about the two of you?’ she said.
‘What?’ said Peter, giving her a sweaty kiss on the cheek.
He looked around.
‘Where’s Nea? Is she taking an afternoon nap?’
There was a great rushing in Eva’s ears, and as if from far away she heard herself say:
‘I thought she was with you.’
They stared at each other as their world split apart.
Linda glanced at Sanna as she sat beside her, bouncing in the passenger seat of the car.
‘What do you think Stella will say when she sees all the clothes you’ve bought?’
‘I think she’ll be happy,’ said Sanna with a smile, and for a moment she looked like her cheerful little sister. Then she frowned in that typical way of hers. ‘But maybe she’ll be jealous too.’
Linda smiled as she drove into the farmyard. Sanna had always been such a considerate big sister.
‘We’ll have to explain to her that she’ll get lots of nice clothes when she starts school too.’
She’d hardly stopped the car before Sanna jumped out and opened the back door to take out all the shopping bags.
The front door of the house opened, and Anders came out on to the porch.
‘Sorry we’re a little late,’ said Linda. ‘We had to stop for a bite to eat.’
Anders gave her an odd look.
‘I know it’s dinnertime soon, but Sanna had her heart set on going to a café,’ Linda went on, smiling at her daughter, who gave her father a quick hug before running inside the house.
Anders shook his head.
‘It’s not that. I just … Stella hasn’t come home.’
‘She hasn’t?’
The look on Anders’s face made her stomach knot.
‘No, and I rang both Marie and Helen. They weren’t home either.’
Linda let out a sigh and shut the car door.
‘Oh, I’m sure they must’ve forgotten about the time. You’ll see. You know how Stella is. She probably wanted to walk through the woods and show them everything.’
She kissed Anders on the lips.
‘I expect you’re right,’ he said, but he didn’t look convinced.
The phone was ringing, so Anders hurried into the kitchen to take the call.
Linda frowned as she leaned down to take off her shoes. It wasn’t like Anders to get so upset. But he’d had a full hour to wonder what might have happened to the girls.
When she straightened up, she found Anders standing in front of her. The expression on his face brought back the knot in her stomach full force.
‘That was KG on the phone. Helen is back home now, and they’re about to eat dinner. KG rang Marie’s house, and according to him, both girls claim they dropped Stella off around five.’
‘So what are you saying?’
Anders pulled on his trainers.
‘I’ve searched everywhere on the farm, but maybe she went back to the woods and got lost.’
Linda nodded.
‘We need to go out and look for her.’
She went over to the bottom of the stairs and called to their elder daughter.
‘Sanna? Pappa and I are going out to look for Stella. She’s probably over in the woods. You know how much she loves being there. We’ll be back soon!’
Then she looked at her husband. She didn’t want him to let on to Sanna how uneasy they both felt.
Half an hour later they could no longer hide their concern from each other. Anders was gripping the steering wheel so tightly, his knuckles were white. After searching the woods next to their property, they’d driven back and forth along the road, slowly passing all the places where they knew Stella usually went. But they hadn’t seen any trace of her.
Linda put her hand on Anders’s knee.
‘We should head home now.’
Anders nodded and looked at her. The worry in his eyes was a frightening reflection of her own.
They needed to ring the police.
Gösta Flygare riffled through the stack of papers in front of him. It was a Monday in August, so the stack wasn’t very big. He had no complaints about working in the summertime. Aside from playing a few rounds of golf, he had nothing better to do. Occasionally Ebba came to visit him, but with a new baby to care for, she couldn’t get away very often. He understood that. What mattered to him was knowing he had a standing invitation to visit Ebba in Gothenburg, and the invitation was genuinely meant. Even a small dose of what had now become his family was better than nothing. And it was best if Patrik, who had young children, was able to take time off in the middle of the summer. He and Mellberg could sit here like a pair of old horses and handle whatever business came in. Martin dropped by once in a while to check on the ‘old guys’, as he jokingly said, but Gösta thought the real reason was that he needed company. Martin hadn’t met anyone new since Pia died, which was a shame. He was a fine young man. And his daughter needed a maternal influence. Annika, the police station’s secretary, sometimes took the child home with her, giving the excuse that Tuva could play with her own daughter, Leia. But it wasn’t enough. The child needed a mother. But Martin wasn’t ready for a new relationship, and that was that. Love could not be forced, and for Gösta there had only ever been one woman. Yet he thought Martin was a little too young to feel the same way.
He realized it wasn’t easy to find a new love. It was impossible to control such feelings, and the choices were limited since they lived in such a small town. Besides, Martin had been somewhat of a Don Juan before he met Pia, so there was always the risk it would be a second-time around with certain women. And in Gösta’s opinion, trying a second time rarely worked out if the first time hadn’t been successful. But what did he know? The love of his life had been his wife Maj-Britt, with whom he’d shared all his adult years. There had never been anyone else, either before or after.
The shrill ringing of the phone roused Gösta from his brooding.
‘Tanumshede police station.’
He listened intently
