The Fire Witness

39

Caroline, who looks somewhat older than the others, enters the room with the support person. She’s wearing a long, baggy T-shirt with a picture of a kitten on it. There’s a tattoo of runes along one of her arms and there are old injection scars on the insides of her elbows.

As she greets Joona, she smiles shyly. Then she sits down in the armchair next to the brown desk.

“Tuula says that Vicky usually sneaks out at night to meet a guy,” Joona begins.

Caroline laughs. “No, she doesn’t.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I know she doesn’t.” Caroline is smiling.

“You’re absolutely sure?”

“Tuula believes that we’re all sluts.”

“So Vicky doesn’t sneak out?”

“No, she does.” Caroline looks serious.

“What does she do when she sneaks out?”

Caroline looks him briefly in the eye and then looks out the window.

“She goes behind the brewery and calls her mother.”

Joona knows that Vicky’s mother died before Vicky arrived at Birgittagården. He decides not to confront Caroline with this information. Instead, he calmly asks, “What did they usually talk about?”

“Well, the thing is, she just leaves messages on her mother’s voice mail. I don’t think her mother ever calls her back.”

Joona nods and thinks that perhaps no one has told Vicky that her mother is dead.

“Has she ever mentioned someone named Dennis?” he asks.

“No.”

“Think back.”

She looks at Joona, and jumps when Susanne Öst’s cell phone rings. Susanne checks it for a message.

“Who would Vicky run to for help?” asks Joona, although he realizes the energy has gone out of the interview.

“I think the only person she’d run to is her mother.”

“No friends or boys?”

“No,” Caroline says. “But I really don’t know her. We’re both ADL and so we meet often, but she never talks about herself.”

“What is ADL?”

“It sounds like a diagnosis but it means All Day Lifestyle. It’s for those who behave. They let you go with them to Sundsvall to go shopping for groceries and stuff. Exciting, isn’t it?”

“But you’d have the chance to talk?”

“Yes, but we didn’t say much.”

“So whom did she talk to?”

“Nobody,” Caroline says. “Except Daniel, of course.”