The Key (31 page)

The lump in Anna-Karin’s throat seems so large she can hardly breathe.

‘You can talk with me or phone me whenever you feel you need to,’ Farnaz says. ‘And if you want me to help you find a counsellor, you need only ask.’

‘Thank you,’ Anna-Karin manages to say.

Farnaz hugs her and then walks back into the garden. Her perfume still fills the air.

Anna-Karin rinses the two pieces of the plate but can’t bring herself to throw them away, so she leaves them in the sink. When she turns around, Minoo is waiting in the doorway that leads to the garden.

‘What did Mum say?’ she asks.

Anna-Karin can’t speak. The lump in her throat is in the way. But even without it, she could never have expressed how much it meant to her, what Farnaz had said. Suddenly, she feels less of a freak. Maybe she will be able to deal with this after all.

Minoo walks off to look through one of the windows in the sitting room. It’s not until a car engine is switched off outside that Anna-Karin notices it.

‘What’s he doing here?’ Minoo asks.

Anna-Karin goes over to stand next to her.

Viktor is walking towards the house. He moves quickly and his body language seems to shout that he is a bearer of bad news.

Anna-Karin has an awful premonition that everything is falling apart and that she triggered the disaster just because she relaxed for a moment.

Has the Council decided to round them up, once and for all? Have they found out that the Chosen Ones used magic in the school today? That Rickard and Gustaf have been let in on all their secrets? Or perhaps Viktor has come to tell them that it was he who made Robin confess?

‘Come on,’ Minoo says, and Anna-Karin follows her into the hall.

Minoo opens the door before Viktor has time to ring the bell.

‘Minoo, you must come with me to the manor house,’ he says. ‘You must help us.’

The fear in his voice makes Anna-Karin even more alarmed.

‘What’s happening?’ Minoo asks.

‘It’s Clara,’ Viktor tells her. ‘My sister.’

So, her name is Clara. Viktor had told Anna-Karin a little about his twin sister last winter, when they were standing near the locks of the canal. He had said that his sister’s magic had made her ill.

‘She is dying,’ Viktor continues. ‘Please, Minoo. You must come. The
Book of Patterns
told Walter that you can help her.’

‘Who is Walter?’ Anna-Karin asks.

‘I’ll explain later.’ Minoo looks evasive. ‘Sorry, I have to go with him.’

Viktor sets out for the car and breaks into a run. Anna-Karin looks anxiously at Minoo.

‘I’ll be fine,’ Minoo whispers. ‘Anyway, I won’t be there alone, will I?’

Anna-Karin understands. She nods. The fox will be there, keeping an eye on the manor house.

Viktor has jumped into the car and started the engine.

‘But … what will I tell your parents?’ Anna-Karin asks.

‘Tell them I went to see Linnéa. That she felt bad and I had to go.’

Anna-Karin nods. Her eyes follow Minoo as she runs off and jumps into the passenger seat of Viktor’s car. He drives off before she has time to close the door.

Olsson’s Hill smells like wet grass and cigarette smoke. Vanessa pulls a bottle of raspberry cider from Michelle’s bag. She glances at Linnéa, who is sitting cross-legged, cig in hand, next to her on the picnic blanket. Vanessa hopes that she truly meant that she wanted to be here. And that she’ll tell her if she wants to go home.

Vanessa unscrews the bottle top and drinks.

It wasn’t just for Linnéa’s sake that she would have preferred to stay at home tonight. She feels exhausted. She had realised that the interview with the police would be tough, but it was something else completely to have to hear Linnéa describe every detail. To feel what Linnéa felt.

There is so much she still hasn’t had a chance to process. While Linnéa slept afterwards, Vanessa had just sat and stared unseeingly at the room.

‘Move over.’ Evelina waves with her mobile. ‘Michelle, you must sit with them.’

Vanessa puts her arm around Linnéa and pulls her close. Michelle leans against her other side and pouts at the camera. She smells sweetly of hairspray, powder and raspberry cider. Evelina’s mobile goes
click
.

‘You all look fucking great,’ she says, and shows them on the display. ‘Linnéa, is it OK if I upload it?’

‘Fine by me,’ Linnéa says.

‘Now, tell me honestly!’ Michelle drawls. ‘Of me and Evelina, who is the hottest?’

‘I don’t know,’ Linnéa says.

‘Ignore her,’ Vanessa tells her.

‘It’s cool,’ Linnéa replies stiffly.

‘Come
onnnn
,’ Michelle persists. ‘If you had to snog one of us, who would you pick? I wouldn’t be upset at all if you say Evelina.’

‘Yes, you would,’ Evelina says. She laughs raucously.

Vanessa makes herself laugh, then has another drink from the cider bottle. Just for tonight, she wishes that Michelle had some kind of social filter. Already, she has asked Linnéa why she has stopped drinking, then if she misses it, and also if she’d maybe go off at the deep end straightaway if she had a mouthful of cider. And then she launched into an account of how they used to pay Linnéa’s dad to buy alcohol for them while they were still under-age. And just when Vanessa thought it couldn’t get any worse, Michelle fired off far too many questions about what had been going on in the assembly hall today.

Of course, all of Engelsfors is talking about it tonight.

People keep glancing at them. Whispering. Some are staring openly. Someone did a thumbs-up when Vanessa turned to look. And others sit clustered around a mobile checking out clips from the assembly. At regular intervals, Vanessa hears a repeat of Tommy’s, ‘That’s enough!’, followed by gales of laughter.

But the false friendliness is the worst.

Several of the people who, the day after the Canal Bridge incident, had been calling Linnéa a psycho and a liar, have come up to her tonight and told her how pleased they are that Robin has confessed. And that they thought all the time that he and Erik had been guilty. As if that made things better. It was the other way round, of course. If they had it all worked out, why didn’t they speak up at the time?

Vanessa drinks some more cider and looks out over the grassy slope with its scattering of groups from Engelsfors senior school. In the distance, the canal is glittering in the evening sun and, beyond it, the cemetery.

It seems unbelievable that only a year has passed since Vanessa left another last-day-of-term party here on the hill and went off to meet the other Chosen Ones at Rebecka’s and Elias’s graves. Now, the urn with Ida’s ashes in has also been lowered into the ground over there. And there could have been a gravestone bearing Linnéa’s name.

Vanessa moves closer to her and leans her head against Linnéa’s shoulder.

Michelle lies down with her head in Evelina’s lap and announces that she is positive she and Mehmet will spend the rest of their lives together.

‘It must seem crazy, the number of times we’ve ended it and then got together again. But now everything is great between us. I think we’ve finished fighting about all the big things a couple can fight about.’

‘This must be the first time none of us is single,’ Evelina says.

‘Do I hear “a toast to that”?’ Michelle shrieks, and holds out her cider bottle.

Glass clinks as she toasts with Vanessa and Evelina.

Linnéa just drags on her cigarette. Her bottle of Coke stays untouched in the grass. Vanessa looks quizzically at her.

I thought it was a private toast between the three of you
, Linnéa thinks.

But she leans forward a little, as if she wants to get across that she is part of their talk.

‘Eugh, the grass is still fucking wet,’ Evelina complains. ‘It goes right through the blanket.’

‘Probably you’ve just wet yourself,’ Michelle says.

‘In that case you’re lying in my piss now,’ Evelina tells her. They laugh.

Michelle’s mobile pings and she picks it up.

‘Oh no, Mehmet is in Götis,’ she sighs. ‘Shame you’re banned, it would’ve been brilliant to meet up with him.’

Banned?
Linnéa thinks, lifting one eyebrow.

It’s a long story
, Vanessa thinks, and smiles.

‘What’s that, you’re not going to abandon us now?’ Evelina says. She smacks Michelle lightly.

‘Of course I won’t,’ Michelle assures her, lifting her head to have a drink. ‘Listen, we mustn’t ever become the sort of girls who always put their boyfriends first. Or, like, their girlfriends. Linnéa, you have to get this, the three of us have always been best friends. And it will stay that way. Evelina and I are part of the Vanessa-package.’

Linnéa smiles and, for the first time in the evening, looks relaxed.

‘I know.’

‘And it means that we’re your friends, too,’ Michelle says. She lowers her voice to a whisper. ‘I’ll be a witness for you, Linnéa, if you need one. I’ll back you all the way – like, I could say I walked past Canal Bridge and saw the whole thing.’

Vanessa sneaks a worried glance at Linnéa, but she just keeps smiling.

‘I don’t think—’ she begins.

‘Hold it, I know, I know!’ Michelle interrupts. She fumbles with her hand for Linnéa’s knee. ‘I could say that I heard Erik and Robin talk about it in town!’

‘Thanks,’ Linnéa says. ‘But I don’t think it’d be a good idea to lie to the police for my sake.’

A first-year kid is staggering past them on his way to a shrubbery and has already started to pull his zip down. He catches sight of Michelle in Evelina’s lap.

‘Are you all dykes now, or what?’

‘No, we dig
men
,’ Evelina says sweetly. ‘So you haven’t got a chance with us.’

Michelle laughs. ‘A toast to
that
.’

Vanessa’s phone pings.

‘I hope that’s someone calling to tell us about an awesome party tonight,’ Evelina says.

‘I doubt it.’ Vanessa frowns, seeing Anna-Karin’s name on the display.

She can feel the eyes of the others glued to her as she talks. She tries to respond to Anna-Karin as neutrally as possible, but it’s hard when what she’s saying is so odd.

‘OK. We’ll be in touch,’ she says.

What’s happened?
Linnéa thinks.

Viktor’s twin sister is ill and Minoo has gone with him to the manor house to help her. The
Book of Patterns
told some guy called Walter that she must go
.

Linnéa stares at her.

What?

The fox is keeping an eye
, Vanessa thinks.
And we aren’t that far away if something happens
.

I don’t like any of this
, Linnéa thinks.

‘Why so quiet all of a sudden?’ Evelina asks Vanessa. ‘Has something bad happened?’

‘No, it wasn’t anything special.’ Vanessa puts her mobile back in her bag. Avoiding Evelina’s eyes, she raises the bottle again.

‘Can you believe it! The summer holiday’s here!’

Michelle sits up, sticks her arms up in the air and yells so loudly that people turn around to have a look.

Vanessa laughs but can hear how false it sounds. She notices the way Evelina looks at her. Evelina hears it too, she realises.

Viktor swings the car into the yard in front of the manor house with a fast half-turn that makes the gravel spray around the wheels. He brakes hard and Minoo is jerked forward so that the safety belt cuts into her shoulder. He turns the engine off and throws the car door open.

‘Come quickly!’

Minoo isn’t sure if her legs will carry her. By the time she has climbed out of the car, Viktor is already at the front door.

‘Hurry up!’ he calls, before disappearing into the manor house.

Minoo jogs after him. In the hall, the unnaturally clean smell hits her. It is dark, only pale strips of light coming through the cracks between the shutters. The corridor on the left leads to the library where they were interrogated, and then on to the big room where the court had sat. Viktor has turned right, towards a part of the house Minoo has never seen.

Her footsteps on the flagged floor echo as she follows him. Perhaps she should worry more about the possibility that she has been tricked into coming here. But not even Viktor is that good an actor. Something really has gone wrong. And he really does believe that she can help.

‘Come here!’ Viktor shouts. He pulls a door open further along the corridor. ‘Please, please, hurry!’

She runs through the door after him. They are in a dimly lit corridor lined with dark, moss-green wallpaper. Now their footsteps are softened by a burgundy wall-to-wall carpet.

‘Is Walter here?’ she calls out to Viktor. He stops and waits impatiently for her.

‘No, he’s in Stockholm,’ he says. ‘Alexander is there, too. But I called him when Clara got worse. That’s when I spoke to Walter.’

Viktor starts walking again and Minoo does her best to keep up with him. It isn’t easy. He turns a corner and walks up a narrow wooden staircase.

‘Adriana, what about her? Is she here?’ Minoo asks.

‘Yes, but she won’t disturb us.’

They are now in an identical corridor on the first floor.

‘Won’t you tell me what the matter is with your sister?’ Minoo asks him.

Viktor doesn’t reply. Minoo suddenly feels very scared. All she knows about Viktor’s sister is that she somehow had too large a dose of magic too quickly. Has the magic broken down her body? Has she gone mad? Violent, perhaps? Is her magic like an infectious disease?

Viktor opens a door and they go through into a corridor with a dark brown carpet. It has windows along one side. The tops of the trees look strangely twisted when seen through the bulging old panes. Along the other side of the corridor are several white doors with the outlines of small signs still visible. They must have been put there at the time the manor house was an inn.

Viktor opens one of the doors. Minoo takes a deep breath and follows him.

The dark blue blind has been pulled up a little. The white wallpaper has a pattern of golden fleur-de-lys. The air is stale. Clothes and books are scattered on chairs and on the floor. The bed is unmade. Viktor walks up to the bed and stops.