‘You should be glad they didn’t swipe your computer. I assume that it’s too late to bring someone in to dust for fingerprints?’
‘Yes, I don’t think it would do any good. I’ve been typing on the keyboard, and the kids are always running around with sticky fingers.’
Patrik shook his head in resignation.
‘And I don’t really know whether Holm is behind it,’ said Erica. ‘That was an assumption I made because the break-in occurred after I happened to take that note.’
‘Happened to take it?’ said Patrik, snorting.
‘But now I’ve turned it over to Kjell, so there’s no longer any danger.’
‘The people who are looking for it don’t know what you’ve done with it.’ Patrik stared at her as if she were an idiot.
‘I realize that. But nothing else bad has happened.’
‘Still, it would have been nice to find out about this a little earlier. Gösta has at least told me some of what the two of you have managed to find out.’
‘And tomorrow we’re going to see Junk-Olle and get back the family’s possessions.’
‘Junk-Olle?’
‘Didn’t Gösta tell you? We found out what happened to everything that belonged to the Elvander family. Junk-Olle was apparently a sort of handyman out at the summer camp when it was a boarding school, and when Gösta phoned him to ask about the family’s belongings, he said: “It’s amazing how long it’s taken the police to come asking about those things!”’ Erica laughed.
‘So Junk-Olle has been keeping them all these years?’
‘Yes, and at ten o’clock tomorrow morning I’m going over there with Gösta to go through it all.’
‘No, you’re not,’ said Patrik. ‘I’m going out there with Gösta.’
‘But I…’ Erica began, but then realized that it would be better to give in. ‘Okay.’
‘From now on, you’re to keep out of this investigation,’ he warned her, but she saw to her relief that he was no longer angry.
They heard footsteps on the stairs. Ebba was about to join them.
Erica got up to finish washing the dishes.
‘Friends?’ she said.
‘Friends,’ said Patrik.
He sat in the dark, watching her. It was her fault. Anna had exploited his vulnerable state and tricked him into breaking his vows to Ebba. He had promised to love Ebba in sickness and in health, until death did them part. That fact didn’t change just because he now realized that she was the one to blame for what had happened. He loved her and would forgive her. He had stood before her, dressed in his best suit, and vowed to be faithful. She had been so beautiful in her simple white dress, and she had looked him in the eye, listened to his words, and then locked them in her heart. Now Anna had ruined everything.
She gave a faint grunt and burrowed her head in the pillow. Ebba’s pillow. Tobias wanted to tear the pillow away to keep Anna’s scent from sullying it. Ebba had always used the same shampoo and the pillowcase was usually fragrant from her hair. He clenched his fists as he sat there in bed. Ebba should have been the one lying next to him with the moonlight illuminating her lovely face, casting shadows around her nose and eyes. It should have been Ebba’s chest rising and falling, naked above the edge of the blanket. He stared at Anna’s breasts. They were so different from Ebba’s, which were like tiny buds, and below he could see the scars winding their way towards Anna’s stomach. Earlier in the night they had felt rough under his hands, and now he was disgusted by the sight of them. Cautiously he reached out, grabbed the blanket, and pulled it up to cover her body. Her repulsive body that had pressed against him and erased the memory of Ebba’s skin.
The thought made him nauseated. He had to undo this so that Ebba could come back. For a moment he sat perfectly still. Then he picked up his own pillow and slowly lowered it over Anna’s face.
FJÄLLBACKA 1951
It was most unexpected. She wasn’t ill-disposed towards children, but as the years passed and nothing happened, she had calmly come to the conclusion that she would never have any of her own. Sigvard already had two grown sons, so he didn’t seem concerned about the fact that she was barren.
But then a year ago she suddenly began to feel terribly and inexplicably tired. Sigvard presumed the worst and sent her to their family doctor for a thorough examination. She too thought it might be cancer or something equally fatal, but it turned out that at the age of thirty she had suddenly become pregnant. The doctor could offer no explanation, and it took Laura several weeks to assimilate the news. These days her life was largely uneventful, and that suited her just fine. She preferred to stay at home, in the house where she was the mistress and everything had been deliberately chosen and arranged. Now something was going to erase the perfect order that she had so meticulously established.
Along with the pregnancy came peculiar symptoms and unwelcome physical changes. The realization that there was something inside of her body that she could not control brought her to the verge of panic. The actual birth was horrible, and she decided that never again would she allow herself to be subjected to such an experience. She refused to undergo the pain, powerlessness, and bestial condition of giving birth to another child, so Sigvard had to move into the guestroom for good. He didn’t seem to mind, satisfied as he was with his life.
She had spent the first days with Inez in a state of shock. Then she found Nanna, blessed and wonderful Nanna, who lifted from her shoulders all responsibility for the baby and allowed her to go on with her own life. Nanna immediately moved into the house, and her room was next door to the nursery, so she could quickly tend to Inez in the night or whenever she needed attention. Nanna took over her care completely, and Laura was then free to come and go as she pleased. Usually she would stop by the nursery for a short visit, and on those occasions she was able to enjoy being with her daughter. By the time Inez was eighteen months old, she could be charming and sweet, as long as she wasn’t crying because she was hungry or needed to be changed. But such matters were Nanna’s concern, and Laura thought that everything had been arranged so well, in spite of the unexpected turn that her life had taken. She wasn’t fond of changes, so the less the birth of the baby altered her life, the easier it was for her to accept her daughter.
Laura straightened the framed photos on the bureau. There were pictures of her and Sigvard and of Sigvard’s two sons with their families. They still hadn’t managed to frame any photographs of Inez, and she would never dream of displaying a picture of her mother. She preferred to forget all about her mother and grandmother.
To Laura’s relief, her mother now seemed to have disappeared for good. It had been two years since she’d last communicated, and no one in the area had seen hide nor hair of her. Yet their last meeting was still fresh in Laura’s mind. Dagmar had been released from the mental hospital a year earlier, but she hadn’t dared turn up at the house where Laura and Sigvard lived. People said that she was often seen staggering around town, exactly as she’d done when Laura was a child. When Dagmar finally stood on their doorstep – toothless, filthy, her clothes in rags – she was as crazy as always, and Laura couldn’t understand why the doctors had discharged her. At least in the hospital Dagmar had been given medicine, and they hadn’t let her touch any booze. Much as Laura would have liked to tell her mother to get lost, she let her into the house, moving quickly so that the neighbours wouldn’t see.