61
Karlsson tasted the coffee and returned to the article he had just read. There were a lot of facts to take in and memorise. Some of the information was new to him, and friends and acquaintances would press him for bonus material as if he was a DVD.
And he had to feed the mob or he would lose face.
Gerda was sitting opposite with his own copy of the newspaper. He too was reading the article, for the same reason.
‘Jesus, what sick bastards.’
‘Tell me about it.’
‘How long was she down there?’
‘Over a year and a half.’
‘And her husband was being treated by the guy all that time? You’d think he might have guessed.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Strange that he didn’t suspect.’
‘Who? The man?’
‘Yes.’
‘Very strange.’
‘Completely improbable.’
‘We couldn’t have done anything.’
‘What could we have done? How could you guess this?’
Gerda carried on reading the article.
‘Was he already dead?’
‘The man? Must have been. No smoke in his lungs. Unlike the old bird who set fire to the place.’
‘So Ylva snuffed him?’
‘Yep.’
‘Good job.’
‘Really.’
‘But strange that she didn’t do it earlier.’
‘She probably didn’t have the chance.’
‘No. But all the same.’
Karlsson shook his head.
‘Fucking pervert.’
Gerda agreed. Someone knocked on the door. They both looked up. A colleague was standing there holding a newspaper open with a grin on his face.
‘Have you seen this?’
He threw the paper on the desk and went away whistling. Gerda rounded the desk so he could read at the same time as Karlsson.
The article included a picture of Karlsson and described the phone call that he’d taken a few days earlier.
‘Who’s written this crap?’ Karlsson said, and looked for the byline. ‘Calle Collin? Who the fuck is Calle Collin?’
62
Sanna had managed to nag her dad into an extra swim. She wanted to swim in the swell of the six-thirty ferry to Oslo. The ferry left Copenhagen at five and sailed past Hittarp at twenty past six. The swell reached the shore ten minutes later. The waves weren’t that big, but they were reliable and on time.
Mike hadn’t been hard to convince. He believed that nagging should pay off. What other possibilities did children have to influence things? Besides, he had swum in the half-six waves himself as a child, and it was a tradition that he wanted to pass on.
They got there in good time, and Sanna jumped into the water immediately. She didn’t want to wait around on the jetty. It was the water she wanted, the waves were a bonus. Nour sat on the bench.
‘Here they come,’ Mike said, and pointed out into the sound.
Sanna swam quickly over to the ladder and climbed up. She stood ready and looked at her father.
‘Aren’t you going to swim?’
‘Of course,’ he said, and pulled at the drawstring of his trunks.
‘Are you ready?’
‘Yes.’
‘Let’s see a proper dive then,’ Nour called.
Sanna stood with her eyes fixed on the waves that were slowly coming closer. She patted her father on the stomach.
‘The biggest one, okay?’
‘Of course.’
‘Now.’
They ran to the edge of the jetty and jumped in.
63
Annika is so happy that she’s been asked, that they even know who she is. The gang who sits perched on the windowsill, leaning against the glass, looking down on everyone. Places where the ones who ruled always sat and where the losers and the oppressed didn’t dare go. They know who she is because Ylva shouted after her and walked with her to the gymnasium and even invited her to her house. It’s not going to be a party or anything, they’re just going to hang out. TV? No TV. Fuck TV. No, no.
But what’s strange is that they’ve got nothing to talk about, and Ylva hardly says anything, not until the boys come with the alcohol that they’ve smuggled out of their parents’ bar cabinets, and then she talks non-stop, and they drink and get all weird and laugh and Annika tries to laugh as well, but when they ask her why she’s laughing she has no explanation and Ylva says she thinks Annika should show her tits to the boys, Annika doesn’t understand why and Ylva asks if she doesn’t dare, if she thinks that the boys haven’t seen tits before, and the boys think that Annika should show them her tits as well and Annika thinks that maybe she should get up and go, but they’re just joking with her, can’t she take a joke, and they fill her glass and now she’s part of it all again and they laugh together and then Ylva says that she thinks Annika should definitely show her tits, come on, just a flash, and everyone looks at her, it’s easy enough, just a quick flash and Annika lifts her top and then pulls it down again, but I
