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problem. The thought gave him pause. Falling in love had overshadowed so much that he wasn’t even certain where she stood politically.
    “You’re sure quiet.” Pia turned her head to look at him. “What’s up?”
    He pulled himself together. He’d gotten lost in his brooding and was probably sitting there staring at her like an idiot without being aware of what he was doing.
    “Er, nothing.” He shrugged his shoulders. The new thoughts both annoyed and saddened him.
    “You look like you could use some cheering up. How about going out for a beer?”
    “Great.”
    They left the editorial office and went out into the Mediterranean heat of the summer evening. It was a little past seven o’clock, and all the restaurants and bars were starting to fill up with sunburned tourists ready to party. They went to a bar on Stora Torget and chose seats outdoors.
    “So what’s really going on with you?” asked Pia when they each had a big, ice-cold pilsner.
    “I’m okay. I’m fine. It’s just that so much has happened lately that I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.”
    “Becoming a father is a big deal, of course.” Pia sipped at her beer. “So why aren’t you with Emma and Elin tonight?”
    “Emma has her other children, Sara and Filip, staying with her. They’ve been on vacation with their father, so she hasn’t seen them in a while. That’s why she wanted to spend time alone with them.”
    “Well, that’s understandable.”
    “Yes, although sometimes I think that all I ever do is worry about getting in the way of her and her other family.”
    “Jeez, that really must get old,” said Pia sympathetically. “As if it’s not hard enough trying to keep a so-called normal relationship going.” She rolled her eyes.
    “So what about you?” asked Johan out of curiosity. Pia had never said anything about a partner, and he hadn’t thought to ask. “Are you dating anyone?”
    “I wouldn’t exactly call it that. You might say that I screw this guy off and on, when it suits me.”
    “Are we talking about buddy sex?”
    “No, I like him a lot, but it’s never going to amount to anything, if you know what I mean. We just seem to be treading water. We aren’t getting anywhere.”
    “Rather like me and Emma.”
    “But good Lord, the two of you just had a baby!”
    “Sure. But in a strange way, it seems like that hasn’t made much of a difference in our relationship. No matter how odd that sounds. For example, Emma has a thousand arguments for why she doesn’t want us to move in together.”
    “You have to give her time. I’m sure you can see that. She had to split apart her whole family, and she has two other children to take into consideration. Plus the problem of working out everything with her ex. It’s not so strange that she can’t rush into anything. Elin is only a few weeks old, right?”
    “Yes, I can see that,” said Johan, disappointed that Pia wasn’t taking his side. He could have used a little support right now. He emptied his glass and stood up. “Would you like another?” he asked.
    “Sure.”
    There was a big crowd at the bar, and the volume of the music had been turned up full blast. Johan was enjoying being out on the town. Visby pulsed with life in the summer, and if he hadn’t been with Emma, he would have probably gone out every single evening. While he waited to order, he surveyed the bar.
    Suddenly he caught sight of someone he thought he recognized. The man was standing with his back to Johan, talking to a cute blonde who couldn’t have been more than twenty-five. She was laughing at him as she sipped at her glass, which seemed to contain a sparkling wine or possibly champagne. When the man clinked glasses with his young companion, he turned enough for Johan to see his profile.
    It was Staffan Mellgren.

SATURDAY, JULY 24
    THE NEXT DAY Staffan Mellgren stayed out at the excavation site for a long time. He had made a late night of it. He was hungover and tired, but he preferred to be at work instead of having to explain to Susanna why he had spent the night in town. Even though he suspected that she knew what he was up to and didn’t care in the least whether he saw other women, she still seemed to enjoy pretending just the opposite. She played the role of the gullible and wronged wife, just for the pleasure of seeing him suffer.
    In the car on his way home he called her, and, after the obligatory argument, she accepted his explanation that he’d had