Julia and Felicia, who look at each other uncertainly. ‘Men have such a raw sense of humour.’
Rebecka grabs Gustaf’s hand. She’s proud of him, but it’s gnawing at her that she didn’t say anything.
Minoo and Linnéa are sitting in the principal’s office on the threadbare dark-green sofa. The principal is in the next room, where the assistant principal usually sits, and is speaking to a uniformed police officer.
Linnéa flips her phone in her hand as if she’s waiting for a call. Minoo tries not to stare at her. Linnéa’s body language is screaming that she doesn’t want to be bothered.
The room is surprisingly small. A shelf is packed with different-coloured binders. A few tired-looking potted plants stand in the window. The white and green checked curtains are stained and the windows need washing. Papers are stacked in neat piles on the desk next to an ageing computer. The chair is ugly but, no doubt, ergonomic. The only thing that stands out is a lamp with a dragonfly-patterned glass mosaic shade.
It’s the first time Minoo has ever been to the principal’s office. You’re only ever called there if you’re in trouble or if something terrible has happened.
When Minoo was at primary school, she used to day-dream about something dramatic happening – that the school would catch fire, or that everyone would be taken hostage by a bank robber on the run. The older she got, the more she saw how childish that was. But it is only now that she knows how far from reality her fantasies were.
The things that are awful in reality are nothing like the things that are awful in movies. It’s not exciting. It’s just scary, horrible and dirty. Above all, you can’t turn it off. Minoo already knows that the image of Elias will haunt her for the rest of her life.
If only I’d shut my eyes, she thinks.
‘I’ve seen a dead person before,’ Linnéa says suddenly. Her eyes are fixed on her phone, which she’s still flipping between her ink-smudged fingers. Each nail is neatly painted neon pink.
‘Who?’ Minoo asks.
‘I don’t know what her name was. It was an old lady. A drunk. She had a heart attack and died. Just like that. I was, like, five.’
Minoo doesn’t know what to say. It’s so far removed from her own life.
‘You never forget something like that,’ Linnéa mumbles.
Her eye makeup is a mess. It strikes Minoo that she herself hasn’t cried. Linnéa must think she’s the most insensitive person in the world. But Linnéa just looks at her. ‘We were in the same class in year seven, weren’t we?’
Minoo nods.
‘What’s your name again? Minna?’
‘Minoo.’
Linnéa doesn’t say her name. Either she can’t be bothered or she takes it for granted that Minoo knows it. And why wouldn’t she? Everyone was always talking about Linnéa Wallin.
‘Girls,’ they hear the principal say, and Minoo looks up. Adriana Lopez’s clean features show no sign of emotion. ‘The police want to speak to you,’ she continues.
Minoo glances up and is shocked when she sees the hatred with which Linnéa looks at Miss Lopez.
The principal seems to have noticed it, too, because she stops short. ‘You were Elias’s friend, weren’t you?’ she asks.
Linnéa stares at her in silence until the principal turns away and mutters something to the police officer now entering the room.
‘You can stay,’ he answers, and they sit down.
The police officer, whom Minoo recognises as Vanessa Dahl’s stepfather, struggles to find a comfortable position on the folding plastic chair. Eventually, he swings one leg on to the other with his foot perched on his knee. It doesn’t look especially dignified.
‘I’m Niklas Karlsson. I’ll start by taking your names.’
He pulls out a little notepad and pencil – Minoo notices that the end is chewed. A police officer who chews pencils. A rodent in uniform.
‘Minoo Falk Karimi.’
‘I see. You, of course, I recognise,’ he says to Linnéa.
It may have been meant in a friendly way, but it didn’t sound like it. Minoo’s whole body tenses when she sees Linnéa squeeze her phone until the plastic cracks.
Don’t say anything, she thinks. Please, Linnéa, don’t do anything stupid. You’ll only make things worse for yourself.
‘I realise this must be terrible for you,’ Niklas says, and goes back to playing the sympathetic police officer, ‘and crisis counselling is available.’
‘We’re bringing in a team of psychologists,’ the principal says. ‘You can see one straight away.’
‘I’m already seeing a psychologist,’ Linnéa says.
‘I see. Well, that’s good,’ the officer says. ‘Did you know Elias?’
‘No,’ Minoo mumbles.
Niklas looks