The Circle (Hammer)

54



THEY’VE CRAMMED THEMSELVES around Nicolaus’s kitchen table. Nicolaus is standing beside the counter, petting Cat distractedly.

Minoo’s tense shoulders are pulled up so high that they’re almost earrings. She leans forward with her hands on the tabletop. She’s going to be strong now. She’s going to tell them. Across the table she meets Anna-Karin’s eyes. Anna-Karin has also been forced to reveal her secrets to the others.

Minoo has rehearsed what she’s going to say, over and over again, in her head. She tries to gather her courage, to suppress the shame that, on some level, she knows she doesn’t have to feel – but what good is that when she feels it so intensely?

Now everyone’s looking at her.

‘It’s Max,’ she says. ‘Max is the killer.’

That wasn’t how she had intended to start.

‘Max?’ Anna-Karin asks.

‘Max who?’ Vanessa asks.

‘He’s our mentor,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘The maths and physics teacher.’

‘The good-looking one?’ Ida asks.

‘What makes you think it’s him?’ Anna-Karin asks.

And Minoo explains, without looking at them: about Max and Alice and the woman in the painting, about the evening she was at his house, about the kiss by the viaduct, about Gustav’s doppelganger, who was Max, about every thing Max had confessed to her in the classroom.

The only thing she doesn’t tell them is the plan that Max was talking about, the one that the demons have devised for her. It’s too frightening.

‘How could you be so f*cking stupid?’ Vanessa says.

‘I didn’t know until yesterday,’ Minoo stammers.

‘That’s not what I’m talking about,’ Vanessa says. ‘I’m talking about the truth serum! Anything could have happened! How could you use it on him while you were alone with him?’

‘I had to.’

Linnéa has sat there silently, watching Minoo. But now she leans forward and smiles coldly. ‘So what would have happened if Max had killed you? Then we would never have found out he was the murderer.’

‘I wanted to be sure it was him,’ Minoo says.

‘Exactly. So you wouldn’t have to tell us your dirty little secret.’

Minoo doesn’t know how to answer.

‘And you kissed Gustaf when we thought he was the killer,’ Linnéa continues. ‘That’s pretty f*cked up.’

‘He kissed me, but I pushed him away.’

‘But for a second you liked it,’ Linnéa says. ‘Even though you thought Gustaf was the killer, you liked it.’

‘I never said that.’

‘You didn’t have to.’

Linnéa is dissecting her alive, Minoo thinks, picking her apart bit by bit and showing how disgusting and disturbed she is.

‘That’s enough,’ Vanessa tell Linnéa. ‘Jonte was selling drugs to Elias, and look what you were doing with him!’

Minoo doesn’t know who they’re talking about, but it’s clear from Linnéa’s face that it hit home. She falls silent and sinks back into her chair.

‘I don’t think any of you is without fault,’ Nicolaus says. ‘We have to move on.’

‘But what should we do?’ Ida asks.

‘Whatever it is, we’d better do it soon,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘Now that Max knows that Minoo knows.’

The significance of Anna-Karin’s words slowly sinks in.

They had waited for this moment all autumn and winter. They’ve practised and prepared themselves. Now the waiting is over. When Minoo looks at the others, she wonders if any of them is ready to meet Max, who had already killed two of them.

‘You know what I think?’ Linnéa says. ‘People like him shouldn’t be allowed to live. He’s made his choice.’

‘I agree,’ Ida says.

‘He’s a human being,’ Nicolaus says.

‘Exactly,’ Linnéa says. ‘He’s just a human being. It must be possible to kill him, even if he is blessed by demons.’

‘“Thou shalt not kill,”’ Nicolaus reminds her.

‘“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,”’ Linnéa retorts.

‘Can we skip the Bible quotes please? We can’t kill him,’ Minoo says.

‘You have no right to speak on this issue,’ Linnéa says. ‘You’ve got feelings for him.’

Minoo is about to protest when Anna-Karin stands up and glares at Linnéa. ‘I’ll never agree to kill anyone,’ she says. ‘We can’t cross that line.’

‘Two for, two against,’ Linnéa says. ‘It’s up to you, Vanessa.’

It’s absurd, Minoo thinks. We’re sitting here voting on whether or not to kill someone.

‘I agree with Anna-Karin,’ Vanessa says.

Linnéa stares at the table.

‘That’s it, then. There’s no more to say.’

‘Oh, how lovely it is that we’re all friends again,’ Ida says sarcastically. ‘Am I the only one who still hasn’t got over the fact that Minoo was fooling around with a teacher?’

Suddenly Cat gives a drawn-out miaow and bolts into the living room like a bat out of hell.

Ida’s head drops forward as if she’s caught sight of something interesting on her stomach.

A charged sensation rushes through Minoo. She recognises it from the night at the fairground. The night when they all learnt their destiny.

Ida’s chair slides slowly out from the table with a scraping, squeaking sound. Its feet leave long marks in the wooden floor.

It’s deathly silent. Everyone looks at Ida.

The chair stops abruptly. Ida’s breath is a barely discernible cloud of smoke. And then she starts growing … taller?

No, Minoo realises. The chair is levitating.

‘She’s back,’ Nicolaus mumbles.

Ida’s head lifts and she looks at them with wildly dilated pupils. A thin dribble of ectoplasm runs from the corner of her mouth. ‘My daughters, I’m happy to see you,’ she says, in the warm, gentle voice that isn’t hers. ‘But you still don’t trust each other. If you’re going to prevail, you must trust each other implicitly.’

She looks at them one by one, and Minoo sees her gaze linger on Linnéa.

‘You must face your enemy together. You must stand united. Only then can you defeat him. The Circle is the answer. The Circle is the weapon.’

‘You must give them something more!’ Nicolaus says. He goes to Ida. His hand is reaching out as if he wants to touch her but doesn’t dare.

Ida meets his gaze. ‘That’s all I can give,’ she answers. ‘And that’s all you need.’

‘Who are you?’ Minoo asks. ‘Are you the witch from the seventeenth century?’

Ida looks at her. ‘Yes. But there’s no time for more questions now,’ she answers, as her voice continues inside Minoo’s head: Let go.

Ida looks straight at her with her huge pupils.

That is the key to everything, Minoo. Let go.

A faint smell of smoke wafts through the room.