The Key (35 page)

Vanessa pulls her knees up and rests her chin on them.

Minoo isn’t surprised at Linnéa’s reaction. She hadn’t expected anything else. She only wishes it hadn’t made a target of Vanessa as well.

When Linnéa crosses the little wooden bridge at the canal locks, she avoids looking at the Canal Bridge. She finds her mobile and sends a text to Vanessa, promising to phone her soon.

But, first, she must have a talk with Viktor.

She is walking across the meadow behind the manor house when she hears the ringtone. Diana’s name appears on the screen.

Linnéa feels sick. What if Diana is calling to say that Robin has backtracked?

‘Hi, Linnéa,’ Diana says. ‘How are you? All right after the questioning and all that?’

‘Fine. Anything else?’

‘Well, yes. Your father just phoned the office. He asked for your phone number.’

Another wave of nausea.

‘Surely you didn’t give it to him?’

‘Of course not. And he took that as read. But he had heard what happened and wanted to talk with you. He was very careful to say that he’d understand if you didn’t want to.’

He must be sober. If he had started drinking again, he wouldn’t have called Diana. He knows where Linnéa lives and would have turned up to hammer on her door. Would have become more and more noisy on the landing. Would have gabbled. Pleaded. Called her
the light and joy of his life
.

It occurs to Linnéa that it has been almost a year since he stopped drinking. He hasn’t stayed off the booze for that long before.

‘I don’t want to talk to him,’ she says.

‘That’s all right,’ Diana says. ‘If you change your mind, remember that I have his number.’

‘Sure. But I must get on now.’ Linnéa ends the call.

She walks through the overgrown garden behind the manor house, following the outline of the building while she keeps an eye on the shuttered widows and wonders if someone in there is watching her.

She reaches the front, walks up to the entrance and rings the doorbell. Viktor looks surprised when he opens the door.

‘I want to talk to you,’ she tells him.

Viktor glances over his shoulder, then steps outside and closes the door behind him, pulling out a packet of cigarettes. Now she is the one who is surprised. They sit down on the stone steps and Viktor lights two cigarettes with a gold-plated lighter and hands her one of them.

‘Thank you,’ she says, ‘for what you’re going to say to the police.’

Viktor smokes, then rolls the cigarette between his fingertips.

‘You don’t have to thank me. It’s simply about justice. They should be punished.’ He drags on the cigarette again and the smoke glows almost purple in the slanting sunbeams. ‘And I’m glad there is something I can do for you to make amends for all the hassle I’ve caused you.’

‘True, you have quite a few things to make up for,’ she agrees. ‘But you’re doing fine.’

His car, looking as immaculate as ever, is parked in the yard. Linnéa remembers when he drove her, wrapped in his coat, back home that night. Suddenly it comes to her that the shoes he had lent her were probably Clara’s. They are still in a bag at the back of her wardrobe.

‘Minoo told us about your sister,’ she says. ‘You must say hello to her from me. And thank her for everything she—’

‘I’ll tell her,’ Viktor interrupts.

He doesn’t sound unpleasant, but it’s very obvious he does not want to talk about Clara. Linnéa has no problem with that. She has something else to discuss. But it isn’t suitable for speaking about.

Is it true what Walter says?
she thinks.
Does Minoo have to join your circle in order for the portal to be closed?

Yes, what he says is true enough
, Viktor thinks.
As far as it goes
.
All it means is that the guardians have told him so and he believes what they say
.

Can you find out if the guardians are telling the truth?

I have never actually managed to read the
Book of Patterns.
And I don’t know if it would work anyway. The guardians aren’t human
.

No, they are not human, Linnéa thinks to herself.

The guardians don’t think the way people do and perhaps people cannot really understand how the guardians function. But the guardians claim that they understand people. That they are on humanity’s side. That they try to help people. That everything they do is with this world’s interests at heart.

Linnéa’s instinct is screaming that they are not to be trusted. Trouble is, when one is as paranoid as she, it’s hard to know when to rely on one’s gut feelings. In her case, her gut feeling is always that the absolutely worst possible thing will happen. And it hasn’t improved matters that the absolutely worst thing has happened to her so many times.

Suddenly, she realises what a relief it would be not to have to care about this whole affair any more. If the guardians are right, stopping the apocalypse isn’t up to Linnéa any more, but to Minoo. Minoo – otherwise known as the most powerful witch in the world. It’s her job now. Minoo, together with Viktor, Walter and the rest of the Council’s circle, have to pull it off.

Linnéa is excused. Vanessa is excused. Anna-Karin is excused. None of them asked for this. In the beginning they were seven and now only four of them are left. Why should she want to hang on to this task at any cost? Shouldn’t she
want
to be shot of it? Why is she clinging to it?

‘The Chosen Ones are meant to be the ones who close the portal,’ Linnéa says.

‘No,’ Viktor tells her. ‘
A
Chosen One was meant to close it. Instead there were seven of you, and there has never been anyone like Minoo before.’

‘What’s your point?’

‘That the rules have obviously changed.’

Linnéa wraps her arms around herself. Chill from the stone steps is seeping through her body.

‘It can’t be right that the Council is going to save the world,’ she says.

The Council is not a perfect organisation
, he thinks.
Far from it. But I believe that the Council is useful, even necessary. Without it, there would be chaos. Those with magic powers would exploit those without
.

And you don’t think that the Council exploits its power?
she asks.

I think it could be worse and I am also sure it could be improved. I believe the Council can change and I want to be part of that change
.

Naturally
, she thinks.
You hope to bring about change in a corrupt organisation without letting it corrupt you. All I can say is, good luck
.

Why should it be impossible?

Linnéa looks at him disbelievingly. Is he that naïve?

Because, Viktor, you’re a part of the organisation. Your noble ideas won’t change anything as long as they’re only ideas. Only what you
do
can bring about change. But what can you actually do, now that you have sworn the oath of allegiance? How much are you free to do?

‘The oath makes no difference,’ he says.

‘Face facts,’ she says. ‘You belong to them.’

Viktor produces his cigarettes again, and again she accepts one. When he bends forward to light it for her, sheltering the flame with his hands, she picks up thoughts that he wants to hide from her. Viktor is aware that he is no longer free to choose, that his life is now dedicated to the Council, and it frightens him. He is not only fearful for himself but for his sister. She, too, has sworn the oath now.

Linnéa doesn’t hesitate any more. To land someone else in all this portal shit would be lovely. But it is not an option.

‘They had no right to make you take that oath,’ she tells him.

‘And you have no right to pity me.’

She knows exactly how he feels. She also knows that they have nothing more to say to each other.

Putting on her sunglasses, she gets up and starts walking. For the first time in ages, she no longer feels doubtful. She has a goal. A goal that is more important than anything else.

She can’t believe in the pronouncements by the guardians and the Council. She can’t trust those who have lied so many times. She has to carry on with the fight. And never give up. For her own sake, for the sake of the other Chosen Ones and for the sake of the entire sodding world, she has to be strong enough.

She can’t stop Minoo from joining the Council’s circle, because there are no alternatives that she can offer. Not now.

But I can go all out to find some, Linnéa thinks. It’s true what Viktor says. The rules have changed There must be other ways to save the world. And I shall find them.

Vanessa goes straight from Nicolaus’s flat to the Ica supermarket. She has promised to help with the weekly shop before Mum goes back to work.

It’s the last thing she needs, especially as she has a banging headache. She isn’t sure if it’s yesterday’s cider drinking, or what Minoo has said to them, or the way Linnéa reacted that’s caused it.

She’d felt a little better when Linnéa texted her. But Vanessa can’t forget how Linnéa looked at her; as if she was a stranger, someone with no rights whatever to ask anything from her.

Vanessa drags herself between the shelves with the shopping trolley.

Frozen broccoli.

She doesn’t have to save the world now.

Quick-cook macaroni.

It is no longer a task for her.

Kitchen paper.

At least, so it seems.

She tries to think what leading a normal life again might actually entail. It’s tempting. A lovely dream. But Vanessa knows too much. She knows that it is too late to put on blinders. She can’t ignore demons and the apocalypse; can’t just sit back, cross her fingers and hope for the best. Hope that someone else will fix it. It’s like she said to Minoo. Right now, there are no alternatives.

But when they find an alternative, she will be ready.

Vanessa puts a packet of tampons in the trolley and pushes it along to the tills where Mum is waiting, deep in one of the evening papers. Vanessa checks out the only open till. No sign of Sirpa. Perhaps she’s still on sick leave.

Vanessa wonders if Sirpa knows that two of her son’s ex-girlfriends are together now. In which case, she would know more than Mum.

‘Are we done now?’ Vanessa asks. ‘I’d like to go home and have a nap.’

Mum lowers the paper and Vanessa realises at once that something is wrong.

And then she sees the double-page spread.

A large photograph of two young men standing in the packed assembly hall. Robin’s and Erik’s faces are pixilated.

Above it, a screaming banner headline.

CONFESSED TO ATTEMPTED MURDER DURING SCHOOL ASSEMBLY
.

Vanessa has time to catch a few of the phrases in the text below the photo.
Break-in. Vandalism. Miraculous survival
.

‘Vanessa,’ Mum asks. ‘What’s all this about?’

‘Let’s talk about it outside.’

Vanessa starts loading their shopping onto the conveyor belt. She doesn’t even look at the man at the till. Mum is silent. The only sound is the barcode scanner.

Blip. Blip. Blip
.

Vanessa packs the carrier bags while Mum pays. She puts the evening paper in last.

‘It’s Linnéa, isn’t it?’ Mum asks once they are outside the shop. ‘The person whose flat was done over?’

‘Yes,’ Vanessa confirms.

They walk to the stop for the number five bus.

‘Dear Lord,’ Mum says. ‘It must have happened just before the time she stayed the night with us.’

Vanessa nods. Mum is both right and wrong. Linnéa did stay overnight with them, but she was in Vanessa’s body. The Linnéa Mum thought she had met was in fact Minoo.

‘All you told me was that someone had broken into her place,’ Mum continues. ‘Didn’t you know that all these other dreadful things had happened?’

‘Yes, I did, but I had promised Linnéa that I wouldn’t tell anyone.’

Mum stops to wait for the bus, puts the bags down and looks earnestly at Vanessa.

‘This isn’t the kind of thing you keep secret, Nessa! Those boys tried to kill her!’

Vanessa parks her bags next to Mum’s and tries to keep calm.

‘Nobody would’ve believed Linnéa. Remember what Nicke said to you about how he was positive that Linnéa threw some crazy party. And that it ran out of control so she tried to make the police believe that there had been a break-in. The whole investigation was cancelled on the spot.’

Mum looks worried.

‘But, in that case … you and the other girls lied to Nicke when you only told him about the break-in. Isn’t that perjury?’

Yesterday, Vanessa asked Patricia almost exactly the same question. All the same, she becomes irritated.

‘No, it isn’t because we weren’t under oath.’

Mum still looks worried.

‘I promise you, it’s OK,’ Vanessa says. ‘We probably won’t even be called in as witnesses.’

‘How is Linnéa feeling? How has she felt all this time? God, I just had no idea, never guessed … she was so nice and well-behaved when she stayed with us …’

Vanessa thinks back on what Linnéa had told her about Minoo-as-Linnéa, who sat and conversed politely with Mum at the kitchen table.

‘She is very good at hiding her emotions,’ she tells her.

‘But how could she keep it up after something like this had happened to her?’

Mum starts crying and Vanessa has to pull herself together, or she’ll start as well. An elderly couple walk slowly past them, each leaning on a wheeled Zimmer frame. They turn to look inquisitively at them.

‘It’s so awful,’ Mum says. ‘Poor, poor Linnéa. She seemed such a lovely person.’

‘She
is
a lovely person,’ Vanessa agrees. It’s tough to keep the tears back.

She realises that she must say it now. The moment has come.

‘Mum, Linnéa and I have … we are … well, like together.’

She had believed that a weight would be lifted off her shoulders if only she could bring herself to tell Mum. But the weight stays put, because Mum dries her eyes only to stare uncomprehendingly at her.

‘Right … well, together with whom?’

‘With
each other
.’