove, so you should take it with a grain of salt.’
Erica began rummaging through the stack of papers and pulled out a copy of a photo, which she placed in front of Ebba.
‘This is a picture of your grandparents, Laura and Sigvard.’
Ebba leaned forward. ‘She’s not exactly cheerful,’ she said, staring at the stern-faced woman. The man next to her didn’t seem any happier.
‘Sigvard died in 1954, shortly after this photo was taken.’
‘They look wealthy,’ said Anna as she too leaned forward to study the picture.
‘They were,’ said Erica, nodding. ‘At least up until Sigvard’s death. Then it turned out that he’d made a number of bad business investments. There wasn’t much money left, and since Laura didn’t have a job, the funds slowly ran out. Presumably Laura would have ended up destitute if Inez hadn’t married Rune.’
‘Was my father rich?’ asked Ebba. She had picked up the photo and was holding it close to her eyes, examining it in minute detail.
‘I wouldn’t call him rich, but he was well-to-do. He had enough to pay for a respectable widow’s flat for Laura over on the mainland.’
‘But she was dead by the time my parents disappeared, wasn’t she?’
Erica paged through the notebook on the table in front of her.
‘Yes. Laura died of a heart attack in 1973. Out on Valö, as a matter of fact. Rune’s eldest son, Claes, found her behind the house. She was already dead.’
Erica licked her thumb and then began going through the stack until she found a photocopy of a newspaper article. ‘Here’s what it said in Bohusläningen.’
‘My grandmother seems to have been something of a celebrity around here,’ said Ebba when she’d finished reading.
‘Yes, everyone knew who Laura Blitz was. Sigvard had made his fortune from the shipping trade, and it was rumoured that he’d made deals with the Germans during the Second World War.’
‘Were they Nazis?’ said Ebba, horrified.
‘I don’t know how involved they were,’ Erica replied hesitantly. ‘But it was generally known that your grandparents harboured certain sympathies with the Germans.’
‘Mamma too?’ said Ebba, her eyes wide. Anna glared at Erica.
‘I’ve never heard anyone say that,’ replied Erica, shaking her head. ‘Nice but a bit naive. That was how most people described Inez. And terribly dominated by her mother.’
‘That would explain why she married my father.’ Ebba bit her lip. ‘Wasn’t he also a very authoritarian kind of person? Or is that something I’ve imagined because he was the headmaster of a boarding school?’
‘No, that seems to be right. He was said to be a very stern and harsh man.’
‘Was my grandmother originally from Fjällbacka?’ Ebba again picked up the picture of the woman with the forbidding expression.
‘Yes, her family had lived in Fjällbacka for several generations. Her mother was named Dagmar, and she was born in Fjällbacka in 1900.’
‘So she was… twenty when she had my grandmother? But I suppose it was quite common at the time to be so young. Who was Laura’s father?’
‘It says “father unknown” in the birth registry. And Dagmar was apparently quite a character.’ Erica again licked her thumb and then continued her search until she found a paper almost at the bottom of the stack. ‘This is an excerpt from the judicial registry.’