‘Are they home?’

‘There’s a car outside,’ he said, chewing. ‘With a car seat.’

Anders went back to the living room. Sat on the sofa staring at nothing. The only thing he could think about was the food in those tin-foil containers. After a while, Stava joined him. It was as though she’d read his mind. She handed him a container of rice and he enjoyed it so much he grunted. Which is why he barely noticed when a mouse started crawling up his leg. When he finally did notice, he froze.

‘He wants to be your friend,’ Stava whispered. ‘Don’t reject him. You’ll feel better if you don’t reject him.’

Diana had planned to tell…

Diana had planned to tell Håkan what she’d been through but when she saw him sitting on the sofa with eyes that didn’t seem to see as far as the floor, she realised it wouldn’t just be pointless, it would be inappropriate. Like pouring petrol on a fire. He seemed stuck in the helpless state of anxiety her kidnapping had plunged him into. Sometimes, he didn’t even seem fully aware she was back.

‘Would you please call Irene.’

She was waiting for him to answer or at least acknowledge that he’d heard her when there was a knock on the door. He didn’t like that. He flinched. Diana went into the hallway and looked out through the kitchen window. Then she opened the door.

Susso didn’t say anything, just stood there. She was wearing the clothes Diana had left in a bag in her room that morning: a thin purple cotton shirt with a row of tiny buttons at the neck and a pair of dark jeans she could no longer button but that fitted Susso perfectly. Her hair was slicked back and so wet it looked black.

‘I thought you were being discharged tomorrow?’

‘I can’t bear that place.’

‘Were the contacts the right strength?’

They went into the garage. After a few moments, they heard a noise from the car roof box suspended from the ceiling like a cocoon. Little claws pattering back and forth on the hard plastic. Diana didn’t see how it got there, but suddenly the squirrel was on the workbench, with its tail like an inverse sketch of its body. Susso whispered something inaudible as she approached the animal.

‘Do you have to take him?’

She went over to the workbench and fiddled with a screwdriver. She tried to catch Susso’s eye, but Susso was standing with her blind side toward her.

‘I’m not entirely sure what I’ve got myself into,’ she continued. ‘What I got myself into when I went to your house. And even less so when I went to get you back. So it would make me feel better if he could stay here. Just for a few days.’