The Key (63 page)

Walter enters. He is wearing his dark grey winter coat.

‘Could I please have your attention for a moment?’ he asks.

As if he had to ask.

He smells of shower gel and his hair is damp. A few strands of hair tumble onto his forehead as he leans forward, resting his hands on the table.

He looks troubled. Minoo wonders if he has heard of the little bedroom party last night and is going to give them hell.

‘A new portent occurred last night,’ he says.

Felix, Nejla and Sigrid sit up, as if keen to hear more. As for Minoo, her coffee wants to come back up. Yet another sign of the approaching apocalypse. Only Clara looks as worried as Minoo feels.

‘So, which element is it this time?’ Viktor asks nonchalantly.

‘Metal,’ Walter says. ‘It showed up as northern lights. It is very worrying that the portents are coming in such rapid succession. And, even if it’s a relief that no one got hurt this time, this portent has had exceptional effects. All mobile phone networks are down. And television. And Internet and landlines. The only functioning media seem to be radio channels.’

‘In the whole of Engelsfors?’ Felix asks.

‘Yes, Felix,’ Walter says impatiently. ‘In the whole of Engelsfors.’

Minoo exchanges a look with Sigrid and is certain that she too is thinking about their talk last night.

‘When will the mobiles come back on?’ Nejla asks. ‘If the world is ending, I’d like to call my boyfriend one last time.’

Walter laughs.

‘That’s prioritising for you!’ He straightens up. ‘Joking apart, what happened last night is confirmation – if confirmation were needed – that we must work harder than ever.’

He doesn’t ask Minoo if she is going to the court hearing. Is it because he has already understood that she has decided to stay? Or does he assume that she will go and therefore is punishing her by giving her the silent treatment?

‘Get your coats,’ Walter says. ‘Time to start.’

Sigrid gulps down her coffee. Everybody rises from the table. As Minoo leaves the room, she sees Adriana stacking cups and plates on a tray.

Minoo remembers the key, and another wave of anxiety sweeps through her.

Walter ushers them into the ballroom. Two large ectoplasm circles are painted on the floor. Alexander stands nearby with an ectoplasm tube in his hand.

Walter takes the tube from him and uses it to draw the sign for wood inside the inner circle. He hands it to Viktor, who adds the water sign. The others draw their signs while Minoo waits. She passes the time winding the scarf around her neck, buttoning her coat and pulling on her gloves.

When all six signs are in place, Walter opens the double doors wide and they all walk outside.

Nejla was right. It is still night and it is so cold that Minoo’s breath turns into clouds of frozen vapour. The outdoor lights are on and spotlights glow here and there on the lawn. Walter leads the way into the green room between the hedges.

They stop just inside the outer stone circle. The inner circle glows with ectoplasm and their faces are lit from below by its blue light.

‘We will connect our magic now,’ Walter says. ‘Work as a circle.’

Everyone automatically bares their hands. Minoo pulls her gloves off, too, and glances at Viktor on her right side and Nejla on her left. She wonders if they knew what to expect as soon as they saw the circles in the ballroom.

‘Teleportation can be managed in different ways,’ Walter says. ‘But, whichever way, it will be complicated. And dangerous. This is why, to begin with, we won’t use any living things. Have you all seen
The Fly
? The film?’

Minoo hasn’t and the others also stare blankly at Walter, who smiles ruefully.

‘Sorry,’ he says. ‘I sometimes forget how terribly old I am.’

He walks up to the inner circle and pulls an object from his coat pocket. It is the glass cube that Minoo used for her demonstration. It seems to glow from within when he places it in the inner circle. Then he returns to his place between Clara and Sigrid and takes their hands. Minoo reaches for Viktor and Nejla.

‘This exercise is about strength and precision,’ Walter says. ‘Release your powers, but listen to each other at the same time and adjust. The group energy must be calibrated to a common, steady level or else things will not go well. Think of it as a choir that is supposed to hit the same note.’

Minoo releases the black smoke. Now she can see the auras belonging to the others, shining in the dark like colourful lights.

‘Ready?’ Walter says. ‘Let’s do it.’

Linnéa opens her eyes. She looks at the strange room in the pale daylight.

Anna-Karin’s room. In Minoo’s home. The hearing is today. Robin will retract his confession.

Her mobile alarm starts and she turns it off. Only one hour to go before Diana comes to pick her up to drive her to Västerås.

No network coverage. But Vanessa has sent her a text. She is glad she didn’t see it last night, because she probably wouldn’t have been able to stop herself from answering it.

She must get up now if she is to change and be ready in time. Her clothes for the court are ready at home, hanging on the wardrobe door, freshly washed and ironed. White blouse. Pale blue cardigan. Navy blue skirt. She got the whole outfit from Ingrid’s Hidey-hole. When she tried them on, she scarcely recognised herself.

And that is precisely the point. She has to dress as someone else. Someone who is a credible victim.

‘Remove all the rings from your ears,’ Ludvig had advised her. ‘We can be pretty sure that Erik’s representative will paint a picture of you as a mentally unstable, antisocial junkie. Unfortunately, we’ve been allocated a really mouldy old judge and some of the magistrates could be even more bigoted. Your looks must remind them of their children and grandchildren. I wish I didn’t have to tell you this, but I’m just being realistic.’

And he said all that at a time when they still believed Robin would confess.

Linnéa steps out into the passage. She hears the voices of Anna-Karin and Minoo’s father from downstairs, but the radio is on and she can’t make out what they are talking about.

She washes off yesterday’s make-up in the bathroom. She smells of sweat but will shower at home. Her face still carries lines from the pillow and her eyes look hollow. It might be an advantage if it makes her look more like a trustworthy victim. Or a disadvantage because it makes her look more like the headcase she’ll be portrayed as.

Anna-Karin sits in the armchair in her room and waits for Linnéa. She looks even more tired than Linnéa feels.

‘How are you?’ Anna-Karin asks.

‘How are
you
?’ Linnéa responds, closing the door behind her.

Anna-Karin looks deeply uneasy and Linnéa realises that something has happened.

‘What’s wrong?’ she says. She doesn’t want to know, but can’t bear not to.

‘Olivia,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘She was here last night, I saw her in the garden.’

Linnéa slumps down on the bed, still warm after her sleep. She has known all the time that Olivia would show up. And now, she’s here.

‘What did she do?’

‘Nothing. Stood there and stared at the house.’

‘Did she see you?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘How did she look? I mean … same as last winter?’

Anna-Karin shakes her head. ‘She looked well again, her old self. She had even dyed her hair.’

So totally Olivia, Linnéa thinks. She wants to look cool while she kills us.

‘Why didn’t you wake me?’ she says.

‘You needed to sleep. I kept watching her. She left at dawn.’

It’s heart-breaking to think of Anna-Karin staying awake all night so that Linnéa won’t be disturbed. She must have been so frightened.

‘Have you talked to the others?’ Linnéa asks.

‘No. I tried but the mobiles don’t work. No signal. Landlines are disconnected, too. No Net, no telly. Only the radio. The local news said this morning that “work on normalising the situation is in hand”.’

Linnéa has a vision of Vanessa. Her block of flats on Törnros Road. Jannike and Melvin.

‘But the others must be told that Olivia is here!’

‘I don’t think Olivia will do anything to anyone in full daylight,’ Anna-Karin says, as if she has guessed what Linnéa thinks. ‘We’ll see everyone in Västerås except for Minoo, and she should be safe enough where she is. Olivia has escaped from the Council and I don’t think the first thing she’ll do is hang around the manor house.’

Linnéa nods and tries to breathe normally.

‘But we must be extra careful,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘Erik is off to Borlänge for a conference so he can drive past your flat and drop you off.’

Linnéa goes cold at that name, before she realises that Anna-Karin is talking about Minoo’s father.

‘That’s good,’ she says. ‘Thank you. And thank you for yesterday, for looking after me.’

Anna-Karin looks embarrassed. ‘You would’ve done the same for me,’ she says.

And Linnéa knows that it is perfectly true.

* * *

When Linnéa has left with Minoo’s dad, Anna-Karin showers and blow-dries her hair. The scent of freshly washed, warm hair fills her room.

Then she sits down on the bed and slips into the fox’s consciousness.

He is half asleep, curled up under the floor of the dance pavilion in Kärrgruvan.

She wants to spend a little extra time with him. When she is so much further away in Västerås, the bond between them will be weaker.

The doorbell rings. She checks the time on her mobile. Gustaf is early.

She goes downstairs and opens the door. When she sees Alexander, she takes an instinctive step back.

He fills the entire doorway.

‘You’re going with me to Västerås,’ he says.

‘The others are coming to collect me—’

‘Leave a note on the door,’ Alexander interrupts. ‘Tell them that you’ve gone with me.’

‘But—’

‘Just do as I say.’

Anna-Karin tears a page from the notepad on the hall table. While she writes she considers refusing. But if she starts resisting, he will surely become even more suspicious.

She knew already that his mission in the courtroom would be to keep an eye on her and the others. The only new factor is that she’ll have to sit in a car alone with him.

Anna-Karin gets her jacket and shoes, then locks the door and hangs the note on the door handle.

Alexander places his hand on her shoulder and almost shoves her towards his dark green car, which is parked right outside the house. He closes the door as soon as she has sat down on the passenger seat.

Maybe she should escape. This is her last chance. But where to? And how is she supposed to get away from Alexander? She has no choice but to come with him quietly.

Anna-Karin becomes aware of the fox. He is wide awake now and feels her unease. She tries to calm him, but it’s hard when Alexander seats himself behind the wheel and starts the car.

Vanessa considers her clothes critically in the full-length mirror in the hall. Black jeans, white knitted sweater. She has already changed several times. As if what she wears would have the slightest influence on Linnéa’s chances.

The doorbell rings. It’s Nicolaus, wearing a dark blue trench-coat that looks new. Underneath, suit and tie.

‘Good morning,’ he says. ‘Are you ready? Evelina is waiting in the car.’

There’s a quick patter of little feet behind Vanessa.

‘Hello poo!’ Melvin’s shout booms around the stairwell.

Nicolaus stares at Melvin, clearly baffled that the child isn’t kept locked up in a cage.

‘Melvin, that’s naughty!’

Mum comes running to get him. When she sees Nicolaus, she smiles apologetically.

‘Sorry, he’s a little fixated.’

‘Please, don’t apologise,’ Nicolaus says. ‘No need for that at all. I was just taken by surprise. How nice to meet you … I’m Nicolaus Elingius.’

He holds his hand out and Mum takes it.

‘Jannike,’ she says, looking curious.

No, she is a little more than curious, Vanessa notices. When her mum’s hand is free again, she pulls her fingers through her hair in a gesture that is unselfconscious and self-conscious at the same time. Vanessa recognises it only too well.

‘You’re Linnéa’s uncle, right?’ Mum says.

‘Yes,’ Nicolaus says. ‘Shall we go?’

‘We should
definitely
go,’ Vanessa agrees.

She pulls her jacket on. While she ties her shoelaces, Melvin grabs hold of the belt on Nicolaus’s coat and starts humming his new favourite word,
poo, poo, poo
.

‘That’s enough,’ Mum says, pulling him away and putting her hand over his mouth.

Melvin thinks it’s great fun and carries on spitting out the word between Mum’s fingers.

‘Oh, dear, that hearing. I won’t be thinking about anything else all day,’ Mum says to Vanessa. ‘I hope they’ll get the phones up and running again. I want you to call me when it’s all over.’

‘I’ll try, promise,’ Vanessa says, and gives her a quick kiss.

‘Very nice to meet you, Nicolaus!’ are the last words she hears her mother say as she closes the door.

‘You little brother is a very … lively child,’ Nicolaus observes as they get into the lift.

‘I know,’ Vanessa says, pressing the button, hoping that he didn’t notice her mum making lively eyes at him.

The lift chugs down.

‘I must admit I haven’t slept all night,’ Nicolaus tells her. ‘I have worried incessantly about what will happen to Linnéa, and to Minoo, if they catch her out. And I’ve been worrying about you.’

‘About me?’

‘Yes, because I do understand how much Linnéa means to you. Even though you have … broken up,’ Nicolaus says.

Vanessa is touched. She would like to tell him about their plan, but reckons it would make him even more worried.

‘I’ll be fine,’ she says as they leave the lift. ‘We’ll all be fine.’

She intends to adopt this as her mantra for as long as possible.

They walk towards Nicolaus’s mustard-yellow Fiat. Evelina sits in the back seat waiting for her and they hug each other, while Nicolaus starts the car.

All Vanessa wants is for this day to be over. She wants it to be evening when she will know the outcome of the hearing. She so much wants to know something for sure.