ELLEN

4.15 P.M.

‘Dad. Hi.’

‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, walking towards her, comfortably dressed in shorts and a loose-hanging linen shirt. ‘I saw the car back down the street.’

‘I was just here checking out a few things.’ She immediately heard how wrong that sounded.

‘What are you checking out? Are you going to buy a house or something?’ he said and laughed. ‘You’d better learn to take care of the apartment you have, first.’

She forced out a laugh. ‘Yeah, probably. Do you know who lives at number 24?’

‘The plastic surgeon, you mean. Bosängen. Why?’

‘No real reason. Do you know them?’

‘No, only that we’re neighbours. They keep to themselves, don’t talk that much with the rest of us on the street. He’s not home that often — works in Stockholm. They have a really rebellious daughter. You can hear them arguing sometimes, and I rather think she would benefit from a good slap.’

Ellen let that hang for a moment, but couldn’t manage to hold back. ‘Was that what you thought about me when I got angry?’

‘Oh, Ellen …’

There was a reason that she never confronted him. It was impossible to win or get your point across. His worldview was different. That was just the way it was. The best dad in the world. She couldn’t imagine him ever having thought about his own behaviour, even once.

‘Is that the sort of thing you talk about with that hocus-pocus guy? About what a bad father I’ve been?’

She shook her head and was surprised that he’d actually had that thought. ‘I’ve decided that it’s going to be better this time.’

There was silence, and for once she rested in it.

‘That’s good,’ he said.

‘I actually like him.’

‘You’re not doing stuff with hypnosis and dreams, are you?’

‘Dr Hiralgo thinks it’s important that I go over every detail. He’s helping me remember, so that I can process everything later.’

‘Don’t be so naive. Do you know what a person like that can do to a family?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The human memory can be edited. Studies have shown that you can manipulate and erase certain parts of it, but also add false memories. In many cases hypnosis can lead to such memories successively being built up, and they can have a high degree of credibility. The legal consequences can be enormous.’ He told her about a case where someone had dug around in their own memory and planted new memories. ‘It’s had frightful consequences for the whole family.’

Ellen herself could remember a case that she’d reported on in which a grown woman had gone to a hypnotist who brought out memories of her having been sexually abused by her father. It later proved not to be true, but by then she had already destroyed her life and her family’s with the dreadful accusations.

‘He’s not hypnotising me. He just talks to me — as if I were an adult.’

He nodded, but she could see that he didn’t care. ‘Can’t you just try to live a normal life. Be like everyone else and be grateful for what you have. Think of Elsa, who never got to do that. Live for her.’

Her eyes teared up. She pulled down her sunglasses. ‘Thanks for the advice.’

Once again, they were silent, but now she couldn’t bear to just stand there. ‘What are you doing at home this time of the afternoon?’

‘Well, it was too hot to work. I noticed that no one was at the office, people aren’t answering email or the phone, and the family was home anyway, so I thought I’d come home and be with them a little. I actually think the barbeque is about ready now. Can you smell it?’ He raised his nose towards the sky.

Ellen nodded.

‘I have to go and get dinner going now. Good luck with the house hunt.’

‘Thanks. What are you having?’

‘Hamburgers from prime rib. I ground the meat myself,’ he said proudly. ‘See you.’

‘Say hi to the family,’ she said quietly after him as he left.

‘I will.’ He closed the gate behind him and disappeared into the garden.

Ellen staggered down the hill to the car, but it was no longer her knee that hurt the most.