That was the first time Daniel had heard Edvin say the word that was so important to Father. Damn. Daniel could see that he was furious.
‘It was me,’ said Daniel.
Edvin stiffened. ‘What did you say?’
‘It was me.’
‘Who did what?’
Edvin’s questions made Daniel confused. He immediately regretted that he had begun to speak again.
‘I’m glad you’re talking. But I don’t understand what you’re saying.’
‘I’m going home soon.’
Edvin shook his head. ‘You’re sick,’ he said. ‘And you won’t get well as long as you sleep out here in the barn. You’re raving, but I still have to bring in the man who wants to talk to you.’
The man who came into the barn was young with only a few patches of hair on his head, and he moved quickly, as if he were in a great hurry. Edvin brought over a milk pail for him to sit on. He gave Daniel an inquisitive look.
‘I’ve read about you in the newspapers,’ he said. ‘About your trip with the dead girl on the Sound. And about how you got to meet the King. But I expected you to be bigger. And I didn’t expect that I would meet you like this.’
He moved the pail closer to Daniel and leaned forward.
‘You know what has happened. Someone killed Sanna in a very brutal way. We have to catch the man who did it. Then he will probably be executed in Malmö prison. A man who has committed such a horrible crime might do it again. That’s why we have to catch him. Do you understand what I’m saying?’
Daniel’s face was immobile.
‘He understands,’ said Edvin, who stayed in the background. ‘But he’s ill and doesn’t speak very often.’
‘I have to ask some questions,’ the man went on. ‘Did you see Sanna after you both came back here?’
Daniel didn’t like the man sitting on the pail. He smelled of shaving lotion and tobacco and would never understand what had happened. He had come to get Daniel and then chop off his head. He didn’t have time for that. Soon Kiko and Be would arrive. Each morning when he woke up he knew that the moment would soon be here. He quickly decided that the best way to get the man to leave him in peace was to answer his questions.
‘No.’
‘You never saw her?’
‘No.’
‘Do you know if Sanna ever met someone who was not from around here?’
‘No.’
‘She wasn’t afraid of anybody? I’m not talking about her stepfather, she was terrified of him, I know that. But he didn’t do it. I’ve questioned him hard and he can prove he didn’t do it. Anyone else?’
‘No.’
The man rubbed his hand over his bald head without taking his eyes off Daniel.
‘The two of you tried to leave Sweden,’ he said. ‘I can understand that you wanted to go back to Africa. My only question is how you managed to lure Sanna into going along. Or did she want to escape from someone she was afraid of?’
‘He dragged her by the hair.’
‘Who?’
‘Her stepfather.’
The man shook his head thoughtfully. ‘I don’t understand it,’ he said. ‘The two of you came back. And suddenly somebody kills her.’
He stood up quickly from the milk pail. ‘We’re going to catch him,’ he said, smiling. ‘A man who commits a crime like this cannot go free.’
Edvin followed the man out. Daniel was overcome by a great weariness that seemed to press him roughly into sleep. He tried to fight it without success.
When he woke a few hours later he had a high fever. His heart was beating very fast. He was sweating and had to squint his eyes to make out Alma, who was anxiously watching him. Behind her stood Edvin and the hired hand.
Alma leaned over close to his face.
‘You will sleep in our bed,’ she said. ‘You’ll be alone in the room.’
Daniel was too tired to resist when Edvin and the hired hand lifted him up. As they carried him across the yard he could feel that it was raining. He opened his mouth and felt the raindrops landing on his tongue, but by the time they put him to bed he was asleep again.
That night his condition grew worse. Only once during the time that remained did he get up from the bed and go out into the yard. It was when he dreamed that Be and Kiko had come and were waiting for him. When he went outside and felt the cold from the ground seep into his body, there was no one there. He went back into the barn and searched for the wooden shoes that he was carving and the knife that lay in the straw. He stuffed them under his nightshirt and returned to the yard. He called out to them, shouted their names, but got no reply. Alma and Edvin came out, roused from their sleep. After he had moved into the bedroom they slept in the kitchen with the milkmaid. He didn’t resist when Edvin lifted him up and carried him back inside.
That was the only time he got out of bed. It was a brief interruption in his decline, which would not end until he was dead.
Now and then he was struck with severe coughing fits that bloodied the sheets, but most of the time he lay quietly in the borderland where dreams and reality meet. He never said a word, never met anyone’s eyes, and recognised only Alma and Edvin. Hallén came to visit regularly, as did Dr Madsen. On one occasion Alma also called in a wise woman from Kivik who, it was said, could cure people of consumption by greasing their chests with cow fat. But Daniel continued to decline. He was not in pain, felt no hunger, had no idea whether it was day or night.
As his condition worsened, he discovered that the way back did not go towards the horizon but inwards, downwards, towards a deep that was drawing him in. There Be and Kiko were waiting. In his dreams he could already glimpse the sand that was completely white in the blazing sun. He was utterly calm now. Nothing would keep him from returning. Be and Kiko had not abandoned him. Kiko would be angry because he had taken so long to come, but not even this worried him. For a few hours every day he managed to keep carving the wooden shoe. He thought that Kiko would be pleased. He had become a better carver. One day Kiko would be able to entrust the antelope and the rock wall to him.
In the last days, after he had already slipped very far towards the desert that awaited him, he finally began to hear their voices. Now they were quite close to him. Gradually he was able to distinguish their faces as well. A boy who was a few years older than Daniel was the first to come up to his bed. Daniel no longer remembered his name, but there was no doubt that it was him, the third son that was born to one of Kiko’s older sisters. When Daniel asked his first question, — whether it would be long before Be and Kiko came — the boy replied that they were out hunting, but they would be back soon.
Just as the boy reached him, Edvin opened the door and carried in a wooden mug of milk. He set it on the table next to the bed and stood there. Then he went over to the door and called Alma in a low voice. Daniel explained to the boy who they were, Edvin and Alma, and when Alma came in the boy was sitting on the bed by Daniel’s feet.
‘They’re here again,’ said Edvin.
‘Who?’
‘The voices! Can’t you hear them? He isn’t alone in here.’
Alma listened. ‘You’re imagining things. There’s nobody here.’
‘Can’t you hear them? He isn’t alone here. Damn it all.’
‘You’re tired,’ Alma said, taking Edvin by the hand. ‘You’re not sleeping well because you’re worrying. I’m worried too. But we have to trust in God.’
‘God?’ Edvin said angrily. ‘What does he know?’