Her mother shifts impatiently. ‘What’s with you?’ she asks.
‘Nothing.’
‘Well, I’m going for a cigarette,’ her mother says, and stands up.
Once she’s disappeared, Grandpa opens his eyes. He smiles at Anna-Karin. ‘Gerda? Is that you?’ he asks. A tear rolls down her cheek, Grandma Gerda died years ago.
‘No, Grandpa. It’s me. Anna-Karin. Your granddaughter.’
He seems not to hear her. Instead he gestures feebly for her to come closer. She leans down to him. Grandpa looks at her probingly.
‘It’s time now, isn’t it?’ he says. ‘The war has come?’
Anna-Karin nods. It has.
It was Minoo who had devised the plan, once the seventeenth-century witch had left Ida’s body, a plan in which Anna-Karin will play the most important role. A plan that none of them believes in, she knows, but they have to stop Max now.
Grandpa blinks in the light. He asks for some water and Anna-Karin holds out the blue plastic spout cup, tipping it gently towards his mouth. It’s like helping a child.
‘I wish I was young and strong enough to be in uniform,’ Grandpa says dreamily, when he’s finished. ‘I was so small when my papa went off to war.’
‘Don’t think about that,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘You just concentrate on getting better so we can take you home.’
‘I’m no warmonger, as well you know, Gerda,’ he says, ‘but I’m no pacifist either. Some wars are necessary. Some things are worth fighting for. You have to be ready to lay down your life to do the right thing.’
‘I know,’ she says.
‘But a bear is at his most dangerous when he’s been forced into a corner. Remember that,’ Grandpa says.
‘I will.’
He seems to have said what he wanted to. His body relaxes and he shuts his eyes again. Anna-Karin takes his hands and holds them until she’s sure he’s fast asleep. ‘Goodbye, Grandpa,’ she whispers. ‘I love you.’
The frozen expanse of Dammsjön Lake stretches before them through the windscreen. Wille has stopped the car at the water’s edge. It’s a mild day, too warm for any skaters to venture out on the ice.
Vanessa catches sight of her face in the wing mirror. She’s aged –not with wrinkles or anything like that: she just looks older. More grown-up. There’s an expression in her eyes that she hasn’t seen before.
She rolls down the window a little and breathes in the damp, soft smell that is a sure sign spring isn’t far away. Everything is still. Only the wind soughs in the treetops.
‘I miss you already,’ Wille says.
‘But I’m here.’
‘You know what I mean.’
As soon as she had got back to Sirpa’s apartment last night, she’d told them she was moving home. Sirpa seemed relieved but tried hard to conceal it.
Wille has just helped Vanessa back to Törnrosvägen with all her things. She knows he’s afraid that she’ll leave him. But he has no idea that this may be the last day of her life.
You’ve still got nGéadal hanging over you.
Vanessa looks out of the window. There’s the spot where she and Wille usually make their campfire in the summer. At this time of year, the little copse where she and Wille have their secret nest is just a few low trees with bare branches. So much has happened since they were last here, on the night of the blood-red moon. And tomorrow morning it will all be over. Tonight they are going to seek out Max. No matter how it ends, it will be over.
Wille interrupts her thoughts when he takes her hand and squeezes it hard. ‘What are you thinking?’ he asks.
‘Nothing in particular.’
How could she tell him that she’s wondering if she’ll ever see this place again?
‘I know I’m hopeless,’ he says, ‘but I’m trying. I just have to work out what I want to do. Maybe things were easier for people like me when there wasn’t as much choice. You know, you had to work in the mines or whatever all your life.’
Vanessa turns to him and gives his hand a hard squeeze. ‘I’m sure it would have been great to live in those days,’ she says. ‘I would probably have died at the stove while I was boiling turnips and giving birth to our seventeenth child.’
She tries to laugh, but Wille just gazes at her. ‘I’d never want to live without you,’ he says.
She reaches for him and they hug each other. She kisses him gently, blotting out all other thoughts. There’s no past, no future.
Then she pulls him closer to her, clings to him with a desperation that’s not at all like her. She wants to get as close to him as she can, and it’s not easy when there’s a gear lever in the way.
‘Come on,’ she says, and clambers between the seats. She sinks down in the wide back seat and pulls off her jacket.
Minoo seals the envelope and lays it in the drawer of her bedside table.
‘Dearest Mum and Dad,’ the letter begins.
Of course she hasn’t written about what they’re going to do tonight. But she tells them an important truth: that she loves them. That if anything happens to her and they find this letter, they must never think it was their fault.
If they don’t manage to neutralise Max tonight, their bodies will probably be found tomorrow morning. Five young girls who have taken their own lives in some magnificent final celebration of the infamous suicide pact.
Minoo gets up, goes out to the landing and down the stairs. Her mother and father are, for once, sitting in the same place. They’re in the living room, reading, with classical music playing softly – Ravel.
She feels strangely calm, even though she should be terrified. For the first time since it all began, she has a clear goal. They know who the killer is and they’re going to stop him.
Let go. That’s the key to everything, Minoo. Let go.
Those words have become part of her. She doesn’t know what they mean, yet something inside her understands.
It’s like when she came up with the plan. After Ida had slumped in Nicolaus’s kitchen and become herself again, there it was, clear as day.
Anna-Karin has to force Max to break the demons’ blessing. Then she’ll force him to go to the police and confess to murdering Rebecka and Elias.
In other words, Anna-Karin will lead the attack, but everyone has to be there.
The Circle is the answer.
Minoo thinks back to when they broke into the principal’s house, how she and Vanessa couldn’t move until they’d joined hands. It was when Ida and Anna-Karin had joined hands on Lucia night that they could share Ida’s vision. And Vanessa, Ida and Minoo had joined hands during the ritual when they had created the truth serum.
All the talk about how they belong together and are connected to one another isn’t just talk: it’s fact. Together they are stronger. When they merge their energies, the combined effect is greater than that of the individual parts.
Tonight they will go to Max’s house and ring his doorbell.
Anna-Karin should be able to carry out the first attack with the help of invisible Vanessa.
They will force Max back into the house. Then Linnéa, Ida and Minoo will go in after them to let Anna-Karin feed off their energy while she’s fighting Max.
The Circle is the weapon.
Minoo stands there for a moment in the living-room door way, looking at her mother and father, thinking through everything she’s written in the letter and hoping it will be enough for them to understand how much she loves them.
Her mother looks up from her book and Minoo walks into the room. She sits on the sofa between her parents.
‘Feeling better now?’ her mother asks.
‘Yes. I don’t think it was flu after all,’ Minoo says.
She missed school today for the first time in her life.
‘It’s ages since we sat here all three of us,’ her mother says, and puts an arm around Minoo, stroking her hair a little distractedly.
‘M-hm,’ Minoo answers, and leans against her.
‘You ha
ven’t said whether there’s anything special you want for your birthday. It’s not far away, you know. Almost too late if I’m going to send for something.’
‘I’m happy with what I’ve got,’ Minoo answers, and means it.
Her father looks up from his book. He’s been completely absorbed in it. It feels right, just as it should be. A perfectly normal Tuesday evening. Minoo just wants to sit there and listen to the piano music and the faint rustle as they turn the pages.
56
VANESSA IS LATE.
It was hard to leave home. She’d had dinner with her mother and Melvin. Her mother was psyched up about an appointment she had made with a tattoo artist for a portrait of a snake biting its tail. Apparently it’s a karma symbol. Frasse lay farting under the kitchen table and sniffed loudly at the pungent outcome. Then he yawned and fell sleep. Melvin played with his penguin and some kitchen implements on the floor, occasionally banging Vanessa’s leg with a whisk to get her attention.
On the way to Nicolaus’s house, Vanessa tries to hold on to the warm, calm feeling inside her. The sun is on its way down over the city and the sky is bright pink. She avoids the pools of melt water, and the treacherous patches of ice.
Her mobile rings and she pulls it out of her jacket pocket.
It’s Minoo.
‘Where are you?’ She sounds stressed.
‘I’m almost there.’
‘Is Linnéa with you?’
‘No.’
‘I’ve tried calling her but she’s switched off her phone.’
Vanessa stops to look around the empty car park behind the City Mall. A lone alocholic is sitting on a bench, kicking at a pigeon that’s ventured too close. At first she thinks it’s Linnéa’s father, but when she looks again, she sees it isn’t. ‘I’ll go over to her place and have a look,’ she says. ‘Call me if she turns up.’
The evening sky is reflected in the windows of the dirty-grey concrete high-rises, transforming them into squares of red and gold.
Vanessa walks briskly towards the entrance. She senses that something is wrong. Terribly wrong. She tries to think of possible explanations for what might have happened. Linnéa must have dropped her mobile. Or left it at home. She’s probably on her way to Nicolaus’s place – at any moment Minoo will call to say she’s arrived. Because Linnéa wouldn’t let them down. She wouldn’t, would she, now that they’re about to take on Elias’s killer?
As the lift lumbers upwards, Vanessa tries to keep at bay any thoughts that something may have happened to Linnéa. That Max may have exposed her. It would be easy to persuade everyone that Linnéa had killed herself. A dead mother, a dead best friend, an alcoholic father … Just the fact that she wears strange clothes makes her an obvious suicide candidate in the eyes of Engelsfors.
The lift stops and Vanessa steps out. She stands there silently, listening. It’s so quiet. She wonders if anyone lives on this floor other than Linnéa. The two nearest doors have no names on them.
She tries to repeat what they did when they were practising at Nicolaus’s house and sense whether Linnéa is in her apartment, but it’s impossible to tell. There are so many traces of Linnéa – the air is thick with her energy.
Vanessa’s gaze drops to the floor. The green concrete floor with spattered droplets of black and white paint.
Wet footprints lead to Linnéa’s door.
The tracks are large. Clearly those of a man.
Vanessa hates the stupid girls in movies who always do exactly what she’s about to do. The ones who don’t call their friends or wait for back-up, but go straight into the unknown house where the serial killer is probably lying in wait for his next victim.
But this is about Linnéa. There’s no time to lose. Vanessa concentrates and becomes invisible.
Slowly she presses down the door handle.
It’s unlocked. Vanessa enters Linnéa’s hall and shuts the door behind her.
Someone is standing in the living room. The figure is outlined against the light from the windows and it takes her a while to see who it is.
Jonte.
He’s wearing the dark blue down jacket that Linnéa sometimes wore. He’s staring out into the hall, straight at Vanessa.
Vanessa freezes. Can he see her?
He furrows his brow and disappears into Linnéa’s bedroom. Vanessa hears him open the wardrobe, rummage among her clothes, then go through her drawers. It’s obvious he’s looking for something, and that he’s in a hurry.
Vanessa hesitates. Jonte shouldn’t be here. Or was Linnéa lying when she said she wasn’t seeing him any more? Does he know where she is?
Minoo still hasn’t called. So Linnéa still hasn’t arrived at Nicolaus’s place.
Vanessa drops her invisibility and walks into the living room. Jonte hears her footsteps and comes out of the bedroom. ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ he asks. His gaze is unusually alert.
‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ she responds. ‘And where’s Linnéa?’
‘I don’t know. The door was open when I got here.’
Vanessa is scared now. It isn’t like Linnéa to leave the door unlocked. ‘I thought you’d stopped seeing each other,’ she says.
‘So did I. But she turned up at my place today—’ He stops himself. Looks at Vanessa cagily. ‘Are you two friends all of a sudden or what?’
‘Sort of,’ Vanessa answers curtly.
Jonte looks at her seriously. ‘She’s done something really fucking stupid. I have to get hold of her. If you know where she is—’
‘What’s she done?’ Vanessa cuts in.
Jonte ignores the question. ‘If you see her, call me,’ he says. ‘I’m going into town to look for her.’
He makes for the door but Vanessa pushes past him and stands in his way. Jonte looks at her threateningly but he can’t scare Vanessa. She’s far too scared already.
‘Get out of my way,’ he says.
‘Tell me what she’s done!’
She sees that he’s hesitating and makes another attempt. ‘If you don’t tell me I can’t help her.’
Jonte sighs. ‘You have to promise not to say anything about this to Wille.’
‘I promise.’
Jonte nods. ‘She was fucking on edge when she came to my place. She only stayed a little while. It was a few hours before I noticed what she’d done.’
‘Can’t you just spit it out?’ Vanessa almost screams.
‘I had a gun in the basement,’ Jonte says slowly. ‘She’s taken it.’
Minoo can’t sit still. She’s pacing back and forth in Nicolaus’s living room with her mobile in her hand. Anna-Karin and Ida are sitting on a couple of spindle-back chairs. Their faces are tense. No one has said a word for ten minutes.
When Minoo’s phone rings, everyone jumps.
‘It’s Vanessa,’ she says to the others.
She listens and tries to take in what Vanessa is telling her. All of Linnéa’s talk about revenge wasn’t just talk. She’d never had any intention of going with them tonight. She was going to settle this alone in her own way.
She’s planning to shoot Max.
‘I’m on my way over to his house now,’ Vanessa says.
‘No!’ says Minoo. ‘It’s too dangerous!’
Nicolaus comes in from the kitchen with Cat behind him.
‘I have to stop her,’ Vanessa says.
It’s obvious that she’s not going to let herself be talked out of it. Minoo’s brain is working flat out, searching for arguments to stop Vanessa running straight into Max’s clutches. There isn’t even room in her mind to be angry with Linnéa – the situation is too critical. Everything has come crashing down. ‘Please, Vanessa, wait. You’re not going to solve anything by running over there. We don’t even know if Linnéa is there.’
‘If anything happens to her …’
Minoo’s gaze falls on the framed map of the town hanging next to the silver cross. ‘Give us ten minutes,’ she says. ‘Let’s try to find he
r first.’
‘We can’t wait!’ Vanessa shouts.
‘Five minutes, then. Just five minutes. I’ve got an idea. Please.’
Vanessa is silent for a second. ‘Okay,’ she says.
Minoo hangs up.
‘What’s happened?’ Nicolaus asks.
She tells him as fast as she can, continues talking even when Ida and Nicolaus try to interrupt with questions. ‘We have to find Linnéa,’ she says finally.
‘That dear child,’ Nicolaus says. ‘I never thought she’d … I thought all her talk of revenge was just an empty threat.’
‘I thought so, too,’ Minoo says, and lifts the town map off its hook. ‘Ida, you have to find her with the pendulum.’
Minoo places the map on the table while Ida takes off her necklace and moves closer. ‘It’s such a big area,’ she says, peering at the map. ‘I don’t know if it’ll work.’
Anna-Karin gets up and goes over to her. ‘Take my hand,’ she says.
Ida hesitates. Then she grabs Anna-Karin’s right hand. Anna-Karin stretches the other to Minoo, who clutches it.
Ida starts swinging the pendulum over Max’s house. The seconds tick past. Everyone’s eyes are transfixed by the little silver heart.
‘She’s not there,’ Ida says, and Minoo feels a powerful sense of relief.
Ida continues swinging the pendulum over Engelsfors, the area where Max lives and towards the centre of town.
‘Try the school,’ Anna-Karin says suddenly.
Ida moves the pendulum again. At once it swings in a wide clockwise circle. ‘She’s there.’
‘Is Max with her?’ Nicolaus asks.
‘I don’t know if I can pick up his energy.’
‘Try,’ Minoo says.
‘Maybe it’ll help if you think about him. You know him better than anyone,’ Ida says, sarcastically.
‘I’ll think of him, too,’ Anna-Karin says.
Minoo shuts her eyes tightly and thinks about Max. She tries to pretend he’s standing in front of her. She sees his face, which had meant something entirely different to her just a few days ago. Then he was the light of her life. Now he is darkness.
The Circle (Hammer) Page 40
