Six months of events pass through her mind. The picture of the defiant schoolgirl in the yearbook, the only one not smiling. Sexually abused by her father. Jeanette has seen the film of the assault at the boarding school in Sigtuna.
Jeanette remembers Victoria’s voice on the phone.
‘Yes,’ she replies after a few moments’ reflection.
Gamla Enskede – Kihlberg House
BY THE TIME Hurtig drives Jeanette out to Gamla Enskede, the weather from Lapland has reached Stockholm and it starts to snow.
She hasn’t told Hurtig about the bank transactions. And she hasn’t told him about Victoria Bergman either.
She needs to think.
Probably for quite some time.
If things are the way she imagines, she might never tell anyone.
They sit in silence the whole way, and part with a hug. Large, light snow-stars are drifting across the street like cotton wool as she gets out of the car.
She empties the mailbox of its advertisements and bills, and as she walks round the hedge and enters the drive she sees something that erases any last traces of doubt.
A brand-new Audi is parked in front of the garage.
The same shade of red as the one she recently sent to be scrapped.
Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg stands beside the car for a long time. She feels drained of all rational thought, and when she finally reacts, it comes in the form of a smile.
Then relief.
A wonderful, liberating sense of relief.
In another time, another place, she has time to think before her mobile vibrates.
A text from Johan, saying that they’ve landed, and that the first thing ?ke did was call Alexandra and argue about money he hasn’t received.
After she’s read it she notices that she’s received another message without realising it. Probably while they were on their way back from ?nge.
It’s a message from Sofia.
Sorry, it says.
It’s always too late, Jeanette thinks.