Red Wolf_ A Novel - Liza Marklund [25]
He and Sophia from the Federation of County Councils were the convenors, and even though the project had only been running for a couple of months he knew he had made the right choice. The support they had received from the Justice Ministry so far had been fantastic. His dream of getting a government job before he was forty no longer seemed impossible.
Suddenly his mobile started to vibrate in his hand again. He answered before it had time to ring.
‘You ought to be here,’ Annika said. ‘I’m driving past the West Checkpoint of the steelworks in Svartöstaden outside Luleå, and it’s so beautiful. I’m opening the window now, can you hear the noise?’
Thomas leaned back and closed his eyes, hearing nothing but the noise of a bad line established by a Swedish-American capitalist.
‘The steelworks?’ he said. ‘I thought you were going to the airbase?’
‘Yep, I’ve been there, but I met a young lad who—’
‘But you’ll make it okay?’
‘Make what?’
He had no answer. In the gap between them he really could hear the noise in the background, some sort of low rumbling. He felt the distance between them like a dead weight.
‘I miss you,’ he said quietly.
‘What did you say?’ she yelled above the noise.
He took a quick, silent breath.
‘How are you, Annika?’ he asked.
‘Really good,’ she replied, too quickly and too firmly. ‘Have you eaten?’
‘It’s in the oven.’
‘Why don’t you do it in the microwave? I put them—’
‘I know,’ he interrupted. ‘Can I call you later? I’m in the middle of things here right now . . .’
Then he was sitting there again holding his mobile, feeling an irrational anxiety that threatened to turn into anger.
He didn’t like Annika going away, it was as simple as that. She didn’t deal with it well. But when he raised the subject with her she became cold and dismissive. He wanted her here beside him so he could make sure everything was all right, that she was safe and happy.
After that terrible Christmas, once the worst of the attention had died down, everything had seemed pretty good. Annika had been quiet and pale, but okay. She’d spent a lot of time playing with the children, singing and dancing with them, cutting and gluing. She’d spent a lot of time on the new residents’ association, and on a small extension to the kitchen that they could have done now that they’d bought the freehold on the flat. The thought of the bargain they had got, buying the flat for less than half the market price, made her childishly excited, but then she had always been broke. He had tried to regard the purchase more soberly, aware that money came and went. Annika never let him forget that he’d lost his last savings on shares.
He glanced at the oven, wondering if the food was hot yet, but made no move to take it out.
When Annika started work again she seemed to slip out of reach more and more, becoming distant, unknown. She would stop in the middle of a conversation, her mouth open, eyes staring in horror. If he asked what was wrong she would look at him like she’d never seen him before. It gave him goosebumps.
‘Daddy, I can’t get the computer to work.’
‘Try turning it off and on again, then I’ll come and look.’
Suddenly he felt quite powerless. He glanced one last time at the paper, realizing that another day of journalistic effort was about to go straight in the recycling. With limbs heavy as lead he lay the table, threw the children’s dirty overalls in the washing machine, made a salad and showed Kalle how to restart the computer.
Just as they were sitting down to eat, the courier arrived with the brochures they were going to discuss and evaluate the following evening.
While the children chattered and made a mess he read through the advice on how threatened politicians should behave. All the way through, and then once more.
Then he thought about Sophia.
10
Annika switched off the car engine outside the darkened door of the Norrland