Yes, his appointment book says that-
Because at two oclock, he is meeting with me, Saga says.
I will forward your request.
Thank you very much, Saga replies. She meets Joonas eyes across the desk.
Two oclock? he confirms. Yes, indeed.
Tommy Kofoed would like a look at that photo, Joona says. Lets stop by his office after lunch, before we head out.
While Joona is having lunch with Disa, the technicians at the National Forensic Laboratory are enlarging the photograph.
The face of one person in the box is specifically being blurred so as to be unrecognizable.
Disa is smiling to herself as she removes the inset from the rice cooker. She holds it out to Joona and watches him as he moistens his hands to check if the rice is cool enough to form into small patties.
Did you know that Sodermalm used to have its own Calvary?
Calvary like Golgotha or cavalry like horses?
A place for executions. Disa nods as she opens Joonas kitchen cabinet, finds two glasses, pours white wine into one and water into the other.
Disa looks relaxed. Her freckles have turned darker and shes put her disheveled hair into a loose braid. Joona washes his hands and takes out a new kitchen towel. Disa goes up to him and puts her arms around his neck. Joona answers her embrace by putting his face next to hers and breathing in the scent of her hair even as he feels her hands gently caressing his back and neck.
Lets go ahead, she whispers. Lets try.
Maybe, he says in a low voice.
She holds him tightly, very tightly, and then she eases from his arms.
There are times I get really mad at you, she mutters as she turns away.
Disa, I am who I am, but I-
I am very happy that were not living together, she says, and then she leaves the kitchen.
He hears her lock herself in the bathroom and wonders whether he should follow and knock on the door, but he also knows that she really wants to be left alone, so he just continues making lunch. He picks up a piece of fish, places it on his palm, and then spreads a line of wasabi onto it.
A few minutes later, Disa comes back. She stands in the doorway and watches him finish making the sushi.
Do you remember, she says, laughing, how your mother always took the salmon off the sushi and fried it before she put it back on the rice?
Of course.
Should I set the table?
Please.
Disa carries plates and chopsticks to the big room, stops next to the window, and looks down at Wallingatan. A grove of trees lights up the view with its green late-spring leaves. Her eyes wander over the pleasant area all the way to Norra Bantorget where Joona Linna has been living for the past year.
She sets the off-white dinner table, returns to the kitchen to take a sip of wine. The wine has lost the crispness from being chilled. She dismisses the sudden urge to sit down on the lacquered wooden floor under the table and have lunch, eating with their hands as if they were still children.
Instead, she says, Ive been asked out.
Asked out?
She nods and feels she wants to be a little bit mean, even though she doesnt really.
Tell me about it, Joona says calmly as he carries the tray with sushi to the table.
Disa picks up her glass and says in an easy tone, Its just that theres a man at the museum whos been asking me out to dinner for the last six months.
Do people still ask people out to dinner these days?
Disa smiles somewhat crookedly. Are you jealous?
I dont know. Maybe a little, Joona says as he walks over to her. Its always pleasant to be asked out to dinner.
Thats right.
Disa pushes her fingers through a bit of Joonas thick hair.
Is he good-looking?
Actually, yes he is.
How nice.
But you know that I really dont want to. Disa smiles.
He doesnt answer and turns his head away.
You know what I want, Disa says softly.
Joonas face is now a little pale. She sees a sheen of sweat on his forehead. He slowly turns his face back to her. His eyes have darkened until theyre as black and hard as an abyss.
Joona? she asks. Forget about it. Im sorry-
It looks like Joona starts to say something and begins to take a step when his legs buckle.
Joona! Disa cries and knocks her glass off the table as she hurries to his side. She holds him closely and whispers that it will be over soon.
After a few minutes, Joonas face relaxes bit by bit from its tight expression of pain.
Disa gets up to sweep the broken glass off the floor. Then they sit at the table and eat in silence.
After a while, Disa says, Youre not taking your medicine.
It makes me sleepy. I have to think. Its important to think clearly right now.
You promised me that youd continue with it.
I will, I will, he reassures her.
Its dangerous not to. You know that, she whispers.
As soon as Ive solved this case, Ill start taking it again.
What if you never solve it?
At a distance, the Nordic Museum appears to be a fancy image carved in ebony, despite being built of sandstone and limestone. Its a Renaissance dream of elegance with its many towers and pinnacles. The museum was planned as an homage to the sovereignty of the Nordic peoples, but by the time it was inaugurated one rainy day in the summer of 1907, the union between Sweden and Norway had dissolved and the king was dying.