‘Do you promise you’ll call me if anything happens that scares you?’
She’d nodded.
Three missed calls, her mobile phone told her. She’d left it on the bedside table and, having fetched it from upstairs, she was now turning it over indecisively in her hands. Bonnie had heard her, had come out of Paul’s room and followed her down to the kitchen, alert and watchful, with a look in her eyes as if she knew exactly what was making Jasmin so nervous.
You haven’t even been here one day. If you call him now, he’ll just think you’re weak. And it’ll only confirm to him what he’s been thinking the whole time: that you’re imagining things. Deluding yourself.
As far as he’s concerned, you hit a deer that night – nothing more.
When she looked up, Bonnie was gone.
‘Bonnie,’ Jasmin called quietly towards the hallway. ‘Here, Bonnie!’
She heard the quiet click of the Labrador’s claws on the stairs. Bonnie reappeared, wagging her tail, curious to see why she’d been summoned again so late at night. Jasmin stroked her thick fur. ‘We should stick together,’ she told her, as Bonnie tried to lick her face. Eventually, Jasmin went back upstairs and patted the basket she’d put out in the corridor between the two bedroom doors. So she can watch over us both. Bonnie looked at her inquisitively before turning around in circles a few times and sinking down onto her soft bed with a satisfied grunt.
‘You’ll look after the three of us, won’t you?’
Bonnie made no sound, but returned Jasmin’s gaze with her clever, dark-brown dog eyes.
Jasmin crawled under her duvet. No sooner had she rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes than she was overcome by the exhaustion that had been lying in wait on the edge of her consciousness.
Only a few hours, she thought. Everything will look very different in the morning.
Cracking, rustling noises came from the walls.
There’s no such thing as ghosts. This is just an old house that’s getting used to its occupants again.
That’s all.
Chapter 5
The thatched and red-tiled roofs of Skårsteinen glittered in the light of the morning sun. A beautiful day had broken as Jasmin, Paul and Bonnie entered the village in their rental car. There were a handful of other drivers on the road, and a few of them turned their heads as Jasmin passed, their curiosity piqued at the sight of a strange number plate – especially now the holiday season was over and the residents were left more and more to themselves. Any summer visitors who stayed on for longer were viewed with suspicion.
They were strangers. Outsiders. More so than usual, even.
Strangers stood out. She and Jørgen had discovered that during their first ever visit to the island, and although it hadn’t bothered him, it had taken Jasmin a while to get used to it.
The wind last night had swept the leaden grey from the sky. Instead, fleecy clouds with frayed edges were scattered across the heavens and the sun shone like a freshly polished gold coin. It was a bright day, a cheerful day, as if it had been sent to dispel all her sinister thoughts from the night before.
But he was there. You saw him. And you mustn’t forget it. Because whoever he was, he won’t forget it either. He might come back.
Jasmin parked on the main street, which was home to a few bed and breakfasts, a supermarket, a tiny cinema with red seats and a small screen, and the grocery store run by Karl Sandvik and his wife. A tall apple tree stood beside the squat building and there were three bicycles parked outside the shop window, which was decorated with a display of seasonal fruit and vegetables.
The air was mild and smelled of cut grass, and Jasmin’s spirits slowly began to lift. ‘Let’s take a look around,’ she said to Paul. A bell above the door tinkled as she entered.
‘Ah, our summer visitors.’ Karl Sandvik was standing by a shelf and stacking some large canisters containing vegetable oil, according to the labels. It was a very good idea to buy in bulk in a place like this, she and Jørgen had learned, and Jasmin hadn’t forgotten the lesson. The car had a large boot, they had plenty of space at home, and she’d brought enough cash.
For a moment, Jasmin remembered how Jørgen had reacted when he’d found out that her parents had made a fortune with their business – that thanks to the shares they’d received, Jasmin and her sister would never have to work again in their lives, and yet she kept working anyway. Because she found her job fulfilling. Because you need something to build your character as well as your bank balance, as her father had put it.
But Jørgen’s initial surprise had quickly passed. He loves you, not your money. She felt sure of it.
And now? she thought. Is that still true? Or did what happened change things, drive a wedge between you? Is there something behind those looks he gives you when he thinks you haven’t noticed? What goes through his mind those times when he lies awake beside you at night?
Jasmin shook her head and dispelled these thoughts. She’d done the right thing by coming here. It would settle everything once and for all.
‘Can Bonnie come in too?’ Jasmin held the door open while Bonnie waited at the threshold and looked up at her like the well-trained dog she was.
‘Oh yes, certainly.’ Sandvik put his glasses on and held his hand out to Jasmin, who shook it. ‘I see you’ve settled in all right?’
‘Not quite,’ she answered with an evasive smile. ‘But we’re getting there. Yesterday was a cleaning day.’
‘It can’t be easy down there.’ Sandvik bent forward to lift another canister from the pallet, groaning as he did so. ‘Oof,’ he said, ‘my old bones. And the weather, too. It’s always the same.’ The face he pulled as he rubbed his hand over his back was all too familiar to Jasmin thanks to her mother’s back trouble.
Bonnie sniffed at some cans filled with enticing foodstuffs – crab meat, it said on the label – while Paul examined a display of books on the counter. Her bookworm son and her food-obsessed chocolate Labrador. We make an odd team.
‘Down there?’ she repeated.
‘At the other end of the island. The wind is like a raging beast down there. The cliffs are dangerous, and as for the ground – to call it treacherous would be putting it mildly.’ Sandvik coughed and gave Jasmin a mild, paternal look. ‘And then for a woman to be all alone out there. Life has always been hard here, among the untamed forces of nature.’
‘I’m looking for peace and quiet.’ No sooner had Jasmin uttered the words than she realised they were far too harsh and unfriendly. ‘I mean, so I can sort through my own thoughts. I’ll be all right.’
‘I wasn’t trying to reproach you.’ Sandvik picked up another canister and groaned once more. ‘Some of the people around these parts will have something to say when they hear about it. A young woman, all by herself, without her husband. They’re still a little old-fashioned in certain respects.’
‘But you aren’t?’ Jasmin picked up her basket and started filling it with the items on the list she’d written early that morning at the kitchen table. Light bulbs and spare batteries stood at the top.
‘I try not to judge anyone. None of us has an easy time of it when the wind shifts to the north and tries to knock us off our feet. This island is a stony garden, and only the strongest can make it grow. We’ve had all kinds of people make their way up here in the past, you know. Like you, they were hoping to find themselves . . .’ He adjusted his spectacles as if fumbling for words.