Free Itsy Bitsy by John Ajvide Lindqvist Page A

where can she go?’
    They spent a couple of minutes reading the rest of the leaflet, and learned that the Aga aggregate had eventually been installed, that the lighthouse had been decommissioned in 1973 and had then been taken over by the Archipelago Foundation, which had put in a symbolic hundred-watt bulb. These days it ran on solar cells.
    They looked at the graffiti and established that at least one instance of sexual intercourse must have taken place on this floor, unless of course it was just a case of wishful thinking on the part of the writer. Then they gathered their things together and set off down the stairs. Cecilia had to take her time because of the palpitations, the pressure on her chest, and Anders waited for her.
    When they got outside there was no sign of Maja. The wind had started to get up and the snow was swirling through the air in thin veils, glittering in the sunlight. Anders closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. It had been a fantastic outing, but now it was time to go home.
    ‘Maaaja,’ he shouted. No reply. They walked around the lighthouse, looking out for her. The rock itself was only small, perhaps a hundred metres in circumference. There was no sign of Maja anywhere, and Anders gazed out across the ice. No small red figure.
    ‘ Maaaja! ’
    This time he shouted a little more loudly, and his heart began to beat a little more quickly. It was foolish, of course. There was no chance that she could have got lost here. He felt Cecilia’s hand on his shoulder. She was pointing down at the snow.
    ‘There are no tracks here.’
    There was a hint of unease in her voice too. Anders nodded. Of course. All they had to do was follow Maja’s tracks.
    They went back to where they’d started from, by the lighthouse door. Anders poked his head inside and shouted up the stairs, just in case Maja had come back and they hadn’t 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.
    ‘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