Fire (39 page)

Minoo observes Linnéa who is aimlessly prodding her portion of vegetarian casserole. She seems withdrawn into herself and unaware that Minoo is staring at her. And, still more so, unaware that her thoughts have leaked into Minoo’s head.

fuck fuck I can’t bear it fuck fuck

Minoo glances at the others. Is she the only one who hears this? Anna-Karin seems absorbed in her own thoughts and Vanessa’s attention is fixed on Evelina, who keeps talking about Samir.

I can’t bear listening to any more of this I can’t bear it will someone make her shut her face

Minoo opens her mouth, but what can she say to Linnéa here, in front of Evelina?

Vanessa laughs and says something to Evelina about Samir’s ugly underpants.

‘I guess they looked better on his floor, right?’ Evelina says.

Linnéa starts tearing her napkin into pieces, tiny, tiny ones, like snowflakes.

WHY CAN’T I SIMPLY STOP LOVING HER?

Her thought rings out thunderously inside Minoo’s head. Then the world falls silent. All that is left is a faint ringing noise in Minoo’s ears. She can see the mouths of the others moving, but doesn’t grasp what they are saying.

She had not only heard Linnéa’s thoughts, she had sensed an emotion. An emotion so powerful it was like being run over by a speeding freight train.

Linnéa loves Vanessa. Truly
loves
Vanessa.

And Minoo cannot think what she can do with that information.

Anna-Karin is so nervous she nearly throws up. The movements of the car don’t help. It runs across a pothole and her stomach seems to bounce up against her palate.

Viktor turns into the drive to the manor house. But instead of going on, he stops the car.

‘Would you like a breath of fresh air?’ he asks. ‘You look as if it would do you good.’

Anna-Karin climbs out and takes deep breaths of the cool air. She looks out over the canal and tries to imagine that this is a quite ordinary day, tries to forget why they are here.

‘It’s nice here,’ Viktor says.

She looks at him. He stands with his hands plunged into his coat pockets.

‘It will all be over in a few hours,’ he says and looks sympathetically at her.

Anna-Karin is far from convinced that she will manage to survive the first minute.

‘I want you to know, I understand why you did it,’ Viktor says. ‘I’m sure no one could honestly swear that they wouldn’t have done the same in your situation.’

All her life, Anna-Karin has kept in the background and observed other people. She is usually quite good at working out who they really are. But she cannot read Viktor. He seems to mean what he says, but why should he? His mission here is to catch her out at breaking the law.

‘When I arrived in town, I immediately felt my powers grow stronger,’ he says. ‘Engelsfors is like a big battery for all natural witches. And for you, who also has a special bond to the power source in this place … it must be intoxicating. Magic is hard to handle if you’re not used to it. I know only too well how badly things can turn out when you suddenly have too much of it, too soon …’

He falls silent, stares blankly ahead.

‘What did you do?’ she asks, reluctantly curious.

‘Not me. My twin sister.’

Anna-Karin is surprised. Tries to imagine a female version of Viktor.

‘Her magic talents developed far too fast. She couldn’t stop using them. It made her … ill.’

‘What happened to her?’

Viktor smiles a little bitterly.

‘Let’s just say that she was never the same again.’

He pulls his left hand from his pocket and glances at his watch.

‘I’m sorry, but we must get on.’

Minoo opens her locker and fills her rucksack with textbooks. She tries to avoid thinking about Anna-Karin, who just now is being driven to the manor house by Viktor. She can’t help her in any way. It is the worst thing about all this.

She hears familiar laughter. Vanessa and Evelina are strolling along the corridor together.

Minoo wonders about Vanessa. Has she understood how Linnéa feels?

I must say something to Linnéa, Minoo thinks as she locks up. I must. Soon. She should know that I know.

She leaves school and walks to Storvall Square As she comes closer to the yellow house where the
Engelsfors
Herald
has its editorial office, she sees that the large window next to the entrance has been bashed. The cracked glass is kept in place with strips of duct tape. It must have been done last night.

Minoo has no doubt about who is behind this. The same people who phone them at home in the evenings. No one speaks, but the silence at the other end of the line is more frightening than words. The first call was in the autumn, the same day that the paper published its first investigative report on Positive Engelsfors. The frequency of the calls has kept pace with PE’s rate of growth. Now it has organised a boycott of the paper and subscriptions have fallen off sharply. Not that Dad caves in to pressure. On the contrary. His editorials are evidence of a personal crusade.

This thing with the window is a straightforward escalation of the warfare. And Minoo dreads the next turn of the screw.

She walks into the editorial office. Dad is in the kitchen, pouring himself a large mugful of coffee as black as oil.

‘Hello there,’ he says absently and starts moving towards his office.

Minoo follows him. Watches the small sweat stains on the back of his shirt. His red neck. He is angry again. He is always angry these days.

‘What happened to the window?’ she says while Dad settles behind his desk.

‘I reported it to the police this morning,’ he replies and drinks a large mouthful of coffee. ‘Probably won’t get us anywhere. But it’s on record if something else happens.’

‘You should install cameras, CCTV or something,’ she says.

Dad doesn’t reply. He is focused on his computer again, starts reading something on the screen.

‘Anna-Karin can come,’ she says after a short while and he looks up, clearly lost.

So he has forgotten all about it.

‘For supper,’ she adds.

It isn’t easy to live with someone who is never with you, not even when you are in the same room. She understands better now why Mum got into the habit of slamming cupboard doors. You have to make yourself heard, one way or the other.

‘Good, good,’ Dad says and his eyes slip back to his computer.

Minoo feels like screaming at the top of her voice that she, too, is doing stuff. She still hangs on to top rankings in all her school subjects, though it is getting harder and harder. Meanwhile, she is trying to figure out if the demons are sponsoring Positive Engelsfors, as well as trying to prepare for a magic trial
and
the end of the world. But here she is, all the same, ready to play her part in her father’s life, though you might think it should be the other way round.

Footsteps in the outer office. The steps are coming their way and Minoo turns round.

Helena Malmgren stops in the doorway. Close behind, Krister Malmgren towers over her. He is wearing a grey suit, but would look just as comfortable in workman’s overalls. It isn’t hard to see why people in this old industrial town love him. They both eye Minoo – who has to try hard not to show how much she hates them. And how much she fears them.

‘May we come in?’ Helena says.

Her tone of voice is pleasant, but she steps inside Dad’s office without waiting for a reply.

Dad leans back in his chair.

‘Well, this is a surprise,’ he says.

Despite Matilda’s warnings, the Chosen Ones have been
keeping an eye on Helena and Krister off and on during the autumn and winter, but have found no evidence that the Malmgren couple use magic.

Not that it proves anything, Minoo thinks. If they are in league with demons, they will have been warned about us. Told to be circumspect if they use magic.

‘We decided we had better come and see you,’ Krister says. ‘You and I have always got on, Erik. You are a hard-hitting journalist, but fair. It’s good for us politicians to have our decisions scrutinised.’

Dad says nothing.

‘But I can’t help wondering if you have a hidden agenda when it comes to my wife,’ Krister goes on.

Dad looks straight at Helena.

‘I have nothing against you personally,’ he says. ‘But I have strong reservations about the grip Positive Engelsfors has established on the whole town. And I’m very sceptical about the actual means used. Just recently, I was told that this new, positive spirit is set to spread through even the healthcare services. Perhaps that’s something you’d like to comment on, now that you’re here?’

‘No problem,’ Krister says. ‘Positive attitudes have been shown to lead to excellent outcomes.’

‘And the evidence is what, exactly?’ Dad asks.

‘Don’t discuss this with him, Krister,’ Helena says. ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, he’ll turn it into something negative. Newspaper people are only interested in misery, anywhere in the world. That’s how it is, wouldn’t you agree, Erik? You want to expose faults in everything. But there is a new spirit about in Engelsfors. We’ve had enough of this guzzling of pessimistic titbits. And, do you know? I believe that deep inside you are fed up with it, too. Wouldn’t it be a great change for the better to write up good news instead?’

She smiles sweetly at Dad.

‘For instance, rethink when it comes to our Spring Revel,’ Krister says. ‘We hope that you won’t blacken it. Regardless of your views on PE, trade has in fact increased in town …’

‘Thank you for reminding me,’ Dad says frostily. ‘I’ll keep all this in mind.’

‘Good,’ Helena says. ‘You know, I’ve got a strong feeling that more people would buy the paper if they approved of what they read.’

They leave and Minoo looks at her father. At his bloodshot eyes and sweating face. And she knows that Helena and Krister didn’t come here just to ask Dad to write positively about the Spring Revel.

They came here to feast on his defeat, on his being about to lose control of the newspaper that has been his.

And Minoo hates them still more.

Vanessa goes up on tiptoe in front of the book display to reach as far as she can with the duster. She could have brought the small ladder from behind the till, but it’s too much of a hassle.

One of the busts of Native Americans falls over when she dusts the top of the cupboard. She swears. If something breaks, Mona will take the price of it off Vanessa’s wages.

She carries on, dusting her way through the Crystal Cave to the accompaniment of the recorded sounds of harps and wind-chimes. When she checks the time on the dolphin clock, she thinks of Anna-Karin, who will have arrived at the manor house.

Vanessa doesn’t want to think about all that. When they had lunch together, she had realised that Anna-Karin was already close to despair. Not a good sign.

Vanessa hadn’t been all that nervous before her own interrogation. She knows that she is a good liar. But before the
session was over, she had nearly broken down all the same. Despite not even being accused of anything.

The dark red curtain is drawn. Next to it hangs a small sign announcing that a fortune-telling consultation is under way. Mona’s client is the head of Vanessa’s middle school, a Mr Svensson. Everyone called him Svensson and Vanessa still doesn’t know his first name. An elderly nobody, with zero personality. As grey as the mist surrounding the City Mall.

Svensson definitely doesn’t come across as the type who’d ask some spooky lady to foretell his future. But if there is one thing Vanessa has learned since she started in the Crystal Cave, it is that no such ‘type’ exists. Mona has many unexpected clients.

The telephone rings. Vanessa puts the duster on a table and hurries to the counter.

‘The Crystal Cave,’ she answers.

‘Is that Vanessa?’

A young man’s voice. It sounds a little familiar. The accent isn’t quite right for Engelsfors.

‘Yes?’

‘I’m Isak. From Sala.’

Isak from Sala. The guy at the New Year party. She had slept with him and then, afterwards, he admitted that he was only fifteen.

‘Why are you calling me here?’

‘I couldn’t find your number anywhere,’ Isak says. He sounds nervous. ‘But then I remembered you speaking about this New Age-style shop you’re working in …’

Vanessa leans across the counter, supports herself on her elbows. Wonders when she had got round to telling him about the Crystal Cave. It wasn’t like they talked a lot that night.

‘… but I wanted to check if you’ve got my emails and … you know,’ Isak rounds off.

The doorbell tinkles and out of the corner of her eye, Vanessa sees a woman come into the shop.

‘Yes, I’ve got your mails,’ Vanessa says. ‘I replied to the first one, didn’t I?’

‘Yes, you did.’

‘Then you must know already that I’m not interested right now.’

‘But I thought maybe you’d change your mind when you had read the other messages. But if you haven’t got them …’

Vanessa looks into the shop. The woman has disappeared behind the shelves.

‘I’m sure you’re a great guy,’ Vanessa says, speaking as quietly as she can without whispering. ‘I really did have a great time with you. But,
as I wrote to you
, I don’t want to start a relationship now. Not with you and not with anyone else.’

‘But how can you say that when you don’t know me?’

Vanessa groans and glances at the customer, who’s now standing with her back to the till, examining the scented candles.

She suddenly turns round.

Sirpa. Wille’s mother.

‘Right, so now you know that we’re not interested,’ Vanessa says into the receiver. ‘Thank you for calling. Goodbye.’

‘Vanessa? Are you working here?’

Vanessa nods and mumbles something about persistent salesmen.

‘How nice to see you!’ Sirpa says.

‘And you,’ Vanessa says, wondering if it’s all right to hug Sirpa, or if it would seem odd.

She would like to hug her. She has missed her. Sirpa, who allowed her to stay in her home for months. Sometimes, Vanessa wished Sirpa was her mother.

‘Well, now …’ Sirpa looks around the shop. ‘I haven’t been in here before, you know …’