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wonder if the sun has kept her warm, she thought.
    I wonder who she is.
    I wonder if she knew she was about to die.
    I wonder if she had time to feel scared.
    Suddenly the tears started to fall. She let go of the van door, turned and took a step back. The ground felt unsteady, and she thought she was going to be sick.
    ‘It’s the smell, and the heat,’ Berit said, suddenly appearing at Annika’s side. She put an arm round her shoulders and led her away from the van.
    Annika wiped away her tears.
    ‘Right, time to get back to the newsroom,’ Berit said.

4
    Patricia woke up feeling stifled. There was no air in the room, she couldn’t breathe. Gradually she became aware of her own body on the mattress, completely naked. When she raised her left arm, sweat ran down her ribs and into her navel.
    God, she thought. I have to get some air! And water!
    She thought about calling for Josefin, but something made her decide not to. The flat was completely quiet, so either Josie was still asleep or she’d already gone out. Patricia groaned and rolled over, wondering what time it was. Josefin’s black curtains shut out the daylight, leaving the room in gloomy darkness. It smelled of sweat and dust.
    ‘It’s a bad omen,’ Patricia had said when Josefin came home with the heavy black material. ‘You can’t have black curtains. It means the windows are in mourning. It gets in the way of positive energy.’
    Josefin had just got cross.
    ‘That’s crap,’ she had said. ‘Okay, go without, then. But I want my room to be dark. How the fuck are we going to work nights if we never get any sleep? Any better ideas?’
    Naturally, Josefin had got her way, like she usually did.
    Patricia sat up with a sigh. The bottom sheet had wound itself up into a damp umbilical cord running down the middle of the bed. Suddenly annoyed, she tried to straighten it out.
    It’s Josie’s turn to go shopping, she thought, so there probably isn’t any food in the house.
    She got up and went to the bathroom. Then she put on Josie’s dressing-gown and went back to her room to open the curtains. The light hit her eyes like metal spikes, and she quickly closed the curtains again. Instead she opened one of the windows wide, wedging a flowerpot to stop it from slamming shut. The air outside was hotter than indoors, but at least it didn’t smell.
    She wandered slowly out to the kitchen, filled a beer glass with tap water and drank greedily. She felt better straight away. At least she hadn’t slept the whole day away, even though she’d been working till five that morning. She put the glass on the draining board, between an empty pizza box and three mugs containing dried-up teabags. Josie was hopeless at cleaning. Patricia sighed and started to tidy up, throwing away the rubbish and doing the washing-up without really thinking about it.
    She was on her way to have a shower when the phone rang.
    ‘Is Josie there?’
    It was Joachim. Without realizing she was doing it, Patricia straightened up and made an effort to sound together.
    ‘I’m only just up, I don’t actually know. She might still be asleep.’
    ‘Would you mind getting her? Thanks.’ His tone of voice was curt but friendly.
    ‘En seguida
, Joachim. Hang on a moment …’
    She padded along the hall to Josefin’s room and knocked gently on the door. When there was no answer she carefully pushed it open. The bed was just as it had been before Patricia went to work. She hurried back to the phone.
    ‘No, sorry; she must have gone out.’
    ‘Where? Is she meeting someone?’
    Patricia laughed nervously. ‘No, of course not; unless she’s gone to see you? I don’t know. It’s her turn to do the shopping …’
    ‘But she definitely came home last night?’
    Patricia tried to sound indignant. ‘Of course she did. Where else would she sleep?’
    ‘Exactly, Patty. Any ideas?’
    He had already hung up by the time Patricia realized how annoyed she was. She hated it when he called her