The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund Read Free Book Online Page A

the kitchen table.
    ‘How’s your week been?’ he went on. ‘Mine’s been awful! Some journalist’s got it into his head that our products have dangerous side effects, and there’s been a huge fuss on television and in the press. Has there been anything about it here?’
    He put down two plates of sandwiches and went over to the stove, where the water was already boiling.
    ‘Not as far as I know. There might have been.’ She was still feeling drowsy and taken aback by his sudden appearance. ‘I’ve had to listen to a woman who thinks she’s been abused by the mass media –’
    ‘I understand. Doesn’t sound great,’ he interrupted, handing her a cup of steaming blueberry tea. ‘But I dare say it’ll pass. We’ve discovered that the journalist is some sort of environmental activist who once took part in a protest at a mink farm. When that comes out …’ He laughed and ran his hand across his neck to indicate what was going to happen to anyone setting themselves up against the big pharmaceutical company.
    Sofia didn’t like his arrogance, but she didn’t feel up to having a debate. It was far too late for that. She stood, cleared the table and rinsed their cups before going into the bathroom to brush her teeth.
    Mikael fell asleep beside her for the first time in a week, and Sofia realised that she had missed him, in spite of everything.
    He reminded her of Lasse.
     
    Sofia woke up when a car’s headlights swept across the ceiling. At first she didn’t know where she was, but as she sat up in bed she recognised Mikael’s bedroom, and saw from the clock radio that she’d been asleep for little more than an hour.
    Carefully she closed the bedroom door and went into the living room. She opened a window and lit a cigarette. A mild breeze blew into the room and the smoke disappeared into the darkness behind her. As she smoked she watched a white plastic bag drifting with the wind along the street below her, until it got stranded in a puddle of water on the opposite pavement.
    I need to start from the beginning again with Victoria Bergman, she thought. There’s something I’ve missed.
    Her bag was beside the sofa and she sat down, took out her laptop and set it up on the table in front of her.
    She opened the document in which she had gathered some brief notes together to compile a short overview of Victoria Bergman’s case.
     
    Born 1970.
    Unmarried. No children.
    Conversational therapy, focusing on traumatic childhood experiences.
    Childhood: only child of Bengt Bergman, investigator for SIDA, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and Birgitta Bergman, housewife. Earliest memories the smell of her father’s perspiration, and summers in Dalarna.
    Prepuberty: raised in Grisslinge, in Värmdö outside Stockholm. Summer cottage in Dala-Floda in Dalarna. Highly intelligent. Private school from the age of nine. Started school a year early and was moved up from year eight to year nine. Subjected to sexual abuse from early puberty (father? other men?). Memories fragmentary, recounted as uncontextualised associations.
    Youth: highly prone to risk-taking, suicidal thoughts (from the age of 14–15?). Early teenage years described as ‘weak’. Once again, memories recounted in fragments. High school years at Sigtuna boarding school. Recurrent self-destructive behaviour.
     
    Sofia realised that her time in high school was a conflicted period for Victoria Bergman. When she started there she was two years younger than her classmates, and was considerably less developed both physically and emotionally.
    Sofia knew from experience how mean teenage girls could be in the changing room after gym classes. And Victoria had basically been entirely at the mercy of her peers for her upbringing. But there was something missing.
     
    Adult life: career success described as ‘unimportant’. Limited social life. Few interests.
    Central themes/questions: trauma. What has Victoria Bergman been through?