The room darkens and she turns on the desk lamp with the dragonflies on the shade.
The desk is bare and polished. She turns on the computer – a prehistoric PC. The screen flickers to life. A sluggish humming starts from its interior and the image of a sunset fades into view. As does a window requiring a password. Anna-Karin knows too little about Adriana Lopez to hazard a guess at what it might be. She switches it off
She walks over to the bookshelf, takes down a few binders at random and flips through them. They’re full of class schedules, financial reports, letters of application and payslips. Nothing of interest.
Suddenly she hears footsteps outside the room. Panic hurtles towards her like a runaway freight train. But she steels herself, thinks of Rebecka. Rebecka, who only wanted the best for everyone, who was one of the few who were always nice to Anna-Karin. Who had tried to hold the group together. Anna-Karin feels guilty when she thinks of how she ignored her calls and messages. She’s going to make up for it now.
She catches sight of a black handbag in an armchair. It’s the one the principal usually has slung over her shoulder when she arrives at school in the morning.
Anna-Karin’s hands are sweaty. So sweaty that her fists would probably drip if she clenched them. The BO ho.
She walks up to the handbag, as if she were afraid it might bite her. She lifts it by the shoulder strap. It’s heavy.
Anna-Karin pours the contents carefully on to the coffee table. Among the makeup, Tampax and Kleenex there is a black Filofax, and a key-ring with ‘Hermès’ inscribed on it. Anna-Karin looks around the room. It seems almost too simple. What if Adriana Lopez isn’t attending council meetings today?
Maybe she’s walked into a trap.
Anna-Karin resists the impulse to run out of the office. Instead she wipes her hands on her jeans and opens the clasp on the Filofax.
The principal’s handwriting reflects her character: restrained and perfect. Anna-Karin flips through it. Her meetings with Elias and Rebecka have been entered. But she finds no pentagrams, no notes about killing them.
Anna-Karin holds her breath as she flips to today’s date. Sure enough, this afternoon she has a meeting at the town hall between one and four p.m.
She continues flipping through the pages. On Friday there is a single entry: Train to Stockholm 5.42 p.m. Booking reference XPJ0982U. And on Sunday: Train to Engelsfors 1.18 p.m.
That means the principal will be away all weekend. That her house will be empty. And that’s where they have to look if they’re to stand any chance of finding something that explains who Adriana Lopez really is.
Anna-Karin fishes up the key-ring from the table. It jingles a little as she puts it into her pocket.
Vanessa is curled up on the sofa. Wille’s laptop is so hot against her thighs it almost burns her.
‘Christ, you really pound away at those keys – you’re going to break it,’ Wille says.
‘Your computer’s already broken,’ says Vanessa. ‘The fan’s bust.’
‘Since when did you become a computer expert?’ Wille scoffs.
Vanessa grits her teeth. Just let me save the world in peace.
Minoo has got them all to set up alternative email addresses that they can use when they chat. Vanessa isn’t sure how necessary that is. Would an ancient evil really have learned how to use the Net?
But who’s to say which security measures are necessary? Rebecka had died. Each time Vanessa remembers, it’s like a slap in the face.
‘What are you doing that’s so secret? Are you surfing porn?’ Wille asks.
He moves closer to her on the sofa.
‘Can’t you leave me alone for five minutes?’ She shoves him away.
Ida has taken over the discussion on the screen with her constant nitpicking. She’s demanding they take a vote on whether or not to break into the principal’s house this weekend. When she doesn’t get an answer within half a second, she resends the question, over and over again, like a disruptive five-year old.
I’m in favour, Vanessa types, and is met with everybody else’s agreement.
Wille crawls closer and tries to put his head in her lap.
‘Stop it, you wanker! Can’t you let me breathe?’ Vanessa says.
‘But what’s so important?’ Wille whines.
‘It’s private!’
Wille crawls back to the other end of the sofa.
‘You’re chatting to your other boyfriend,’ he says.
He tries to sound like he’s kidding, but she isn’t fooled. She can’t be bothered to answer. He starts prodding her thighs with his sock-clad toe. On the screen