Afterward, she stands up, naked in the warm grass, and arches toward the sky. She takes a few steps and peers between the trees.
What is it? Bjorn asks, his voice thick.
She looks back at him, sitting naked on the ground and smiling up at her.
Youve burned your shoulders.
Happens every year.
He gently touches the pink spots.
Lets go back-Im hungry, she says.
Let me swim for a bit.
She pulls her bikini bottom and shorts back on, puts on her sneakers, then stands with her bikini top in her hand. She allows her gaze to wander over his hairless chest, his strong arms, the tattoo on his shoulder, his careless sunburn and his light, playful look.
Next time, youre on the bottom, she says.
Next time, he repeats cheerfully. Youre stuck on me-I knew it!
She laughs and waves at him dismissively. She hears him whistle to himself as she walks through the forest toward the tiny, steep beach where theyve anchored.
She stops for a moment to put on her bikini top before she continues down to the boat.
On board, Penelope wonders whether Viola is still sleeping in the aft cabin. She thinks she should start a pot of fresh potatoes and some crowns of dill and then wash up and change for the evening. Strangely, the deck near the stern is totally damp as if from a rain shower. Viola must have swabbed the deck for some reason. The boat feels different somehow. Penelope cant say what it is, but all at once she has goose bumps. The birds suddenly stop singing and everything is silent. Penelope is now aware of every one of her movements. She walks down the stairs. The door is open to the guest cabin and the lamp is lit, but Viola is not there. Penelope notices her hand shakes as she knocks on the door to the tiny toilet. She peers inside and returns to the deck. Looking ashore, she can see Bjorn walking down to the water. She waves to him, but hes not looking her way.
Penelope opens the glass doors to the salon.
Viola? she calls softly.
She goes down to the galley, takes out a pot, puts it on the element, and returns to the search. She peers into the large bathroom, then the main cabin where she sleeps with Bjorn. Looking around in the dark cabin, at first she thinks that she sees herself in a mirror.
Viola is sitting on the edge of the bed, her hand resting on the pink pillow from the Salvation Army.
What are you doing in here?
As Penelope hears her own voice, shes also realizing that nothing is as it should be. Violas face is cloudy white and wet; her hair hangs down in damp streams.
Penelope takes Violas face in her hands. She moans softly, then screams right into her sisters face, Viola? Whats wrong? Viola!
But she already understands whats out of place and whats wrong. Her sister is not breathing, her sisters skin is not giving off warmth. There is nothing left of Viola. The light of life has been snuffed out.
The narrow room tightens around Penelope. Her voice is a strangers. She wails and stumbles backward, knocking her shoulder hard on the doorpost as she turns to run up the stairs.
Up on the aft deck, she gulps down air as if shes suffocating. She glances about, ice-cold terror filling her bones. One hundred meters away on the beach, she spots a man in black. Somehow Penelope understands how things fit together. She knows this is the man who was underneath the bridge in the military inflatable. This was the man who had his back turned when she passed by. And she knows this is the man who killed Viola-and is not finished.
From the beach, the man waves to Bjorn, whos now swimming twenty meters from shore. Hes yelling something to Bjorn. Penelope rushes to the steering console and rummages in the tool drawer. She finds a Mora knife and races back to the stern.
She sees Bjorns slow swimming strokes and the water rings around him. Hes looking at the man in confusion. The man is waving, motioning for him to come over. Bjorn smiles an uncertain smile and begins to swim toward land.
Bjorn! Penelope screams as loud as she can. Swim to sea!
The man on the beach turns toward her and begins to run toward the boat. Penelope cuts off the rope, slips on the wet stern deck, leaps back up, and runs to the steering console and starts the motor. Without looking around, she raises the anchor and engages the gear in reverse at the same time.
Bjorn must have heard her, because he turns away from land and starts to swim toward the boat instead. As Penelope steers in his direction, the man in black changes course and starts running toward the other side of the island. Intuitively, she knows thats where hes pulled his inflatable ashore, at the northern inlet.
And she knows without a doubt that there is no possible way for them to speed away from it.
Motor rumbling, she steers toward Bjorn, and as she gets closer, she slows and stretches a boat hook toward him. The water is so cold, and he looks exhausted and so frightened. His head keeps bobbing under the surface. She jabs the boat hook his way and accidentally strikes his forehead. He starts to bleed.
Hold on to it! Penelope cries out.