ELLEN

9.30 A.M.

‘Good morning,’ said Margareta as they came down into the kitchen. ‘Did you sleep here?’ she asked, looking at Jimmy.

‘Yeah, he slept in the guest room,’ said Ellen, before Jimmy had time to answer.

‘I see. How nice.’

‘Yeah, right.’ Jimmy nodded. ‘Thanks for letting me sleep over. It got so late last night that I decided to drive back in the morning instead.’

‘There’s coffee, just help yourselves. I’m working out in the garden. Have a smell of this amazing coriander that I’ve grown,’ said Margareta, pushing the plant under his nose.

Ellen hoped it wasn’t the one that Didrik had peed on.

Jimmy did as she said, and it looked as if the plant was tickling his face. ‘Um, but, isn’t this parsley?’

‘What? No.’ Margareta smelt it too. ‘I see, yes. Do you know much about gardening?’

‘No.’ He laughed and ran his hand through his hair. ‘I’ve just played soccer on grass, that’s as close as I’ve gotten to a garden. But I enjoy cooking and I like herbs. I’d love a small cup of coffee, thanks.’

Margareta took a cup out of the cupboard and lingered. ‘And how are things with little Bianca? She must be two by now?’

Ellen knew that she’d looked at the list and became self-conscious. It sounded like they didn’t do anything other than talk about Jimmy.

Jimmy looked surprised. ‘Uh, she’s fine, thanks. She’s with my in-laws in Västerås for the weekend.’

Ellen lowered her eyes. What she had ignored only an hour ago now hit her in the stomach so hard that she was forced to bend over so as not to scream.

‘What’s going on with you, Ellen?’ Margareta asked, placing her hand on her back.

‘It’s nothing, I’m probably just hungry,’ she said, even though food was the last thing on her mind.

They sat down around the old drop-leaf table in the kitchen. Margareta set out the cups and poured coffee. ‘Well, what would you like to eat, Ellen? We don’t have that much at home. Unfortunately, I can’t offer a hotel breakfast, if that’s what you were expecting?’

Ellen just shook her head.

‘Ellen isn’t up to working right now,’ her mother continued. ‘I don’t know if you’re aware how she’s been feeling …’

‘Mother!’

‘You have a very nice place here,’ said Jimmy, looking around, and then stopping to stare out the window. ‘It’s lovely with the water nearby.’

‘Oh, you think so?’ said Margareta. ‘Every day, I’m forced to look out at the lake that took my daughter’s life.’

‘Mum! … I don’t think Jimmy should have to listen to that.’

Jimmy put his hand on Ellen’s knee under the table and gave her a calming look.

Margareta continued. ‘It took fifteen years before I went down to the shore again. Now it’s fine. Although I can’t go down without thinking about what happened. Then, it was a little bathing beach, now it’s completely overgrown. Do you remember how we battled to keep the reeds away?’

Ellen nodded, but squirmed in discomfort.

‘The way we toiled. Dug up the bottom and put in sand. It was a lot of work, I can remember. We stopped doing that.’ She shrugged her shoulders and then let them slowly sink. ‘There were a lot of water lilies that we also tried to remove.’

Ellen instinctively gripped the water lily around her neck.

Her mother looked thoughtfully at her. ‘Elsa’s necklace must be somewhere in the mud.’

Her fingers started tingling.

‘I think a lot when I go down there. How life would have been for Elsa if she’d been alive today. It’s not possible to think about everything she’s missed, my girl.’

‘I’m so sorry about what the two of you have had to go through. I can completely understand how you can’t go on after that. Your whole life changes.’

Margareta nodded. ‘Things would have gone so well for her, I’m convinced of that. I’m sure I would have had some little grandchildren by now.’

It hurt Ellen when she saw her mother’s eyes fill with tears. It was a physical pain that throbbed so brutally that it felt like she would fall apart. She put her hands under the table and quietly snapped her fingers.

Jimmy was quickly there and took her hands.

Margareta stared out the window. ‘What would she have looked like as a grownup?’

She shifted her tear-filled eyes and met Ellen’s. Then she stood up suddenly and went over to the coffee. Why was her mother carrying on like this now?

‘Pooh, let’s forget about me. What do your parents do?’ Margareta asked with tears in her voice.

‘What kind of work, do you mean?’

‘Mum, what kind of question is that?’

‘It’s fine,’ said Jimmy. ‘My mum works at a dry cleaner, and my dad runs a construction company in Malmö. They’re from Serbia. Belgrade.’

‘I see. Were you born here?’

Ellen figured that this must be the most exotic thing Margareta had been involved in for a long time.

‘Yes, I was born in Malmö.’

‘I see, yes. Well, I guess I thought considering your name — Jimmy. It sounds Swedish.’

‘Yeah, my mother wanted me to have a Swedish name so that I would blend into society, and then she chooses a name ending in y!’ He laughed.

Margareta laughed, too, but she probably didn’t understand what he meant, Ellen thought. Names ending with ‘y’ had been found to be common among Swedish prisoners.

‘Yes, I’m a property manager myself.’

Jimmy nodded. ‘How interesting. Do you like it?’

‘I’m just joking, but you mustn’t think that a house like this runs itself. It takes time, I can tell you. And my children aren’t always that helpful.’

There was a beep on her phone. It was a text from Agatha.

They’ve got a DNA match on the sperm.

Who? Ellen quickly wrote back.

Patrik Bosängen.