‘We were going to head out to the cabin,’ he said and just then, her mother came through the front door with a cooler in one hand and the house keys in the other.

‘You’re back?’ she said.

Diana stroked the little girl’s hair and out of the corner of her eye caught her mother shooting her father an anxiously confused look, as though seeking verification that this was in fact their daughter standing in front of them and not some imposter. Then she walked over for a closer look. She put a cold hand on her unbruised cheek.

‘What are you doing?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You and Susso.’

She put Kiruna down on the ground.

‘Susso’s back. I got her back.’

‘You weren’t supposed to. Dad told you to leave it to the police.’

‘But the police didn’t do anything. Go play with Grandpa. They didn’t do anything. Because they couldn’t.’

‘But you could?’

‘Yes, evidently, since Susso’s back now.’

‘You can’t be doing things like this, Diana, you have to think about Kiruna. What if something had happened to you? I can’t understand how you can put yourself at that kind of risk, especially after what you’ve just been through.’

‘No, I know you can’t understand it.’

‘Then why do you?’

‘Because she’s my friend.’

Her mum snorted derisively.

‘That’s why you don’t understand. Because you don’t have any friends.’

‘I don’t?’

‘Anna-Lena and Dad. And they don’t count. You’ve never had any real friends.’

‘How would you know?’

‘If you had, I would have known.’

‘So that’s what this is about? Friendship? You and Susso haven’t been close in twenty years. Or at least fifteen.’

‘You’ve always been really awful to Susso.’

‘No, we haven’t.’

‘Yes, you have.’

‘Either way, I don’t think this is about her.’

‘Oh really, what is it about then?’

‘I don’t know. That’s what I don’t understand. That side of you.’

‘What side?’

‘This side,’ she said, tapping her cheek with her fingertips. ‘It’s like you want to hurt yourself. It was the same back then. When you cut class and messed around.’

‘I was thrown in the boot of my own car and beaten up, I can assure you I didn’t go looking for any of that.’

‘But the situation, Diana, why would you end up in that situation? You have a good life, you are good together, you and Håkan, really good, and then one day you drive out to see Susso, who you haven’t talked to in years, and all of a sudden, this happens.’

‘It’s not her fault.’

‘Why is there a squirrel in your car?’

Diana turned around. The animal was scampering back and forth on the dashboard, tail bobbing.

‘It’s Susso’s squirrel. She keeps it as a pet.’