She had almost reached Vetlanda when the police stopped her. A red light was blinking at her from the middle of the road. She pulled over, two policemen materialised outside her window and she opened it. One of them leant inside, stopped the engine and pulled the key out. He withdrew, glancing to check her face.
‘Now then … what have you been up to?’
She didn’t feel scared. She felt nothing at all.
‘Step outside for a moment, please.’
He opened the door and she stepped out. A car was pulling up behind the De Soto and Mick jumped out, running towards her. Maria Johansson stayed where she was, in the passenger seat.
‘You fucking slut! I’ll kill you if you’ve buggered up my car.’
One of the policemen put a hand on Mick’s shoulder, telling him to calm down. Mick pulled himself free and climbed into the De Soto. The policeman handed him the keys. After checking what he could, Mick got out, turning to look at her with intense disgust.
She noted that the policemen were leading her over to their car, pushing her into the back seat with a hand on her head. One of them sat next to her and the other drove the car. Neither said a word to her from then on.
‘Is your name Sibylla Forsenström?’
What was the funny smell in the room?
‘Why did you take the car?’
What if it was gas?
‘Have you got a driving licence?’
How come there were cracks in that wall?
‘Can’t you speak?’
The man on the other side of the desk sighed and began leafing through some papers. Four men dressed in black stepped through the cracked wall. They fixed their eyes on her.
‘We can’t find you anywhere in our records. Is it the first time you’ve done this sort of thing?’
The men in black were coming towards her. One of them held out a red-hot socket-spanner. They were going to unscrew her, take her apart.
‘We shall have to contact the social services in due course, but first of all we’ll call your parents. They can come and take you home now.’
They were going to keep bits of her as spare parts to fix smarter models. The man with the socket-spanner seemed to speak, his lips were moving but she couldn’t hear what he said.
She looked at the man behind the desk instead, but his face had sort of disappeared. There was nothing there, just a hole going straight through his head.
Now she couldn’t see anything at all, and what was she doing on the floor?
She heard the sound of a chair being pushed back and a voice shouting.
‘Lasse, come here! I need a hand!’
Steps came hurrying along.
‘I’ve no idea what’s wrong with her. Better get the ambulance.’