and calm, but now that disappeared. Yet he understood why she would ask, and he somehow felt he owed her an answer.
‘My father, he’s … well, he’s been in the war. Sometimes he’s gone for months at a time. And sometimes he brings the war home with him.’
Jessie leaned closer, resting her head on his shoulder.
‘Has he ever …’
‘I don’t want to talk about it. Not yet.’
‘What about your mother?’
Sam closed his eyes, letting the sunlight warm him.
‘She’s okay,’ he said at last.
For a few seconds he thought about what he was refusing to think about, and he squeezed his eyes shut even tighter. Then he opened his eyes and fumbled in his pocket for the cigarettes he’d brought along. He took out two, lit both of them, and handed one to Jessie.
Calm spread through his body, the buzzing faded from inside his head, and the memories were carried away by the smoke. He leaned forward and kissed Jessie. At first she froze. From fear. From surprise. Then he felt her lips soften and let him in.
‘Oh, how adorable!’
Sam gave a start.
‘Look at the little lovebirds!’
Nils came sauntering down from the rocks with Basse and Vendela in tow. As always. They didn’t seem to be capable of surviving without each other.
‘So who’s this?’ Nils sat down right next to Sam and Jessie, staring at her intently as she pulled up her bikini top. ‘Looks like you’ve found yourself a girlfriend, Sam.’
‘I’m Jessie,’ she told him, holding out her hand, which Nils ignored.
‘Jessie?’ said Vendela behind him. ‘You must be Marie Wall’s daughter.’
‘Aha. The daughter of your mother’s pal. The Hollywood star.’
Nils was now looking at Jessie with interest as she kept on tugging at her bikini top. Sam wanted to protect her from their prying eyes. He wanted to put his arms around her and tell her to pay them no mind. Instead he reached for her T-shirt.
‘I guess it’s no surprise that the two of you would find each other,’ said Basse, giving Nils a poke in the side.
His voice was a shrill, feminine falsetto, but no one ever teased him about it for fear of drawing the wrath of Nils. His real name was Bosse, but in middle school he’d got everyone to call him Basse instead, because it sounded cooler.
‘Yeah, I guess it’s not really that strange,’ said Nils, looking from Jessie to Sam.
‘Okay, I’m fucking hungry,’ he said. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
Vendela smiled at Jessie. ‘See you later.’
Sam looked at them in surprise. Was that it?
Jessie leaned towards him.
‘Who were those guys?’ she said. ‘They’re weird. Nice, but weird.’
Sam shook his head.
‘They’re not nice. Not at all.’
He pulled his mobile out of his pocket, opened the photo file, and skimmed through the videos. He knew why he’d saved this particular video. It was a reminder of what people could do to each other. And to him. But he’d never planned to show it to Jessie. Enough people had already seen it.
‘They posted this on Snapchat last summer,’ he said, handing his mobile to Jessie. ‘I managed to film it before it was removed.’
Sam looked away as Jessie clicked on the start button. He didn’t need to watch it. When he heard the voices the whole scene clearly unfolded in his mind.
‘You’re so out of shape!’ Nils had shouted. ‘Wimpy like a girl. Swimming is good exercise.’
Nils had headed for Sam’s boat, which was moored not far from where it was today.
‘You can swim back to Fjällbacka. It’ll build muscles.’
Vendela laughed as she filmed everything with her camera. Basse came running alongside Nils.
Nils tossed the mooring line into the boat, then set his foot on the bow and gave it a push. The small wooden boat began slowly backing away from the island, but it got caught in a current a few metres out, and the distance increased rapidly.
Nils turned towards the camera, grinning broadly.
‘Have a nice swim.’
At that point the video ended.
‘Holy shit,’ said Jessie. ‘Holy shit.’
She looked at Sam with tears in her eyes.
He shrugged.
‘I’ve been through worse.’
Jessie blinked away her tears. He suspected that she too had survived worse experiences. He put his hand on her shoulder and felt how she was shaking. But he could also feel the bond between them. And what united them.
One day he would show her his notebook and share all his thoughts with her. Including his big plan. One day everyone would see.
Jessie wrapped her arms around his neck. She smelled so wonderful, of sun and sweat and marijuana.
It was getting late, but still light, like a memory of the sun that had shone all day from a clear blue sky. Eva looked towards the farmyard where the shadows were beginning to lengthen. Cold fingers seemed to clutch at her heart as she thought about Nea, who always hurried inside before dark fell.
People were coming and going out there. Voices mixed with barking from the dogs as they took turns to search. The ice-cold fingers again clutched at her heart.
The older officer, Gösta, came in the front door.
‘I was thinking of having a cup of coffee, and then I’ll go back out.’
Eva got up to pour him some coffee. She’d made countless pots of coffee over the past few hours.
‘Nothing yet?’ she asked, even though she knew the answer.
If he had any news, he would have told her at once instead of asking for coffee. But there was something comforting and soothing about asking the question.
‘No, but we’ve got a big team out there searching. It feels like all of Fjällbacka has turned out.’
Eva nodded, trying to compose herself before speaking.
‘Yes, everyone has been amazing,’ she said, sinking down on her chair. ‘Peter went out to join the search too. I couldn’t keep him away.’
‘I
