The Double Silence (Andas Knutas 7)

bit absent-minded. Hormones and so on. But wasn’t she too young for that? Didn’t the change happen to women in their fifties? The ‘change’ – what an unpleasant word. She had no desire to change and enter another stage in life. She would be happy if time stood still for twenty years. She had never felt so good.
    She went into the kitchen and put on the coffee. It would be several hours before Sam came home so they could leave on the trip.
    This holiday was coming just at the right time. Sam had been busy with a lengthy film shoot that was finally done, and now he could take some time off before starting on the editing. He’d been away from home a lot lately, but that was always the case when he was shooting. During those periods he was ‘married to the film’, as he put it. That didn’t really bother her because she was busy too. She ran a trendy clothing shop on Adelsgatan, and there was always plenty to do. It was with relief that she had turned over responsibility to her colleague, the other part-owner, several days earlier than she had planned. She’d wanted to take it easy and get in the mood for the trip. And take care of Sam after he’d worked so hard. They would enjoy relaxing together, watch movies that they’d seen before but that were worth another viewing. And enjoy the company of good friends and other people interested in film on Fårö.
    She was also looking forward to spending more time with Stina. Maybe they could take morning walks together on Fårö. Have a proper talk. It had been a while, for they were both so busy with their own lives. She realizedhow much she had missed her friend. They knew everything about each other, had shared so much over the years, and there was a strong bond between them. In fact, Stina was the one she felt closest to, aside from Sam and the children. Now they would finally have the opportunity to be together for a few days. After that the nature trip to Stora Karlsö awaited them. She smiled to herself. They were so good about tending to their marriage, she and Sam. They had always been that way. When the kids were little, they had regularly hired a babysitter so that several times a year they could take a long weekend together, just the two of them. It was undoubtedly the sort of thing that had helped to keep their love alive. Over the years they had evolved into a single unit that was rock-solid. As she filled her coffee cup, she thought: We belong together. That’s how it had been ever since they first met, and that’s how it would always be.

JOHAN BERG REACHED for the package of nappies on the shelf in the bathroom. Anton lay on the changing table, gurgling happily. His round, sunny face was turned towards Johan, and his brown eyes sparkled with contentment. He chattered nonstop, constantly producing new sounds. Right now he lay there, waving his chubby little arms about. All of a sudden a stream shot up into the air. Johan felt it drenching his shoulder.
    ‘Bloody hell!’
    Quickly he wiped up the piss that had landed on the changing table and was trickling over the edge on to the bathroom floor. To think such quantities of fluid could come out of a baby only six months old. He dried off both himself and his son and then returned to Emma in the bedroom.
    ‘Good morning,’ she said sleepily, automatically pulling out one of her breasts as Johan carefully placed Anton in her arms. ‘Ouch,’ she complained as her son eagerly grabbed for her nipple. He was such a greedy little thing.
    ‘He peed straight up in the air,’ said Johan with a yawn as he sank back against the sleep-warm pillows and covers.
    ‘He did? What a rascal,’ said Emma tenderly, caressing the baby’s soft cheek. ‘Aren’t you going to work?’
    ‘Sure. Just give me five minutes,’ murmured Johan, turning his back and pulling up the covers.
    For the past month he’d actually been on paternity leave from his job as a reporter for Swedish TV’s regional news programme, but his editor, Max Grenfors, had phoned from Stockholm and asked him to come inover the weekend. They hadn’t yet found a replacement for him at the local editorial office on Gotland, and so far they’d solved the problem with temporary substitutes who flew over from the mainland. Johan had nothing against going into the office. Spending his days with a baby was wonderful in many ways, but it could also get a bit tiresome.
    But he had to be happy for every small step forward. For instance, now he