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car with a strange man, is that right?'
    'Basically, yes.'
    'Anything else?'
    'Sweets, I think. I think she was given some sweets.'
    'How old is Ellen?'
    'Four.'
    'Does she speak well?'
    'Pretty well.'
    'Has she said any more about the car? Or about the
man?'
    'No. But then we haven't spent the whole evening
talking about it. She said something when she came
home, when I'd been to collect her, and then I asked
her something and I started thinking and then I rang
the woman from the day nursery and then I phoned the
police and . . . well . . .'
    Alinder looked at the sheet of paper in front of him.
He'd noted her name and address and her phone number
during the day and in the evening, and a summary of
what she'd said. There was nothing else he could do
now. But he took it seriously, as far as it went. The girl
might well have been with somebody, in a real car. That
was possible. Or she might just have been in a big
wooden car. There was one like that at Plikta. Perhaps
she'd suddenly enlarged one of her friends at the day
nursery ten times over. Perhaps she'd been dreaming
about sweets, millions of bags of sweets, just like he
could dream about marvellous meals and dishes, now
that eating was more important to him than sex.
    'If she says anything else about, er, about the meeting,
write it down and let us know,' he said.
    'What happens now, then?'
    'I've noted down everything you've said and I'll write
a report on our conversation and file it.'
    'Is that all?'
    'What do you think we ought to do, Mrs Sköld?'
    'I'm not Mrs any longer.'
    'What should we do?'
    'I don't know. I'll talk to the staff at the day nursery
again, and I might get back to you.'
    'Good.'
    'But, well, I suppose it is possible she's made it all
up. I mean, she's not nervous or anything like that.
Doesn't seem to be frightened or worried or anything.'
    Alinder didn't respond. He glanced at his watch. It
had been a long call, but not excessively long. He jotted
down another note.
    'What did you say your name was? Did you say?'
    'Alinder. Janne Alinder.'
    'Oh yes, thank you.'
    Something occurred to him. Might as well do this
properly, now that they'd started.
    'Just one other thing. Check to see if there's anything
missing. If Ellen has lost anything.'
    The city swished by on the other side of the big windows,
just as naked this evening as this morning and yesterday
and tomorrow. He was more or less in a dream, but he
was doing his job perfectly. Nobody could have grounds
for complaint about what he was doing.
    Good afternoon, good afternoon.
    Yes, I can open the centre doors again, no problem.
    Of course I can wait for half a minute while you
come running from over there, even though we ought
to be on our way now if we're going to stick to the
timetable, but I'm not some kind of a monster who just
drives off.
    There were drivers like that, but he wasn't one of
them, certainly not.
    People like that ought to get themselves another job.
They certainly shouldn't be driving passengers around,
he thought as he increased the speed of the windscreen
wipers. The rain was getting worse.
    He enjoyed this route. He'd been driving it for so
long, he knew every curve, every corner, every cranny.
    He could drive buses as well. He also had his favourite
bus routes, but he wasn't going to tell anybody what
they were. Not that anybody ever asked, but he'd no
intention of telling them even so.
    Maybe he'd told the girl what they were. It was funny,
but he couldn't remember. Oh yes, he remembered now.
He'd touched her, and it had felt like the down on a
little bird, with the tiny bones just underneath, and he'd
left his hand there, and he'd looked at his hand and it
was trembling and he knew, he knew at that very
moment, as if he'd had second sight, could see into the
future, what he could do with the g-g-g-g-g-girl if he
left his hand there, and he'd hidden it then, hidden it
inside his jacket and his pullover and his shirt, hidden
it from himself and from her and then he'd