‘She was making sounds,’ he said. ‘You heard it. She was breathing, Lily. I’m absolutely sure of that.’ He paced the room. ‘They have to stop it! She’ll get a blood transfusion. We made it here quickly.’

Lily didn’t respond. A teenager with his arm in a sling walked up and down the corridor. Clearly curious about the drama unfolding just a few metres away, he stared openly at them.

‘Why is it taking so long?’ Lily whispered. ‘What are they doing?’

It was as though she were inside a wire drum rotating at high speed. It wasn’t life, and it wasn’t death. Later they would both refer to these minutes as pure hell, a hell that ended when a nurse came through the glass doors with Margrete in her arms. She was wrapped in a white blanket. To his amazement, Karsten saw that she jabbed at the air with her hands.

‘She’s completely unharmed,’ the nurse said.

Karsten took her from the nurse. Felt her little body in his arms. It was warm all over.

With nervous hands he began unfolding the blanket. Margrete, wearing a disposable nappy, was otherwise naked in the blanket.

‘She’s completely unharmed,’ the nurse repeated. ‘It wasn’t her blood. We’ve called the police.’

Chapter 2

Karsten and Lily Sundelin were led to another room where they could wait undisturbed. Lily wanted to go home. She had no desire to talk to anyone. She wanted to go back to her house and her bedroom; she wanted to retreat into a corner. She wanted to lie in her queen-sized bed with her husband and child, and remain there. Never again would she let the child sleep in the pram under the maple tree, never again let her sleep without supervision. Never again shut her out of her mind.