She's Never Coming Back by Hans Koppel Read Free Book Online Page B

the last thought that went through Calle’s head before he happily fell asleep.

13
    ‘Where’s Mummy?’
    Mike opened his eyes and blinked furiously. Sanna was standing by the bed in her pyjamas. He turned over and saw that Ylva’s side of the bed was empty and untouched. No one had slept there.
    ‘I don’t know, sweetie. What time is it?’
    He reached over for his watch.
    ‘Eight zero seven,’ Sanna read on the radio-clock and jumped up on to the bed. ‘Has Mummy not come home?’
    ‘I don’t know, doesn’t look like it. Maybe she stayed overwith one of her friends. Maybe it was late and she couldn’t get a taxi.’
    ‘Aren’t you going to ring her?’
    ‘Not quite yet. If they were late last night, she’ll still be asleep.’
    ‘What if she’s not sleeping?’
    Which was precisely what Mike was trying to avoid thinking, but his brain didn’t care about him, and images rolled in front of his eyes: Ylva dressed in yesterday’s party clothes walking from the bus stop, possibly barefoot, holding her heels in her hands. She stops in front of the door, looks down kind of ashamed for a second before plucking up the courage and saying:
Mike, we have to talk.
    That’s how he envisaged it, even though she hadn’t been wearing high heels or a sexy dress.
    Mike sat up.
    ‘She’ll be asleep. Are you hungry?’
    Sanna nodded with big, exaggerated movements as she leapt out of bed.
    ‘Sugar puffs!’
    ‘Okay, sugar puffs. But you have to eat some bread too.’
    Mike put on the coffee and went to get the paper, doing all the things that might be expected of a man who wasn’tterrified by the thought that his wife might have left him. He phoned her repeatedly. Her mobile was switched off and went straight to voicemail. Mike left a message.
    ‘Where are you? I’m starting to get worried. Sanna too. Please call us.’
    The second time: ‘Why the hell is your mobile turned off? That’s such a shitty thing to do. Not that I give a damn where you are.’
    Breakfast, reading the paper, checking the evening papers online, nothing fast-forwarded the time to nine o’clock, when Mike could reasonably phone someone without appearing to be desperate. Nine o’clock on the dot was perhaps pushing his luck, so he decided to finish reading an article that he hadn’t managed to get through the first time around.
    He had almost finished when Sanna asked him to help her look for a film she couldn’t find. By eleven minutes past nine, they had found the film and put it on, and Mike went out into the kitchen and phoned Nour.
    Nour was Ylva’s closest friend at work. Mike had only met her once, but immediately liked her. She had bright eyes and a smile that wasn’t false.
    ‘Hasn’t she come home?’ Nour asked.
    ‘She said she was going out with you,’ Mike said.
    Nour didn’t say anything for a beat, as if she was thinking about what she should say, and then realised that she couldn’t lie.
    ‘She told us that she was going home,’ she said, eventually. ‘Have you tried her mobile?’
    ‘It’s turned off.’
    Nour could hear the suspicion in Mike’s voice.
    ‘Well, I’ve no idea then,’ she said, and changed tack. ‘I hope nothing’s happened. Have you tried the hospital?’
    ‘Wouldn’t they have called me?’
    Nour conceded.
    ‘So, she said she was going home?’ Mike repeated.
    He immediately regretted his words, which sounded formal and accusing.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Did she say how she was going to get home?’
    ‘By bus, I presume. We were out on the street and she walked off down the hill.’
    ‘On her own?’
    ‘Yes. We tried to persuade her to come with us, but she said she wanted to go home.’
    ‘Okay, well, thanks for that.’
    ‘Ask her to give me a call when she shows up,’ Nour said.
    ‘Of course,’ Mike replied. ‘We’ll be in touch. Bye now.’
    Ylva watched Mike collect the newspaper on the TV screen. She saw her husband come out in his dressing gown and get the newspaper from the