After a while, Ingvill came out with a camping mat under her arm. She walked around the motorhome and unrolled the mat on the ground. She hid her head in her hood and lay down on her side with her arms crossed, her knees pulled up and her eyes closed as the sea wind filled her jacket with folds and blisters.

The little boy toddled over to her but when he put his hands on her leg, she pulled it away. Her shoe hit him in the stomach and he sat down hard on his bottom. He didn’t cry, just looked wonderingly at the woman who had kicked him, then he struggled back onto his feet and tottered off in the opposite direction; a golden plover called from somewhere.

I recognised the girl…

I recognised the girl, so I knew who he had to be and naturally assumed Diana was nearby too, but the shop was so crowded and the queue to the till kept growing, so I didn’t have time to look for her. I didn’t even have time to ponder what her reason for coming might be. Had she been out to see Susso or had she just stopped by to say hi? To my surprise, I couldn’t actually see her anywhere. It was just the little girl and her dad. He had been standing there, holding her hand, the entire time, but now he let go and came up to the till and from the grave look on his face, I could tell something was amiss. He introduced himself as Håkan Sillfors and having made sure I was Susso’s mother, he got straight to the point. Diana had gone to see Susso the day before, on Friday. She had let him know she was going to spend the night and be back in the morning. Now it was almost five and she had neither come home nor been in touch. And she wasn’t answering her phone and hadn’t read any texts since last night.

‘And we’re getting a bit worried,’ he said.

He must have sensed what I was thinking, because his expression changed. He had probably counted on me at least trying to calm him down and when I didn’t, but rather acted as though I were about to pass out, he demanded, through gritted teeth, that I give him Susso’s address.

‘It’s not what you think,’ I said.

‘Would you please give me her address.’

‘Just let me close up and balance the till.’

*