As soon as they stepped through the door, she did a lap of the house in search of Håkan, but he wasn’t there. She held his phone in her hand and had a confused thought about needing to charge it so he could call. The little girl lingered in the hallway. She hadn’t taken her shoes off.

‘I don’t want to be here,’ she said.

‘Why do you say that?’

‘Because I don’t.’

Diana felt anger growing inside her.

‘We live here. Take your shoes off.’

That made the child plunk herself down on the floor. She put her arms on her knees and pushed her head out like a sulky little monkey.

‘Where do you think we should go then? I’m sure Daddy will be home any minute. And we have to be here when he comes.’

‘No, we don’t.’

‘Yes, we do.’

‘I want to go to the cabin.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I want to go to Nana’s cabin.’

‘Why would we go there?’

‘It’s fun there.’

Diana squatted down in front of the girl. Her little shoes had elastic no-tie laces; she dug her fingers in under the ties to loosen them.

‘But we’re not going. We’re staying here. Until Daddy comes home.’

‘I want to go to Nana’s cabin.’

‘So you said. But we’re not going to.’

‘I want to go to Nana’s cabin.’

‘That’s enough.’

‘I want to go to Nana’s cabin.’

‘I don’t want to hear any more out of you.’

‘I want to go to Nana’s cabin.’

‘Kiruna. Stop it!’

‘I want to go to Nana’s cabin. I want to go to Nana’s cabin. I want to go to Nana’s cabin.’

Her hand shot out and covered the little girl’s mouth. When she tried to free her lips by yanking her head back, Diana held her head in place with one hand and pressed the other hard against her mouth.

‘Stop it,’ she said and felt her eyes welling up with tears.

As soon as she removed her hand, it started again. ‘I want to go to Nana’s cabin. I want to go to Nana’s cabin. I want to go to Nana’s cabin.’

Diana stood up and locked the front door. Then she picked up the incessantly rambling girl, carried her upstairs and put her down on the floor in her room.

‘Now stop it! Do you hear me? Stop it!’

The little girl didn’t stop and eventually Diana left the room and closed the door. There was no key in the lock, so she fetched the key from the door to her and Håkan’s bedroom. Kiruna was on her way out into the hallway with her monotonous message, so she shoved her back inside and closed and locked the door. Then she picked up the phone and called Gudrun.