The Fire Witness

131

The room is silent except for a scraping noise from outside. A bird has landed on the windowsill. The fluorescent light hums overhead. A nurse has been summoned and Vicky’s IV is fastened once more to the catheter in her arm. The nurse pulled open the curtain around the bed before leaving the room, the better to keep an eye on this patient.

Susanne Öst drags a chair back to the side of the bed.

“I will be asking you about some things that you’ve done,” she says. “I want you to tell us the truth.”

“And nothing but the truth,” Vicky says, looking down.

“Eleven days ago you left your bedroom at Birgittagården in the middle of the night. Do you remember this?”

“I haven’t been counting the days,” Vicky says. There’s no emotion in her voice.

“But you remember leaving Birgittagården in the middle of the night?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you leave?” Susanne Öst asks.

Vicky pulls at a loose thread on the bandage around her hand.

“Had you ever done it before?”

“Done what?”

“Left Birgittagården in the middle of the night?”

“No,” says Vicky. She sounds bored.

“Why did you do it this time?”

When the prosecutor doesn’t get an answer, she smiles and asks in a milder tone, “Why were you awake in the middle of the night?”

“Don’t remember.”

“And so let’s move back a few hours. Do you remember what was going on then? Everyone went to bed and you were awake. What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

“You didn’t do anything until you left Birgittagården in the middle of the night. Don’t you think that’s strange?”

“No.”

Vicky is staring out the window. The sun is playing hide-and-seek in the clouds crossing the skies.

“I want you to tell me why you left Birgittagården,” Susanne says. Her tone turns serious. “I won’t stop asking until you tell me what happened. Do you understand?”

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Vicky replies quietly.

“I know it’s difficult but I want you to tell me anyway.”

The girl looks up at the ceiling and her mouth moves as if she’s searching for words. Then she says in amazement, “I killed…”

She stops and pulls at the IV tube.

“Keep going.” Susanne is tense.

Vicky shakes her head and moistens her lips.

“You might as well tell me,” Susanne said. “You just said you killed-”

“Right… There was an irritating fly in the room and I killed it and I-”

“What the hell? Excuse me, I’m sorry, but isn’t it strange that you remember killing a fly but not why you left Birgittagården in the middle of the night?”