The woman got up. She went over to the altar and lit the candles.
“You can go now, if you want,” she said hoarsely. “Now I know what she looks like, that person who shared a room with Martina. I don’t want to know any more. It’s enough.”
“What a strange and unpleasant woman,” said Hans Nastman, when they returned to the car. “In my job, you meet a number of bizarre people. But someone like Marianne Andersson…”
“Sorrow can affect you.”
“Whatever.”
She put the seatbelt on.
“What did she do to you?”
“Nothing.”
“She hurt you. I saw it. She bit you, didn’t she?” “No.”
“Justine, listen to me. You have to get a vaccination against lockjaw. Human bites are the most dangerous kind.” “I’m already vaccinated.”
“Of course, of course. When you’ve traveled so far.” “We got all kinds of vaccinations. Nathan, too. But you can’t vaccinate against everything.”
“That’s a wise saying.”
He was silent for a moment. Then he said, “I saw that she bit you, Justine.”
She sighed.
“I have the feeling you let her.”
“OK, OK, maybe I deserved it. Maybe I should have protected her daughter somehow.”
“Do you feel that way yourself?”
“I don’t know. Maybe that’s the kind of thing a psychiatrist needs to sort out. Please, can you just drive me home now? This has been an awful day.”
Hans Nastman kept in touch with her.
“I imagine you want to know what’s going on in Kuala Lumpur. And whether they ever find Nathan Gendser some day. But the man they caught for hotel burglary will only confess to burglary. He also insists that he never set foot in that hotel. Nothing can be proven. There are many fingerprints on the knife, but not his. He could have been wearing gloves… but it really is fairly hot in that country.”
She didn’t know what to say to him.
“I imagine they can put him in prison anyway if he doesn’t have an air-tight alibi. A poverty-striken fellow with no money.”
“I really don’t want to talk about it that much,” said Justine. “I would prefer to forget about the whole thing.”
Chapter TWO
During the fall and winter, they left her alone.
She didn’t forget, however. Nathan kept coming to her. During the night, he would come in her dreams; during the day, he moved behind her, so close that she could almost feel his breath, but when she turned around, he slipped away into a corner and disappeared.
Yes, Nathan came to her, but less and less often.
Then all of this with Hans Peter. That winter day of mild temperatures and the shine of rain on the window, when they had made love to each other for the first time, she knew he had to go, but she didn’t want him to.
He said he had to go to work at his hotel.
They were in her kitchen. He embraced her, sat her on his lap.
“So strange… we don’t really know each other… but still.”
She threw her arms around him and burrowed her face into his neck.
“We know each other a little bit.”
“Yeah…”
“I want to… again,” she whispered.
“Just a few minutes.”
“A quickie.”
She cleared the table until it was empty, leaned forward on it and lifted her dress. She had no panties on. He stood behind her, his hands running over her thighs and hips. She moved against him so he would get a hard-on; she felt him through the cloth of his pants.
At that very moment, the telephone rang.
“Fuck!” she exclaimed. “Fuck it all.”
He had taken a few steps backward, lifted the receiver and handed it to her. She shook her head, but it was too late.
“Hello?” she said tensely.
“Hello… I’d like to speak with Justine Dalvik.”
“That’s me.”
“My name is Tor Assarsson. I’m Berit’s husband. I understand that you and Berit were schoolmates.”
“Yes, that’s right. Hi.”
“I’m nervous about her. She’s disappeared.”
“She has?”
“She hasn’t been home for over twenty-four hours.”
“Uh-huh?”
Her headache started It ate itself into her forehead and when she turned, it seemed like the skin of her cranium was being pulled, as if her entire skull had shrunk.
“I’m wondering… she was going to your place. Did she show up there?”
“Yes, yes, she did. We sat and talked for a while during the evening.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention to the clock.”
“Was it late?”
“Somewhat late perhaps.”
Hans Peter was observing her. He zipped up his pants; he smiled and shook his head. Justine tried to smile back.
“I have to admit that I am really worried.”
“I understand…”
“This is not like Berit. I’m afraid that something’s happened to her. Something bad, something awful.”
“Maybe she took a trip? Maybe she just needs to be alone for a while?”
“Did she say anything like that to you?”
“She didn’t seem happy, if that’s what you mean.”
“She’s had a rough time of it lately. And maybe I wasn’t supporting her the way I should have. What did she say? What did the two of you talk about?”
“She talked about her job, that she didn’t want to move to Umea, or wherever it was.”
“Lulea.”
“Yes, that’s probably it. She was unhappy and afraid about the future.”
“Could she have done something to herself, do you think?”
His voice was rough; she could tell he was about to break down.
“I don’t know. We really don’t know each other all that well. At least, not as grown women. I have no idea if she’s the kind of woman who would do something drastic. I just don’t know.”
“I’ve never thought of her as that type. She’s been stable and strong in all ways, in spite of difficulties. But you never know… She’d gotten to that age, I think, you know, menopause and all. I think her menopause had just started. Hormones can cause women problems, or so I’ve heard.”
“That can happen, that women sometimes have complete personality changes.”
