HANNA

11.00 A.M.

Alice had been curled up on her bed, and at first had refused to tell her what had happened the night before. She was afraid, that much was obvious. But finally, Hanna managed to get it out of her. Alice had heard Karl and Bea talking about how Hanna had had Liv’s phone, and so it must have been Hanna who’d killed Liv. Alice got scared that her mother would end up in prison, so she took the phone and hid it. Alice had lied to the police and told them that she found it in the sandbox.

Hanna tossed unmatched socks on the floor and tried in vain to find matching pairs, but nothing added up. At last, she tore out the whole sock drawer, turned it upside down so that everything fell in a big pile on the floor, and dropped down on her knees beside it. The tears were still running down her cheeks as the pieces started falling into place. Bea wanted to have Hanna put away. She was the one who did the break-in, and she must have found the phone in Hanna’s drawer. And Karl had been part of it: he had known that Hanna had the phone.

Her maternal heart broke completely, especially when she thought about what Alice had done to protect her. She picked up a sock from the floor and dried her wet cheeks. Tried to gather the last scrap of energy she had so as to finish packing. She hadn’t gotten a sensible word out of Karl, but could see that he was ashamed. In any case, she hoped he was.

She heard a car pull up in the driveway and went over to the window to see who it was. It was Stoffe. He had no right to be here. Her anger grew at the mere sight of him.

When Karl called and told her that Alice was gone, Stoffe had fled the scene and taken Bea with him to the city. Hanna had had to handle the police and the ambulance and everyone who joined in the search for their daughter all by herself. Not to mention the worry she had to carry herself. They’d been at it for three hours before Hanna happened to think of the sandbox.

‘Hello, is anyone home?’ Stoffe called as he came in the door.

She didn’t answer and continued to fold the clothes, things just got more and more sloppy. In truth, she should have just crumpled them up.

It didn’t take long before he came into Karl’s room. He looked around the room. ‘What are you doing?’

‘What does it look like?’

‘Hanna …’ He took hold of her arms, and she dropped the jumper she had in her hands.

‘Let me go!’

‘Okay, okay.’ He backed up a few steps.

‘I don’t want you here.’ She picked up the jumper from the floor and pulled at the sleeves to try to make it less wrinkled.

He sank down on Karl’s bed. ‘The police know that Liv and I had a relationship and that the sperm is mine. But they think she was raped.’

‘Well, was she?’

‘How can you ask such a question?’

‘I don’t know what to think any more.’ She thought about Stoffe’s bruises and the scratches. ‘I called Liv’s sister this morning. Your sister-in-law. Mine, too, I suppose. I pretended that I was a friend.’

‘And?’

‘Apparently, she’d never gotten to meet any of Liv’s old boyfriends. Isn’t that odd?’

Stoffe stared down at the floor. ‘They’re going to want to question me and you and Alexandra. They’re also going to swab the two of you and perhaps take your fingerprints.’

‘What?’ Hanna cried out. Her fingerprints were on that phone … Even though she knew it was only a matter of time before the police and media figured out how Liv and Stoffe and all of them fit together, it felt as if her whole existence was falling apart.

‘Quiet down. The children will hear.’

She had to force herself not to scream again. How dare he come here and tell her to calm down out of consideration for the children? Didn’t he have any self-awareness at all?

‘I’m going on sick leave tomorrow and I’ve booked a train up to my parents in Gävle.’ She immediately regretted that she’d told him where she was going.

‘What? You haven’t talked to them in years!’

She didn’t reply. Hanna’s parents didn’t like her relationship with Stoffe and had basically ended contact with her when they found out that he was already married to another woman.

‘How did Alice come to have Liv’s phone?’

‘I want you to leave right now,’ she said, avoiding his question. ‘We’ll be in touch again when everything has calmed down.’ She was scared that he would say that she couldn’t take the kids with her.

Hanna took the heap of clothes and went downstairs and put them in various piles in the living room. Went out into the storeroom and got the biggest suitcase they had. Turned on the washing machine with mixed colours — she didn’t have the energy to sort them.

When she came up to the top floor, she heard Stoffe’s voice: he’d gone in to Alice. Through the crack in the door, she saw them. He was hugging her and stroking her braids.

‘I’m always going to watch over you. You know that you’re the apple of my eye.’

‘I know, Daddy. Stop hugging me so hard.’