Erica laughed and went into the kitchen to make herself a pot of coffee. The light was blinking on the answering machine. She hadn’t noticed before. Someone had actually taken the trouble to leave a message, so she pressed the button to play it back. When she heard the voice on the machine, she dropped the coffee scoop and pressed her hand to her mouth.

‘Hi, sis. It’s me. Anna. Provided you don’t have any other sisters, that is. I’m a bit worse for wear, and I’ve got the world’s lousiest hairdo. But I’m here. I think. Almost, at any rate. And I know that you’ve been here and that you’ve been worried. I can’t promise that …’ The voice rambled on. It was raspy and sounded different, with an underlying hint of pain. ‘I just wanted to say that I’m here now.’ Click.

Erica didn’t move for a couple of seconds. Then she slowly sank to the floor and began to cry. She was still holding the coffee pot in a tight grip.

‘Don’t you have to leave for work soon?’ Rita gave Mellberg a stern look as she changed Leo’s nappy.

‘I’m going to be working from home until after lunch.’

‘Oh, you’re working at home …’ said Rita, casting a glance at the TV, which was showing a programme about people who built machines from scrap metal and then entered them in competitions.

‘I’m gathering my strength. That’s important too. As a police officer it’s easy to get burned out, otherwise.’ Mellberg lifted up Leo and raised him high in the air, making the boy whoop with laughter.

Rita relented. She couldn’t stay angry with Bertil. Of course she saw what others saw: that he was a boor, that he could be terribly loutish, and sometimes he couldn’t see beyond his own nose. Plus he never wanted to do more than the bare minimum of work. But at the same time, she saw another side of him. How he beamed whenever Leo was near, how he never hesitated to change a nappy or get up in the middle of the night if the baby was crying. How he treated her like a queen and looked at her as if she were God’s gift to humanity. He had even thrown himself with enthusiasm into learning to dance the salsa, which was her passion in life. He would never be king of the dance floor, but he was able to lead quite decently, without causing too much damage to her feet. She also knew that he loved his son Simon with all his heart. Simon, who would soon turn seventeen, had come into Mellberg’s life only a few years back, but every time his name came up in conversation, pride shone in Bertil’s eyes. And he was always eager to keep in touch with his son and make himself available. For all of these reasons, Rita loved Bertil Mellberg so much that sometimes it felt as if her heart would burst.

She went into the kitchen. As she began fixing lunch, her concern about the girls returned. She had noticed that something wasn’t right between them. It made her sad to see the unhappy expression on Paula’s face. She suspected that even Paula didn’t really know what was wrong. Johanna had closed herself off, withdrawing from all of them, not just from Paula. Maybe she felt it was too much to live in such close quarters with others. Rita could understand if Johanna didn’t find it exactly ideal to be sharing the flat with Paula’s mother and her boyfriend, not to mention the two dogs. At the same time, it was very practical to have Bertil and herself here, able to step in as babysitters for Leo during the day when the girls were at work.

It must be difficult though, and she realized she ought to encourage them to look for their own flat. But as she stirred the stew, she felt a pang in her heart at the thought of not being able to lift Leo out of his cot in the morning when he sat there, wide awake and smiling up at her. Rita wiped away her tears. It must be the onions in the stew; she couldn’t very well be standing here crying in the middle of the day. She swallowed hard and hoped that the girls would work things out on their own. After tasting the stew she added another pinch of chilli powder. If it failed to send heat through her whole body, she knew she hadn’t put in enough.

Bertil’s mobile, which was lying on the kitchen table, began ringing. She went over to look at the display. The station. They’re probably wondering where he is, she thought as she carried the phone into the living room. Bertil was sitting on the sofa, sound asleep with his head tilted back and his mouth open. Leo was curled up on his big belly. His little fist was curved around his cheek, and he was sleeping with calm, deep breaths that made his chest rise and fall in time with his uncle Bertil’s. Rita switched off the phone. The station would just have to wait. Bertil had more important things to do at the moment.

‘So I take it that Saturday was a big hit,’ said Anders, giving Vivianne a searching look. She seemed tired, and he wondered whether she realized how great a toll this was taking on her. Maybe their past had finally caught up with them. But he knew better than to say anything; she didn’t want to hear it. She was so stubborn and determined, which was the very reason why she, and possibly he too, had survived. He had always been dependent on her. His sister had taken care of him, done everything for him. But he wondered whether things had started to change, and they were slowly switching roles.

‘How’s it going with Erling?’ he asked, prompting a grimace from Vivianne.

‘Well, if it weren’t for the fact that he sleeps so soundly at night, I don’t think I could stand it,’ she said with a joyless laugh.

‘We’re almost there,’ he said in an attempt to console her, but he could see that she wasn’t really listening. Vivianne had always possessed a special sort of inner light, and even though no one else had noticed, he could see that it was fading.

‘Do you think they’ll find the laptop?’

Vivianne gave a start.

‘No. They would have found it by now if it was going to turn up.’

‘I suppose you’re right.’

Neither of them spoke for a moment.

‘I tried to ring you yesterday,’ Vivianne said hesitantly.

Anders felt his body tense.

‘Really?’

‘You didn’t pick up all evening.’

‘I must have switched off my mobile,’ he said evasively.

‘All evening?’

‘I was tired, so I took a bath and read for a while. I also spent some time going over the reports.’

‘Oh. Right,’ she said, but he could hear that she didn’t believe him.

In the past they’d never kept secrets from one another, but that too had changed. At the same time, they felt closer to each other than ever before. He was having a hard time working out what he wanted. Now that the goal was within reach, things suddenly didn’t seem as clear as they had, and his thoughts were keeping him awake at night, making him toss and turn in bed. Things no longer seemed as simple as they once had.

How was he going to tell her this? The words had been on the tip of his tongue so many times, but when he opened his mouth, nothing came out. He couldn’t do it. There was so much that he owed her. He could still smell the stink of cigarettes and liquor, hear the clinking of glasses and the sound of people moaning like animals. He and Vivianne had lain curled up together in her bed. She had held him close, and even though she wasn’t much bigger than him, she had felt like a giant emanating a sense of security that would protect him from all evil.

‘I hear that Saturday was a big success!’ exclaimed Erling as he came out of the toilet, wiping his wet hands on his trouser legs. ‘I just talked to Bertil, and he practically waxed poetic about the whole experience. You’re amazing. Do you know that?’

He sat down next to Vivianne and put his arm around her shoulders with a possessive look. Then he delivered a wet kiss to her cheek, and Anders saw how she had to struggle not to pull away. Instead, she smiled sweetly and took a sip of tea from the mug on the table.