his head round. He looked at her lying there, and stared at the telephone in her hand.
“I think we need to swap that for a proper teddy bear,” he said. “It’ll do you good to come out to Jiekajärvi. There’s no reception there, so you might as well leave it at home. I was just going to say the food will be ready in an hour, and I’ll come and wake you. Now get some sleep.”
Rebecka looked at him.
“Don’t go,” she said. “Talk to me about my grandmother.”
Sivving went over to the wardrobe, took out another woolen blanket and spread it over Rebecka. Then he took the telephone off her and placed it on the bedside table.
“People round here never used to think that Albert, your grandfather, would get married,” he said. “He always used to sit in the corner with his cap in his hand when he went visiting, never said a word. He was the only one of the brothers that stayed on the farm with his father. And his father, your grandfather’s father, Emil, he was a real hard man. We lads were terrified of him. Hell, one time when he caught us playing poker in the sandpit, I thought he was going to pull my ear clean off my head. He was a really strict Laestadian. But anyway, Albert went off to a funeral in Junosuando, and when he came back there was something different about him. He still didn’t say anything, just like before. But it was as if he was sitting there smiling to himself, although his mouth never moved, if you see what I mean. He’d met your grandmother. And that summer he went off several times to visit relatives in Kuoksu. Emil was furious when Albert disappeared right in the middle of the harvest. In the end she came to visit. And you know what Theresia was like. When it came to work, there was nobody to beat her. Anyway, I don’t know how it came about, but suddenly she and Emil were out there cutting one half each of the old sheep pasture, you know, the meadow between the potato field and the river. It was like a competition. I remember it as if it were yesterday. It was quite late in the summer, the blackflies had arrived and it was just before supper, so they were biting well. We lads stood there watching. And Isak, Emil’s brother, he was there too. You never got to meet him. Pity. They worked in silence, Emil and Theresia, each with their own scythe. The rest of us kept quiet too. All you could hear were the insects and the evening cry of the swallows.”
“Did she win?” asked Rebecka.
“No, but in a way, neither did Emil. He finished first, but your grandmother wasn’t far behind. And Isak ran his hand over the stubble on his chin and said, ‘Well, Emil, we’d better put the ram out on your half.’ Emil had rushed ahead with his scythe like a fury, but he hadn’t made a very good job of it. But your grandmother’s half looked as if she’d crawled over the meadow on her knees with a pair of nail scissors. So, now you know how she won the respect of your grandfather’s father.”
“Tell me some more,” begged Rebecka.
“Another time.” Sivving smiled. “Now you need to sleep for a while.”
He closed the door behind him.
How am I supposed to sleep? thought Rebecka.
She had the distinct impression that Anna-Maria Mella had lied to her. Or maybe not lied, but kept something back. And why was Sanna lashing out now that the girls were going to be interviewed? Was it for the same reason as Rebecka, that she had no confidence in von Post? Or was it because a child psychologist was going to be involved? Why had somebody sent a card to Viktor saying that what they’d done wasn’t wrong in the eyes of God? Why had the same person threatened Rebecka? Or maybe it wasn’t a threat, maybe it was a warning? She tried to remember exactly what it had said on the note.
God, I can’t possibly sleep, she thought, gazing up at the ceiling.
But the next minute she had fallen into a deep sleep.
She was woken by a thought, opened her eyes to the darkness be-neath the ceiling and lay completely still so as not to frighten it away.
It was something Anna-Maria Mella had said. "We have only circumstantial evidence."
"If you only have circumstantial