The Circle (56 page)

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 haven’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 her 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.

You know him better than anyone
.

No, Minoo thinks. Quite the opposite. I was the one who didn’t understand what he was.

‘I’ve found him,’

Ida says, and Minoo opens her eyes. Ida’s face is glistening with sweat. She lowers the necklace. ‘He’s at the school, too.’

57

NICOLAUS PULLS UP
in the car park behind the school and turns off the engine. The heater that has been humming at Minoo’s feet falls silent, and the windscreen wipers are stilled.

It’s snowing again. Fluffy flakes float slowly over the outside world.

Minoo looks towards Engelsfors High School, looming in the darkness ahead. Only a few streetlamps cast a yellow glow across the playground. The windows are blackened squares. Impossible to see into. But someone inside would have no difficulty in seeing out.

They have to cross the brightly lit car park. It’s either that or making their way across the equally well-lit playground outside the main entrance. There’s nothing to hide behind on the way into the school.

Someone knocks on the side window beside Minoo, who jumps in shock.

It’s Vanessa.

She tears open the door and cold air gushes into the car.

‘Linnéa is in the cafeteria,’ she says. ‘I felt her energy. She’s alive.’

As she speaks, she casts nervous glances at the school.

Nicolaus pulls out his bunch of keys and hands it to Vanessa. ‘This one leads to the kitchen entrance over by the loading bay. A corridor goes straight from there to the kitchens.’

‘Is Max with her?’ Minoo asks.

‘I don’t know. I couldn’t feel him.’

‘Excuse me, but has anyone considered this may be a trap?’ Ida says.

Minoo glances at her in the rear-view mirror. What an idiot. That idea hadn’t even occurred to her. They’ve all been so focused on saving Linnéa.

‘Like with Anna-Karin’s grandfather in the barn,’ Ida continues.

‘Maybe it is,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘But what choice do we have? We’ve got to risk it.’

Ida clearly isn’t happy with that, but she doesn’t object.

‘Are we still working to the same plan?’ Vanessa asks.

‘Yes,’ Minoo answers.

She turns to Anna-Karin, who nods.

There’s so much that Anna-Karin would like to say to Nicolaus and thank him for, but there’s no time.

Minoo steps out of the car and folds the passenger seat forward. Ida clambers out, but Anna-Karin pauses and meets Nicolaus’s gaze.