She turns away and collapses to the ground, feeling Dan rush in from the side to catch her awkwardly. He helps her down to the ground gently, and Liv curls up and begins crying.
She cries for the longest time.
Liv usually never cries, and she hates to do so in front of Dan, whom she hardly knows. But she has no real say in the matter; she can either cry or the pain will rip her right open.
Finally, the worst seems to pass—at least for now—and she’s able to sit up.
Dan is standing guard by the van.
“What … what happened to her?” Liv hears herself croak as she wipes her wet cheeks.
Dan looks at her, and his eyes are full of empathy. It looks like he considers for a moment lying to spare her the truth, but then he just tells it plainly: “Someone killed her with a knife. I think they did it to get the jet ski.”
Liv nods and sniffles. “That would make sense. Solveig would never give it up voluntarily.”
“I’m very sorry,” Dan says. “I know how you feel. I know nothing I can say will make it easier.”
Liv gets to her feet. It feels like climbing a mountain. She manages to do it, though, and she brushes the dirt from her pants. Then she looks in at Solveig, and it’s almost enough to get the tears flowing again. She breathes deeply to keep them in.
Dan says nothing; he just stands there, giving her time to do or say whatever she feels like.
“You know,” Liv murmurs. “That thing they say … about twins having this special connection?”
Dan looks at her. “Uh-huh?”
Liv shakes her head. “It’s bullshit … I didn’t feel anything when she died … I had no idea …”
Dan nods and looks away.
They just stand there for a few minutes more.
“Do you want to bury her?” Dan asks softly.
Liv hasn’t even considered it. But now that she does, the answer seems obvious. She looks out over the bay. The sun has gone down now, and the summer night is almost dark, its deep purple color is reflected on the water. It looks immensely peaceful. Bottomless.
“She loved the water,” Liv says. “We both did. I think if she could choose, she’d prefer going there, not in the ground.”
“All right.” He hesitates. “You want me to do it?”
“No,” Liv says firmly. “I’ll do it.”
She steps up into the van. Bending over Solveig, her hand stops in midair. Instead of grabbing her sister and hoisting her up, Liv finds herself caressing her hair. It’s soft and dry.
Liv’s eyes fill with tears. “Damnit,” she mutters, turning away, not wanting to show Dan she’s crying again, but her voice betrays her as she croaks: “You do it.”
She leaves the van and stands there, holding herself and watches as Dan lifts up Solveig and carries her from the van as gently as possible. He puts her down by the shore, steps out into the water and drags her along. As he shoves her gently out into the stream, Solveig turns facedown, and her hair spreads out like a giant sunflower.
Then, just as the stream begins moving her out towards open sea, she slips below the surface and she’s gone.
Liv keeps staring at the place the water swallowed her up, fresh warm tears running down her face.
Dan comes over. He stands beside her, not looking at her. “Anything else you want to say?” he suggests in a low voice.
“I’m starving,” Liv says. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
Dan looks at her with mild surprise. “Me neither. There’s food in the van. She brought a whole bag of it.”
Liv just nods. The thought of eating the food Solveig had planned for the trip is strange. Like her sister will be doing her one last act of kindness.
“Well, that’s it,” Liv says, turning to face Dan with a sudden determination. “I’m the only one left now. Just like you.”
The smile on Dan’s face mirrors the underlying pain Liv is feeling herself. “I guess we’ll get used to it.”
“Probably.”
“So, where do you want to go?”
Liv breathes deeply. “I have nowhere to go. Not anymore.”
Dan says nothing, but Liv can sense him eyeing her.
She looks at him and asks: “You want me to come with you?”
He shrugs, pretending not to care as much as he obviously does. “If you want. The only thing is, I promised the guy to come alone, so he can’t know you’re there. If you choose to come, that is.”
Liv nods slowly. “You really think you’re going to stop this thing?” The question comes out a lot harsher than she intended.
Dan doesn’t seem to mind, though. “I’m going to try anyway,” he says earnestly.
“Well, I guess I have nothing better to do,” she says, shrugging. “Let’s go save the world then.”
THIRTY
Since the episode in the laundry room, Iver has been lying on the bed in the upstairs room, brooding.
The shock of seeing Linda and Chris go at it has worn off, and he’s made an effort to shake most of the accompanying uncomfortableness too. Yet what remains in his stomach is the same feeling from earlier, that gnawing of something he can’t place, except now it’s even stronger.
As he’s lying there in the darkness, feeling his pulse throb behind his eyes and listening to the faint choir of moans coming from outside, sleep seems very far away.
Finally, as the clock passes 11:00, he decides to get up and do something. He’s not sure what, but simply lying around worrying about something he can’t place is maddening.
So, he gets dressed and slips out of the room. He checks on Adam. The toddler is sleeping soundly in his crib, hugging a teddy bear.
Iver opens Agnete’s door as well, peering in and seeing the old lady sleeping under the blanket.
At least they’re okay, he thinks, slipping downstairs.
Not that he suspected anything would be wrong with either Adam or Agnete. He’s just not sure what is wrong—except that something is;
