Harbour Read Online Free PDF

heard her. No reply.
    The area around the door was covered in footprints made by all of them, but there were no tracks leading off to the right or left. Anders took a few steps down the rock. He could see their own tracks leading up towards the lighthouse from the ice, and Maja’s footprints heading off in the opposite direction.
    He stared out over the ice. No Maja. He blinked, rubbed his eyes. She couldn’t have gone far enough to be out of sight. The contours of Domarö merged with those of the mainland, a thicker line of charcoal above a thinner one. He turned to face the other way, catching Cecilia’s expression: concentrated, tense.
    There was no sign of their daughter in the opposite direction either.
    Cecilia passed him on her way out on to the ice. She was walking with her head down, following the tracks with her eyes.
    â€˜I’ll check inside the lighthouse,’ Anders shouted. ‘She must be hiding or something.’
    He ran over to the door and up the stairs, shouting for Maja but getting no reply. His heart was pounding now and he tried to calm himself down, to be cool and clear-headed.
    It just isn’t possible.
    It’s always possible.
    No, it isn’t. Not here. There’s nowhere she can be.
    Exactly.
    Stop it. Stop it.
    Hide and seek was Maja’s favourite game. She was good at finding places to hide. Although she could be over-excited and eager in other situations, when she was playing hide and seek she could keep quiet and still for any length of time.
    He walked up the stairs with his arms outstretched, stooping like a monkey so that his fingers brushed the edges where the staircase met the wall. In case she’d fallen. In case she was lying in the darkness where he couldn’t see her.
    In case she’d fallen and banged her head, in case she…
    But he felt nothing, saw nothing.
    He searched the room at the top of the stairs, found two cupboards that were too narrow for Maja to be able to hide in. Opened them anyway. Inside were rusty, unidentifiable metal parts, bottles with hand-written labels. No Maja.
    He went over to the door leading to the upper tower, closed his eyes for a couple of seconds before he went inside.
    She’s up there now. That’s where she is. We’ll go home and we’ll file this with all those other times she’s disappeared for a while and then come back.
    Next to the staircase was a system of weights and chains, the cupboard containing the light’s mechanism secured with a padlock. He tugged at it and established that it was locked, that Maja couldn’t be in there. He went slowly up the stairs, calling her name. No reply. There was a rushing sound in his ears now, and his legs felt weak.
    He reached the room containing the reflector. No Maja.
    Barely half an hour ago he had photographed her here. Now there was no trace of her. Nothing. He screamed, ‘ Maaaajaaaa! Out you come! This isn’t funny any more!’
    The sound was absorbed by the narrow room, making the glass vibrate.
    He walked all the way around the room, looked out across the ice. Far below he could see Cecilia following the track that had led them here. But the red snowsuit was nowhere to be seen. He was gasping for air. His tongue was sticking to his palate. This was impossible. This couldn’t be happening. Desperately he stared out across the ice in every direction.
    Where is she? Where is she?
    He could just hear the sound of Cecilia’s voice shouting the same thing as he had shouted so many times. She got no reply either.
    Think, you idiot. Think.
    He looked out across the ice again. There was nothing to interrupt his gaze, no cover at all. If there had been holes in the ice, they would have been visible. However good you are at hiding, you still have to have a place to hide.
    He stopped. His eyes narrowed. He could hear Maja’s voice inside his head.
    Daddy, what’s that?
    He went over to the spot where she had been