Håkan Almquist’s response to that was to slap Liv’s face. Poor Liv was always getting smacked. As she cried out he seized her by the shoulders and started pulling her off the sofa. She screamed. I have never come across anyone, unless you count three-year-olds in supermarkets, who could scream so loudly and penetratingly as she could. It was a sound that rose and fell and rose and fell like a police siren, and it roused Wim, who had retreated to another room. He came out, quickly took in the situation and surprised me by seizing hold of the older man from the rear and, walking backward himself, propelling him toward the door. Silver and I held him, taking an arm each. I didn’t like doing this, it felt like violence, though it was only restraint. Wim picked Liv up in his arms and without a word carried her into her bedroom. He came back immediately, closing the door behind him.

“What am I to do?” said Mr. Almquist.

He had calmed down. He looked despairingly at Silver. We released his arms and he dropped into an armchair. “She doesn’t want to go,” Silver said gently. “You must see that. She can stay here, she’s all right here.”

“But what is wrong with her? Is it her mind?”

We said we didn’t know. No one said anything about her refusal to go out into the street and no one mentioned Jonny. Håkan Almquist sat there for a few minutes, staring at Liv’s bedroom door and casting sidelong glances at Wim. Then he got up, sighed, and said he’d go. Not home, not back to Sweden, but find himself a hotel and come back the next day to try and make her change her mind.

All this reminded me that unless I did something about it I’d be in Liv’s case myself, a missing person whose parents hadn’t known where she was for months. But do what? It wasn’t likely Dad would behave like Mr. Almquist, but could I take the risk? He and Mum were already angry enough with me for getting myself thrown out of GUP and we had spoken only once since that piece of news was imparted. I told Mr. Almquist I’d come with him and help him find somewhere to stay, and Silver and he and I all went downstairs.