The Sandman

115

When Anders Rönn gets home from the parents’ meeting organised by the Autism and Asperger Association, Petra is sitting at the computer paying bills. He goes over and kisses her on the back of the neck, but she shrugs him off. He tries to smile, and pats her cheek.

‘Stop it,’ she says.

‘Can we try to be friends?’

‘You went far too far,’ she tells him wearily.

‘I know, sorry, I thought you wanted—’

‘Well, stop thinking it,’ she interrupts.

Anders looks her in the eye, nods and then goes off to Agnes’s room. She’s sitting by her dolls’ house with her back to him. He can see that she’s got the hairbrush in her hand, she’s brushed all the dolls and has piled then on top of each other in one of the beds in the dolls’ house.

‘You’ve made it very nice,’ Anders says.

Agnes turns, shows him the brush and meets his gaze for a few seconds.

He sits down next to her and puts his arm around her thin shoulders. She pulls slowly away.

‘Now they’re all lying asleep together,’ Anders says cheerily.

‘No,’ she says in her monotonous voice.

‘What are they doing, then?’

‘They’re looking.’

She points at the dolls’ painted eyes, wide open.

‘You mean they can’t sleep if they’re looking? But you can pretend—’

‘They’re looking,’ she interrupts, her head starting to move anxiously.

‘I can see that,’ he says in a soothing voice. ‘But they’re lying in bed, just like they should be, and that’s really good—’

‘Ow, ow, ow...’

Agnes is moving her head jerkily, then she quickly claps her hands three times. Anders holds her in his arms and kisses her head, and whispers that she’s done really well with the dolls. In the end her body relaxes again and she starts lining up pieces of Lego along the floor.

The doorbell rings and Anders leaves the room, glancing at Agnes one last time before going to answer it.

The outside light shows a tall man in a suit, with wet trousers and a torn pocket. The man’s hair is curly and messed up. His cheeks are dimpled, and his eyes look serious.

‘Anders Rönn?’ he says with a Finnish accent.

‘Can I help you?’ Anders says in a neutral tone of voice.

‘I’m from the National Criminal Investigation Department,’ he says, showing his police ID. ‘Can I come in?’