‘Gudrun. The last time you went out there, you were depressed for a month afterwards.’

‘So what am I supposed to do then? I have to do something!’

‘I find it hard to believe he would go after Susso.’

‘You finding it hard to believe is not a great comfort.’

‘She’s taken the website down, though, right?’

‘But he was caught because of her! Do you think he’s forgotten? Well, you might think so, but I don’t.’

Customers had entered the shop, so I had to stop talking and slap on a welcoming smile instead.

*

I spent the rest of the day in a numb haze. When I got home, I went straight to my bedroom and changed. Then I sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the picture of Susso on the wall. It’s a school picture. She is thirteen or fourteen in that picture; it was before she moved away from Riksgränsen. Away from me. Down here. That girl no longer existed and I was trying to remind myself of that fact. I tried to squeeze out a definitive grief that I could fold across my face like a veil. I really tried. It wasn’t easy. The pictures clashed, and the one on the wall was incredibly powerful.

Roland was standing in the doorway with his glasses in his hair like an Alice band.

‘Keep sighing like that and there won’t be any oxygen left in this flat,’ he said and sat down next to me on the edge of the bed.

‘How are you doing?’ he said.

I shrugged.

‘My hands are cold.’

He grabbed my hand but said nothing about its temperature. His hand was warm and rough, as ever.

‘And I’m feeling dazed. I had a customer today; he wanted to buy one of those little wooden table flags, a Sápmi flag; he put it down on the counter and I just stared at it and didn’t understand what he wanted until he pushed it forward with his index finger like this. And then when we were waiting for the payment to go through, he said, “So, it’s finally starting.” And it scared me that he seemed to be able to tell what I was thinking. So I asked him, “What do you mean?” and then he gestured at the square and it turned out he thought all the closed-off streets and the chaos in the square had something to do with the relocation of the town. Which was pretty funny, but I didn’t even have it in me to correct him, I just said, “Yes, yes, it’s finally starting.”’

‘They’ll catch him in no time. It’s a nationwide alert. And he’s on the front page. Everyone knows what he looks like.’

‘Maybe it’s already too late.’