ELLEN

7.00 A.M.

Ellen was awakened by the feeling of something being laid over her.

She opened her eyes and looked around. It took a few seconds before she realised where she was.

‘Did you sleep here?’ Jimmy adjusted the jacket he’d just placed over her.

Ellen pulled it up further so that almost her whole face was hidden. She recognised his scent and loathed what it did to her.

‘Yes, I think so,’ she croaked. She hardly dared think about what state she was in. She tried to stretch, to bring the blood and oxygen back to her legs after having been curled up on the hard armchair in the little conference room for so long. ‘What time is it?’

‘Just past seven,’ Jimmy answered, sitting down in the chair across from her.

Ellen sat up and tried to bring some life back into her arms, which were completely numb.

‘Why did you sleep here? I was at your place last night …’

Ellen leaned her head against the chair’s neck support and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to talk with him, didn’t want to think about last night. She felt completely slack and hollow.

But what did it really matter? Hesitantly, she retrieved her phone from her bag, which was on the floor next to the armchair. She didn’t have the energy to care any more. She opened up her messages and handed the phone to Jimmy. ‘I got this message from a blocked number yesterday after you left.’

Jimmy took the phone, pausing briefly before looking at the display. Silently, he studied the picture for a long time. ‘Is that you?’

Ellen shook her head and bit her lip, hard. Breathed slowly in and out. ‘Is that me?’ The blood rushed through her body and she couldn’t stop herself. ‘Are you joking with me? Don’t you remember a thing?’ she shouted, throwing off his jacket so that it tumbled to the floor.

Jimmy looked at her phone again. ‘This is the same picture you have up on the wall at your place —’

‘Elsa. It’s Elsa! Don’t you remember what I told you about my sister the night you dumped me?’

Jimmy looked at the picture again and then nodded slowly. ‘Yes, I remember.’

‘Some sick bastard sent me a picture of Elsa yesterday. A picture of my dead twin sister.’

Jimmy stood up and paced back and forth in the small room.

‘Read what it says,’ she demanded.

Jimmy shook his head.

‘Give me the phone!’ She got up and yanked the phone from his hand and read the message out loud. ‘If you don’t stop what you’re doing you’re going to meet the same fate as your sister.’ She looked at Jimmy. ‘Who is doing this? Is it someone who wants me to die?’ It was impossible to hold back the tears. ‘As if all this wasn’t enough. I didn’t dare stay home, but I didn’t know where I should go, so I came here.’ Her mouth was completely dry and her legs wouldn’t hold. She collapsed on the floor.

‘Let go of me,’ she said, as Jimmy tried to take her hand. ‘Isn’t it strange that I’ve been sent a picture of Elsa, when you’re the only one I’ve told about her?’

Jimmy turned toward her. ‘What do you mean? Yes, maybe it’s strange, but it could be from someone you knew when you were younger. I don’t know, Ellen,’ he said.

‘Strange? Do you know what I think is strange?’ she said, getting up abruptly. ‘Do you want me to make a list of all the strange things that have happened the past few days? You’re the only one here who knows that my twin sister disappeared when we were eight years old, and you, you, are the one who throws Lycke’s disappearance into my path and asks me to get the viewers to feel something about it. Do you realise just how damned sick that is? Then there’s some bastard who sends a picture of Elsa and wants me to die. With everything that’s happening right now.’ She was forced to catch her breath. ‘Did you get a kick out of how she was eight years old, too, or what?’

Jimmy looked down at the ground.

‘Was this what you hoped for, that I would break down and that would make for better news? Then you start talking about threats against me, and some anonymous bastard sends me a picture of my dead sister. How the hell is that possible? Huh? Can you answer that?’ she screamed.

‘Calm down,’ Jimmy said, reaching out a hand to soothe her. ‘You don’t really think that’s true, do you? I’m sorry. It turned out wrong, I agree — but if I hadn’t asked you, that would have been wrong, too. What should I have done? And to be quite honest, you were the best to take on the story. Can you see Leif reporting on this? I understand that you’re upset, but I would never do anything to hurt you. Never.’

You already have.

Her whole body was shaking, and she clasped her hands together to try to bring the trembling under control.

‘Do you know what’s also damned strange about this whole mess?’ she continued, with the last of her energy. ‘In the pile of old cases that you so nicely delivered to my home last night —’ she bit her lip so hard now that there was a metallic taste in her mouth ‘— sitting almost at the top of that pile was Elsa’s case. What a coincidence,’ she said, laughing.

‘What are you trying to say?’

She suddenly couldn’t get out another word. The whole room was spinning, and she leaned against the wall to stop herself from falling.

Jimmy took a step toward her, then stopped and regarded her with that look she was so afraid of. Judging her. It was the same look she’d seen on the faces of her own family — the reason she never spoke about what had happened all that time ago, when she was eight years old.

Ellen backed away a few steps.

He nodded slowly. ‘We have to file a police report. You need to have a think about who it might be, and why anyone would send this to you now.’