The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,69

is written: REST IN PEACE – YOUR FRIENDS. They had chosen the most generic inscription they could come up with so as not to arouse curiosity. But Minoo knows who the senders are and that gives her strength.

One by one the funeral guests go up and lay a flower on the coffin. Minoo doesn’t have a flower. She didn’t know she was supposed to bring one with her. When she reaches the coffin she instead lays her palm against it. She almost expects to feel something –a sign, an electric shock –but the wood is cool against her skin. It’s impossible to imagine that Rebecka is lying inside.

Rebecka, Minoo says to herself, I promise I’ll find the person who did this. And they will never have a chance to do it again. I promise you.

Following the ceremony coffee is served in the parish house but Minoo can’t bear to stay any longer. She can’t imagine what it must be like for Rebecka’s parents to cope with all the questions and guilt, the rage and sorrow. It’s awful not to be able to tell them that their daughter didn’t commit suicide.

She steps out on to the church steps and looks out across the new section of the cemetery, which extends to the other side of a long box hedge. Elias, the seventh Chosen One, lies somewhere over there.

She walks down the steps and continues along the gravel path. She thinks about the room in the principal’s house, the frightening things inside it. How can they defeat such an enemy?

‘Hi.’

She looks up. Gustaf is leaning against a tree. He seems a little lost in his black suit. Their eyes meet and Minoo quickens her pace. Gustaf is the last person she wants to talk to.

‘Minoo …’

She doesn’t answer, just walks faster. He follows her.

‘Please – can’t I just talk to you?’ he calls out.

‘No!’ she hisses.

‘It’s not how you think.’

Minoo stops so suddenly that Gustaf almost cannons into her. Seeing him close up causes some of her anger to dissipate. He’s no longer the golden boy who’s never faced any hardship. His eyes are red and his skin is ashen.

‘What’s not how I think?’

‘That interview. That’s why you don’t want to talk to me, right?’

‘What do you think?’

Gustaf looks at her, searching for words that don’t come.

‘You said she was better off dead!’ Minoo reminds him.

Gustaf shuts his eyes. When he opens them, they’re wet with tears. ‘I was standing at the front entrance waiting for her,’ he says, ‘I saw her fall and hit the ground. I couldn’t do anything—’ He chokes up. Tears run down his cheeks. Minoo is crying, too. A lone raven flies above their heads and lands on a tree.

‘Cissi came over to my house that night,’ Gustaf continues, more composed. ‘Of course she said she was a journalist, but it didn’t feel like that when we talked. She really seemed to care. And I said lots of things I shouldn’t have. I barely even remember what I said. My mother’s filed a complaint against the newspaper, but now it’s been printed …’

Minoo knows what Cissi can be like – she ought to have understood what had happened at the interview. And there’s no trace of deceit in Gustaf’s face. He’s speaking the truth, she’s sure.

The remnants of the anger she’s felt towards him evaporate, leaving just their grief. Minoo can hardly bear hers, and she can’t begin to conceive of the emptiness Rebecka must have left behind in Gustaf.

‘I just have to know,’ he says. ‘Did she say anything to you about being unhappy? Did you notice anything to suggest she didn’t want … to go on living?’

‘No,’ she answers. ‘But I do know one thing. You made her happy.’

Gustaf looks away. ‘Not happy enough.’

‘You can’t think like that.’

‘Sure I can. I knew something was wrong. Sometimes I sensed she wanted to talk about it. If only I’d asked her …’

‘She could just have told you,’ Minoo says gently.

‘But instead she jumped off the school roof.’

There’s nothing Minoo can say. She can’t tell him the truth.

‘Her parents must hate me,’ Gustaf continues. ‘I didn’t dare go to the funeral. I didn’t want to ruin things any more than I have already.’

‘Go and talk to them. Maybe they understand more than you think.’

Gustaf shakes his head. ‘I can’t.’ He looks at Minoo and his face breaks into a smile that is full of pain. ‘She was the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m so fucking