Sandra looked at the time and noted that it was ten past three. “Hasn’t he just gone home?” Sandra suggested. “To his grandparents, that is.” She didn’t want to believe that it was anything worse than Erik falling out with someone and deciding to leave. Little Igor, she thought to herself. That little bully had probably done something bad to Erik—made him angry and upset, made him feel unfairly treated so that he ran away, offended.

“One of the staff has driven over, and he wasn’t there or anywhere on the way.”

“He’s three years old, he probably doesn’t know the way,” Sandra said.

Then she realised that this was not an exchange of words that either of them had to win. She couldn’t stand the head of school, but this wasn’t about their personal chemistry—it was about collaborating.

“Have you called the police?” she inquired.

“I’m going to do that now, if you’ll let me.”

“Do it,” said Sandra. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Furulundsskogen, did you say?”

“We’ll keep searching. See you at Gråbo.”

“Whereabouts?”

“In the free car park behind Träffpunkt Gråbo. Outside the youth club.”

Only now did the penny really drop. Erik was missing and the situation was serious enough that Sandra had been called and the police were going to be brought in. The picture of the future being painted before her eyes looked extremely ominous—a life without Erik was unbearable, unthinkable, and couldn’t be allowed to become reality. This was a warning shot that was shaking her into action, a hint about how things might go if she didn’t take good enough care of what gave her life meaning.

It was in a state of rising panic that she got into the car and drove over to the woods at Furulundsskogen.

TEN MINUTES LATER, she arrived on the scene. A couple of her colleagues from work had come with her, and her father also appeared. Her mother was waiting at home in case Erik—in spite of everything—managed to find his way there, somehow. There was an ambulance in the car park, and Sandra got it into her head that it was for Erik. Had he climbed into a tree, fallen out, and lost consciousness? Broken his arms, legs, neck? Had he cut himself on something sharp or been bitten by a dog? A snake? Had he had a bad reaction to a wasp sting?