‘Could it have been a joke? Who else was on the bus?’

Carina thought for a moment. ‘Alex’s car was being fixed, so he and Bruno were further back. Apart from them it was a load of younger kids – Marie’s brother and his classmates. You were there too, but you had your headphones on as usual, so you wouldn’t have heard us.’

‘In which case Alex is definitely the main suspect,’ Simon said. ‘You do know what he did after we’d watched The Godfather on video?’

‘Stuffed horse shit into Bruno’s pillowcase. The whole village heard that story.’

Simon gave a wry smile. ‘He said it was instead of a horse’s head. Bruno didn’t speak to him for two weeks. Immature, but pretty cool.’

Carina gazed at him and sighed. ‘You could be right. It does sound like one of Alex’s ideas.’ She tried to sound convinced, but couldn’t fool herself. ‘Or maybe it’s just my bored brain trying to make life more interesting. Sometimes I just feel so tired of everything – do you know what I mean?’

Simon nodded.

They stood in silence for a few seconds, looking at each other in the darkness. Her heart was still pounding, but not only because of fear. There really was something different about Simon tonight. He seemed so mature, so exciting, so . . .

Impulsively she stepped forward, put her arms around his neck and kissed him. Their tongues met, their breath fused into a thrilling taste of saliva, weed and alcohol. Their bodies were pressed together, and she felt him harden immediately.

‘Take me with you,’ she whispered breathlessly in his ear. ‘Take me to Stockholm. We can share an apartment; I’ve put money aside. Just you and me, Simon.’

She tried to kiss him again, but he suddenly pulled away. He placed his hands on her shoulders and took a deep breath.

‘And what about Alex?’

‘Alex!’ she snorted. ‘Alex is a fucking idiot. He’ll never get away from here. Olympics or no Olympics, when did you last hear about a wrestler’s fantastic luxury lifestyle?’ She stumbled over her words, spat out the last two in order to catch up with herself.

She slid Simon’s hands down to her waist, pushed herself against him. He was still hard.

‘Forget Alex, forget Nedanås, forget all this. We’ll go away together, just the two of us.’ She made a fresh attempt to kiss him, but he moved his head to the side, which annoyed her even more.

‘You know you want to,’ she said, grinding her body against his crotch. ‘I can feel it.’

Simon took a step back, held up his hands. ‘Carina, I just can’t—’

He was interrupted by the sound of rapid footsteps, gravel tumbling down the slope. The beam of a torch dazzled them.