Chapter 19
Olivia races up the stairs. Everyone is sitting around the table, helping themselves to breakfast.
“Filippa’s gone!”
The room falls silent.
“What do you mean?” Emil asks.
“She’s disappeared!”
Olivia can hear the panic in her voice. She doesn’t mean to sound hysterical, but where can Filippa be?
“Calm down,” Emil says. “What’s happened?”
Olivia tries to explain, but the words come out all wrong.
“Are her boots and her jacket still here?” William goes into the hallway. “Doesn’t look like it,” he calls out. “There are only your moon boots here.”
Olivia takes out her phone to check again. She has already tried several times, but her calls go straight to voicemail. The map on Snapchat that enables a user to see where their friends are is turned off, so she can’t find Filippa that way.
She hasn’t been in touch via text, WhatsApp, or Messenger.
“Who saw her last?” Emil wonders.
Olivia looks at Amir. When she left, he was sitting on the sofa with his arm around Filippa’s shoulders. He gave the impression that he was about to eat her up.
Would he have lost interest, just like that?
“Amir?” she says slowly. “Wasn’t Filippa with you last night?”
He shakes his head. “I’ve already told you—no. Anyway, I went to bed soon after you left.”
“Really?”
“Do you think I’m lying?”
Olivia backs down. “But where did she go?”
“How the hell should I know?”
“I went to bed too,” William says.
Olivia turns to Pontus. “In that case you must have been the only one left in the living room with Filippa. What happened?”
“I can’t really remember.”
“Try!”
Pontus’s cheeks flush.
“I fell asleep. When I woke up, everyone else had gone.”
Olivia isn’t giving up. “So where can she be? She can’t have simply vanished!”
“Is her stuff still in the cabin?” Emil asks.
Olivia tries to think. Filippa’s bed was untouched, but was her stuff there? Yes, definitely. Her suitcase was in the corner, and yesterday’s ski clothes were draped over a chair.
“In that case she’s probably gone for a walk,” William concludes. “Or she’s gone skiing without us. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Olivia is still clutching her phone. She has sent several new messages, but there has been no response.
“Maybe she wants to be on her own for a while?” William goes on. “She might have been embarrassed about last night.”
“Embarrassed?” Olivia can’t believe her ears.
“I mean, she got very drunk. It wasn’t exactly a pretty sight . . .”
Olivia stares at William in astonishment, but he just leans back on his chair, totally at ease. What a fucking hypocrite he is. Pontus and the others were drunk too, but nobody is suggesting that they should be embarrassed.
Emil seems to notice that Olivia is on the edge.
“I think we should search both houses again, just to be on the safe side,” he suggests. “I can take this floor. William, can you check Amir’s room and the sauna area.”
Olivia is grateful for Emil’s calm and sensible approach.
She can’t think straight; she is becoming more and more anxious.
When Emil sets off, she follows him. Everything seems perfectly normal.
It feels kind of stupid to be searching inside closets and looking under the beds, but they do it anyway.
Fifteen minutes later they are all back around the table. There is no sign of Filippa, but William informs them that her skis and poles are still in the outdoor storage area.
“Okay, let’s check the cabin again,” Emil says. “If she did go for a walk, she might be back now.”
During the short walk to the other building, Olivia almost manages to convince herself that Filippa is there. That she just went out, like William suggested, and came back without telling anyone.
By the time they open the door and step into the small hallway, she already feels better.
Everything is going to be okay, Olivia has been worrying for no reason.
“Filippa!” she calls out immediately. “Where are you?”
But no one answers. Filippa’s room is still empty.
“She’s not here either.”
Emil starts opening closet doors. He peers under the double bed; then he does the same in Olivia’s room before glancing into the bathroom.
“What if she went out last night when she was so drunk?” Olivia whispers. “She could have frozen to death.”
Emil shakes his head. “There’s no need to think the worst. Let’s go back to the others—she might be there by now.”
“Did you find her?” William calls out as soon as Olivia and Emil walk in.
“I’m afraid not,” Emil replies.
They go into the kitchen, and Pontus stares blankly at them from the end of the table. Olivia clamps her lips tight shut to stop herself from yelling at him. He’s no help at all; he doesn’t even seem to care.
Just like Amir, who is munching away on a cheese sandwich.
“Should we call her parents?” William asks.
Olivia isn’t sure. It sounds dramatic—but what if there has been an accident? Then again, she is reluctant to contact Aron and Jenny. They have been so kind to her since her mother died almost three years ago, let her live with them for long periods.
She doesn’t want to scare them for no reason.
“I’m sure she’ll show up soon,” Amir says.
With his sandwich in his hand he goes over to the panorama window facing the slopes.
The mist is dispersing, and the sun has risen.
It is much lighter than it was only an hour ago.
“So what are we going to do?” He gestures toward the view.
“The lifts are open—shall we go? If we don’t make a move soon, we’ll lose a whole day’s skiing. ”
At this time of year, the system is open only from nine thirty until three. Through the window they can just see Sadelexpressen, its chairs slowly moving up the mountain.
Olivia doesn’t get how Amir can stand there talking about skiing.
Something is wrong; she can feel it.
“I think we should go,” Pontus says.
William looks undecided. At least he seems worried. But then he pushes back his chair and joins Amir to check the thermometer outside the window.
“What’s that?” he says suddenly, resting his forehead on the glass. His eyes are fixed on a point outside, down the yard.
Olivia immediately reacts to his tone of voice. “What is it?”
William’s face has lost all its color. Olivia hurries over to him, her mouth has gone dry. On the ground below the window lies a bundle that almost looks like part of the snow.
A long, narrow bundle.
A bare foot is sticking out among the whiteness, its toes painted with blue nail polish.
And Olivia begins to scream.