The Key (27 page)

* * *

As the black car zooms past her, Linnéa just manages to see who is behind the wheel. Viktor. She throws her cigarette end on the pavement and a lady rolling past in an electric wheelchair stares crossly at her.

When Linnéa walks through the gates, the schoolyard is empty. The air is heavy with heat and her skin feels clammy. A huge thundercloud hangs over the sky like a lid. She is longing for a storm to clear the air, as it surely must, soon.

Closer to the school building, the piano playing grows more distinct. As she pulls the front door open, the choir starts to sing.

Walking through the lobby, Linnéa feels weirdly off-balance with lack of sleep. She ought to be used to sleepless nights, but now they come for a different reason. It’s no longer panic that keeps her awake. It is longing for Vanessa. The nights when she doesn’t sleep by her side make Linnéa burn with restlessness. The only thing that can soothe her is Vanessa’s skin against her own.

If Linnéa had been her old self, she would hardly have been bothered by missing the final day assembly. She would just have turned over in bed and gone back to sleep.

But now, Vanessa is there.

She pushes the door to the assembly hall open a fraction and slips inside. Light is pouring in through the tall, unwashed windows. The room is airless. The choir is lined up on the stage and Kerstin Stålnacke, dressed in a tie-dyed tunic, is directing with lots of arm-waving.

Linnéa scans the audience for Vanessa and catches sight of her blonde hair in one of the rows near the back. She is wearing a strapless, turquoise dress. Minoo and Anna-Karin sit on one side of her and, on the other, her large handbag keeps one seat for Linnéa.

Suddenly, Vanessa turns her head and looks straight at her. And smiles. Linnéa feels warmth flow through her body. She pushes her way to the free space, pulls the folding seat down. Once she is seated, Vanessa kisses her on the mouth. Very softly. It is quite enough to make Linnéa’s heart rate double. From a few rows behind them, some people wolf-whistle. Vanessa doesn’t even look to see who they are, just flips them the bird. Then she kisses Linnéa again.

‘Another academic year has passed and summer is waiting just outside the door. I, for one, will open the door joyfully and let it in.’

Tommy Ekberg has taken the place behind the lectern. His bald head is shining with sweat. He is wearing a shirt with oversized daisies on a cornflower-blue background. If Linnéa hadn’t disliked him so much, she might have thought it almost touching that he had chosen it for today. He must have chosen it because he thought it was summery and nice.

Tommy clears his throat loudly. The microphone makes it sound like a dog’s bark.

‘The summer vacation is a time to recoup,’ he says. ‘For my part, I like to spend the time pottering in the garden and relaxing with a few fat volumes of biography. But I have a feeling that what you long for during the vacation is not another pile of books.’

A handful of teachers take pity on him and laugh a little. Vanessa puts her head on Linnéa’s shoulder and sighs.

‘What the fuck are we doing here?’ she whispers.

Linnéa smiles. Waves a little to Anna-Karin and Minoo. Anna-Karin smiles back but Minoo seems almost unaware that Linnéa has joined them.

‘At your age, I’d cycle down to Dammsjön Lake to check out the birds. The non-feathered ones, that is,’ Tommy says. ‘I can’t think that it’s not done these days. Or what do you say, guys?’

Linnéa’s mentor and arts teacher, Petter Backman, cackles with laughter. The rest of the assembly hall is dead quiet. Tommy strokes his moustache.

Minoo seems totally devastated
, Linnéa thinks to Vanessa.

Yes, I think she’s in love with Gustaf
, Vanessa thinks in return.

Linnéa glances quickly at her. She neither wants to lie to Vanessa nor give away Minoo’s secret.

Why do you think that?

It’s been obvious for quite a while
, Vanessa replies.

‘After the summer, the new year of study will start off again,’ Tommy says. ‘I am sure we all hope it will be less … turbulent than these past two years.’

I am so sorry for them both
, Vanessa continues her line of thought.
Gustaf is going through a bad time, too. Like, when I was angry with you because you hadn’t let on that you were a mind-reader. I wanted to forgive you and hated you at the same time
.

Linnéa doesn’t want to think about last summer, when Vanessa refused to talk to her and even seemed unwilling to look at her. She pulls at her cuticles so hard it hurts. Vanessa puts her hands across Linnéa’s.

But I got over it
, Vanessa thinks.
Gustaf will, too, I’m sure
.

‘The past year at school has been difficult,’ Tommy carries on. ‘I won’t deny it. We lost, for instance, a highly valued colleague when Adriana Lopez handed in her notice.’

Linnéa and Vanessa exchange glances. So this is the way Tommy is rewriting history.

‘Then the terrible electrical malfunction which caused one of our pupils, Ida Holmström, to lose her life.’ He looks out over the assembly hall and pauses to let Ida’s name sink in. ‘During her time here in Engelsfors senior school, she was a role model to us all.’

Linnéa recalls when Ida read a poem to Elias in front of the whole school. Linnéa had got out of her chair, even though panic was rushing through her.

You gave them the scissors, Ida! It was you! I saw it! And so did the rest of you, you sick, fucking hypocrites!

‘Ida will always live on in our hearts and our memories,’ Tommy says.

Linnéa realises he is right. She and Ida had been fighting the same enemies and had both been part of the Circle. However fiercely Linnéa had hated her, there was a bond between them. And there had been moments when she had even liked her. At least towards the end.

Naturally, that coincided with the time when the rest of Engelsfors senior school began to detest her. Some of those who let her down most, like Julia and Felicia, are sobbing the loudest now. Linnéa almost feels like getting up again and speaking her mind.

You sick, fucking hypocrites!

‘I regret to say that Olivia Henriksson has still not been found. I must remind you to get in touch with the police if you know anything that might have a bearing—’

A chair seat snaps loudly back when Robin stands up, a few rows in front of Linnéa. Tommy looks irritably at him.

‘Right, Robin. Are you going somewhere?’

Robin is swaying slightly, but doesn’t move from the spot. Felicia pulls at his sweatshirt and hisses something at him.

‘Robin, sit down,’ Tommy says.

‘Erik Forslund and I forced Linnéa Wallin to jump off Canal Bridge last winter. We tried to kill her.’

Robin rattles off the words as if it was his homework to recite the sentences aloud. Then he falls abruptly silent.

All faces turn towards him. People’s glances bounce between Linnéa and Robin and whispering spreads throughout the hall. She feels paralysed.

Erik gets up from the chair next to Robin and forces a tight smile.

‘Robin has a pretty morbid sense of humour,’ he says. ‘But, Robin, this is well beyond funny. Nowhere near.’

‘I’m not joking!’ Robin shouts. ‘We did what I said!’

Linnéa takes Vanessa’s hand and feels a reassuring pressure back. Another seat snaps when Kevin stands up in the front half of the hall.

‘It’s true!’ he says. ‘They did it! They tried to kill her!’

This isn’t happening, Linnéa thinks. It simply isn’t happening.

‘Stop it,’ Julia shrieks. ‘You’re all lying!’

She casts a dark glance at Linnéa, as if all this is her fault. Erik doesn’t turn around. But Linnéa can sense his hatred of her. It is radiating from him and its rays enter her. She can hear his thoughts.

I knew he couldn’t hack the pressure. I’ll have to make him take all this shit back. And then I’ll wipe that bitch out for good
.

It feels as if she is falling again, tumbling down into the black water.

‘He can’t get at you,’ Vanessa whispers.

She must have sensed what Linnéa is feeling. And Linnéa realises that she is not alone. She has Vanessa. And Minoo, and Anna-Karin.

‘What the fuck, phone the cops now,’ Tindra screams. ‘He confessed, right?’

The noise grows in the hall. Now Linnéa realises that several pupils are on their feet, holding up their mobiles to take photos and videos.

‘That’s enough!’

Tommy’s howl into the microphone is so loud it causes feedback in the speakers and everyone claps their hands over their ears.

He points to Petter Backman.

‘You take these boys to my office, please, Petter. Everyone else stay put until they’ve left. Then, go back to your classrooms!’

Petter steps down into the aisle, crosses his arms on his chest and stares hard at the boys until they slowly walk towards him. Julia starts sobbing loudly. Felicia is crying, too, and tries to pat Julia’s back. Julia slaps Felicia’s hand away.

‘Wow!’ Vanessa says. ‘Shit, they’ll be locked up for this!’

But not only them, Linnéa realises suddenly. The only one of that gang who had not willingly gone along to her flat will also be hauled away.

Rickard
, she thinks to the Chosen Ones.
We can’t let Rickard be had for the break-in
.

Minoo nods.

‘I’ll fix that,’ she says.

Minoo holds on to Anna-Karin’s arm as they walk through the entrance lobby and on towards the corridor that ends with the spiral staircase. Everywhere, they hear excited voices. They pass people who are pushing to get through the crowds. Minoo picks up fragments of talk.

… the police have been called … remember May Day Eve, that party, how weird Kevin was … I’ve heard Robin is on something, maybe he’s shooting up with Linnéa … I think Erik did it, I’ve always believed he did …

Minoo keeps her eyes fixed on Linnéa and Vanessa who are walking ahead of her along the corridor.

‘Are you quite sure?’ Anna-Karin asks quietly. ‘Do you really want to do this?’

‘Yes, I do,’ Minoo replies.

It is a half-truth. Of course she doesn’t want to have their memories in her head. But she is sure, all the same. This is different from hiding Rickard’s and Gustaf’s memories.

This is about fairness, getting things right. About helping someone who is innocent.

All very noble. But Minoo can’t help hoping that a side-effect of doing this for Rickard will be that Gustaf hates her a little less.

‘We will help you,’ Anna-Karin says when they catch up with Linnéa who is holding the door to the spiral staircase open. Vanessa is already on her way upstairs. ‘We will sort this out together.’

Together.

Minoo thinks of everything the Circle has done together. All the times they have risked their lives, side by side. And realises that soon she might not be part of their circle. Soon, she shall have to decide.

* * *

The door slams behind Anna-Karin and she follows the others up the spiral staircase.

When Erik rose in the assembly, she had felt anger rushing to her head. It would have been so satisfying to give in to it. To draw strength from her hatred as she has done before, when everything was going so badly.

She remembers all the times Erik has terrorised her, with Robin and Kevin backing whatever he did. When she was starting to grow breasts in primary school and they started pinching and squeezing her whenever they got close. When they started shouting ‘B.O. Ho’ after her. When they put dog turds in her schoolbag.

Though the worst thing wasn’t what they did but her fear of what they would do next.

What if she loses control when she sees them? Orders them to jump out through the window? Or uses her newfound strength to throw them out? She has hated them for as long as she can remember. How will she be able to resist the temptation to hurt them?

They stop at the floor of the principal’s office.

Petter is alone with them
, Linnéa thinks to them.
Vanessa can make herself and Anna-Karin invisible. Anna-Karin makes Petter leave and makes sure the boys stay calm
.

She looks quickly down the corridor.

I’ll keep look-out here in case someone comes this way while Minoo does her thing. Everyone ready?

They all nod, Anna-Karin too. Vanessa holds out her hand and she takes it, ever so cautiously. Then she feels the light air movements fanning her skin, so familiar from the practice sessions when Vanessa wraps her in invisibility.

They step into the deserted corridor. Vanessa looks at Anna-Karin before she knocks on the door to the principal’s office. Petter Backman opens the door. Stares straight through them.

‘Hello?’ he says.

Behind him, they see Erik seated in the armchair. Robin sits on the sofa next to Kevin, who hides his face in his hands and weeps quietly.

Petter Backman looks annoyed, swears, and is just about to close the door when Anna-Karin releases her power.

STOP
.

He freezes in mid-movement, just like in the play-school game.

GO DOWN TO THE ENTRANCE HALL
, Anna-Karin orders.

Stony-faced, he walks out into the corridor in the direction of the main staircase.

‘Where are you off to?’ Robin asks shrilly.

SAY NOTHING. DON’T MOVE
.

Robin, Erik and Kevin stiffen where they sit. Anna-Karin and Vanessa step into the office and close the door.

Anna-Karin feels the fanning on her skin again when Vanessa lets go of her hand and they both become visible. Robin, Erik and Kevin look shocked but say nothing and don’t move. A solitary tear runs down Kevin’s cheek.

‘We could do anything we like with them now, right?’ Vanessa says. ‘Like, I could pick up that pair of scissors on the desk and use it to cut off their tiny little balls.’

Terror glows in their eyes. They are entirely at the disposal of the Chosen Ones. Anna-Karin is savouring every moment. She opens the door and lets Minoo in.

‘Now it’s your turn,’ she says, and goes back into the corridor.

* * *