The Fire Witness

155

Elin can see Daniel’s headlights in her rearview mirror the entire time she’s driving on the E14. There’s almost no traffic, just a few freight trucks, but it still takes them three hours to reach the ski resort area. Even in the darkness, they can see the lifts and support poles for Åre’s immense cable car on the mountainside. Six kilometers before Duved, they turn onto a narrow gravel road that zigzags up Tegefjäll. Leaves and dust swirl in the beams of the headlights.

Soon they pass through the open gates and wind up the driveway to Elin’s cabin. It is a large, modernist house of poured concrete, all right angles and straight lines. Its huge rectangular windows are hidden behind aluminum shutters.

They park the cars in a garage with room for five vehicles. A tiny blue Mazda is already there. Daniel helps Elin carry the luggage into the living room. Some lights are already on and Elin walks to a switch and presses it. The aluminum shutters creak as their panels separate. Light from the security lamp outside slips in through hundreds of small holes and, with a great deal more creaking, the metal shutters begin to roll up.

After a while, it’s quiet again. The mountainous landscape looms outside the enormous windows. The security light has switched off and there are small glimmers of light from houses in the distance.

“Wow,” Vicky says as she looks out.

“Do you remember my ex-husband, Jack?” Elin asks Vicky. “He built this mountain hideaway. Well, he didn’t build it himself, he had other people build it. He just told them he wanted a bunker with a view.”

An older woman wearing a green apron comes down the stairs from the upper floor.

“Hello, Bella,” Elin says. “I’m sorry we were so late.” She hugs the woman.

“Better late than never,” Bella smiles, and explains that she’s made up the beds in all the rooms.

“Thanks,” Elin says.

“I didn’t know whether or not you would do any grocery shopping on the way up, so I just bought a little bit of everything. There’ll be enough for a few days.”

Bella starts a fire in the huge fireplace. Afterward, Elin follows her to the garage and says good night. When she returns, she finds Daniel in the kitchen, making supper. Vicky is sitting on the sofa, crying. Elin hurries over and kneels in front of the girl.

“Vicky, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

The girl gets up and locks herself in the guest bathroom, off the living room. Elin rushes back to the kitchen.

“Vicky has locked herself in the bathroom!”

“Would you like me to talk to her?”

“Hurry!”

Daniel follows Elin to the bathroom door. He knocks and tells Vicky to open the door.

“No locked doors,” he says. “You remember the rules, don’t you?”

A few seconds later, Vicky comes out of the bathroom. Her eyes are damp. She heads back to the sofa. Daniel exchanges a look with Elin and then sits down next to the girl.

“Do you remember how you were sad when you came to Birgittagården?” he says after a while.

“I know. I should have been happy,” she replies without looking at him.

“Coming to a place is always the first step toward leaving it,” he says.

Vicky swallows hard and tears spring back into her eyes. She lowers her voice so that Elin can’t hear what she says.

“I’m a murderer.”

“Don’t say that unless you are absolutely sure that it’s true,” Daniel says calmly. “I can tell by your voice that you don’t believe it is.”