When they came upstairs to the front hall, they squinted in the bright light. Anna was still shaking as if she were freezing, and Erica read her thoughts and went to get her clothes from upstairs. She didn’t say a word about finding them in Tobias and Ebba’s bedroom, but Anna knew that she was going to have a lot to explain. Her heart ached when she thought about how upset Dan was going to be, but she couldn’t think about that now. She would have to work that out later.
‘I’ve phoned for reinforcements, and a team is on the way,’ said Patrik. He helped Anna and Ebba to sit on the front steps.
Ia sat down next to Ebba, putting her arm around her. Gösta sat on the other side of Ebba, studying both women. Patrik leaned down and whispered in his ear:
‘That’s Annelie. I’ll tell you more later.’
Gösta gave him a puzzled look. Then an idea flashed through his mind, and he shook his head.
‘The handwriting. Of course – that’s how everything fits together.’
He knew that he’d missed something when they were going through the contents of the boxes. Something that he’d seen and should have understood. Now he turned to Ia.
‘She could have ended up living with us, but she had a good life with the family in Göteborg.’ Gösta noticed that the others were listening but had no idea what he was talking about.
‘I couldn’t bear to think about who might take her in. I couldn’t bear to think about her at all. It was easier that way,’ said Ia.
‘She was so lovely. I was enchanted by her that summer, and we wanted to keep her. But we’d lost a child and had given up any idea of having a…’ He turned away.
‘Yes, she was lovely. A true little angel!’ said Ia, smiling sadly. Ebba looked at them in astonishment.
‘How did you work it out?’ asked Ia.
‘The grocery list. There was a handwritten list among the things that you left behind. And then you gave me the note with the address that you’d written down. And the handwriting was the same.’
‘Would somebody please explain?’ said Patrik. ‘What are you talking about, Gösta?’
‘It was Leon’s idea for me to use Annelie’s passport instead of my own,’ said Ia. ‘There was an age difference of a few years, but we were similar enough for it to work.’
‘I don’t understand.’ Ebba shook her head.
Gösta looked her in the eye. In his mind he saw the little lass who had run around in their yard and left such an impression on his heart. It was high time for her to hear the news that she’d been waiting to receive for so many years.
‘Ebba, this is your mother. This is Inez.’
Utter silence. The only sound was the wind rustling in the birch trees.
‘But, but…’ stammered Ebba. She pointed behind her, towards the basement. ‘Then who is that in there, with the long hair?’
‘Annelie,’ said Ia. ‘We both had long brown hair.’ And she gently touched Ebba’s cheek.
‘Why haven’t you ever…?’ Ebba’s voice was shaky with emotion.
‘There is no simple answer. There’s a lot that I can’t explain, because I don’t understand it myself. I forced myself not to think about you. Otherwise I’d never have been able to give you up.’
‘Leon didn’t finish telling us what happened back then,’ said Patrik. ‘I think it’s time for us to hear the truth.’
‘Yes, it is,’ said Ia.
Boats had appeared out on the water, still some distance away, but coming towards Valö. While he welcomed the prospect that another team would soon take over, first Gösta wanted to hear, at long last, what happened on that Easter weekend in 1974. He took Ebba’s hand in his. Ia took the other.
VALÖ, EASTER EVE 1974
‘What’s this?’ Rune’s face was white as he stood in the doorway to the dining room. Behind him were Leon and the other boys: John, Percy, Sebastian, and Josef.
Inez blinked at them in surprise. She’d never seen Rune lose his composure before, but right now he was so upset that he was shaking all over. He went over to Claes. In his hands he held a stack of photographs and a gun.
‘What’s this?’ he repeated.
Claes didn’t say a word, his face expressionless. The boys cautiously came into the room, and Inez sought Leon’s eye, but he avoided looking at her. Instead, he stared at Claes and Rune. For a moment no one spoke. The air felt heavy and it was hard to breathe. Inez gripped the edge of the table. Something terrible was about to happen right in front of her, and no matter what it was, she knew that things were going to end badly.
A smile slowly spread across Claes’s lips. Before his father could react, he stood up, grabbed the gun, and pressed it against Rune’s forehead. He fell to the floor, lifeless. Blood gushed from the bullet hole, black with gunpowder. Inez heard herself scream. It sounded like it was coming from someone else, but she knew it was her own voice echoing between the walls, blending with Annelie’s cries in a macabre duet.
‘Shut up!’ shouted Claes, still pointing the gun at Rune. ‘Shut up!’
But she couldn’t stop screaming. Terror forced the sound from her mouth as she stared at the dead body of her husband. Ebba was crying shrilly.
‘I said, shut up!’ Claes fired another shot at his father, making the body twitch. The white shirt slowly turned red.
The shock made Inez abruptly fall silent. Even Annelie stopped screaming, but Ebba was still crying.
Claes rubbed his face. In his other hand he held the gun. He looks like a little boy playing cowboy, thought Inez, but there was nothing boyish about Claes’s face. Nor was there anything human about it. His eyes were empty, and he was still smiling that awful smile, as if his face had frozen into that expression. He was breathing hard.
Suddenly he turned towards Ebba and aimed the gun at her. She was still crying, her face bright red. As if frozen in place, Inez watched Claes’s finger press the trigger as Johan threw himself forward. Then he stopped. With a look of astonishment, he looked down at his shirt, where a patch of red was spreading fast. Then he collapsed on the floor.
Silence once again descended over the room. An unnatural silence. Even Ebba was quiet, sucking on her thumb. Next to her highchair, Johan lay on his back. A lock of his blond hair had fallen into his eyes, which were staring, unseeing, up at the ceiling. Inez suppressed a sob.
Claes backed up so that he was standing against the wall. ‘Do as I say. And be quiet. That’s the most important thing of all.’ His voice was eerily calm, as if he were enjoying the situation.
Out of the corner of her eye, Inez saw a movement near the door, and Claes seemed to notice it too. He instantly pointed the gun at the boys.
‘No one leaves the room. No one’s going anywhere.’
‘What are you going to do with us?’ asked Leon.
‘I don’t know. I haven’t decided.’
‘My father has lots of money,’ said Percy. ‘He’ll pay you if you’ll let us go.’
Claes uttered a hollow laugh. ‘It’s not money that I want. You should know that.’
‘We promise not to say anything,’ said John, but his plea fell on deaf ears.
Inez knew that it was pointless. She’d been right about Claes. She’d sensed that there was something missing inside of him. No matter what he’d done to the boys, he was going to cover up his crimes at all costs. He’d already killed two people, and he wasn’t about to let anyone out of there alive. They were all going to die.
Suddenly Leon looked at her, and Inez realized that he was thinking the same thing. They’d never have any more time together other than those few stolen hours. They’d made plans and shared so many thoughts about how they were going to live. All they had to do was wait and have patience, and they’d have a future to share. Now that wasn’t going to happen.