Anneli had gone through more phases of shock and realization over the past hour than in all her adult life.
If she had arrived at Sandalsparken just a few minutes earlier, it would all have been over. She would have been caught red-handed in Denise’s apartment and arrested.
She had been only seconds away from getting out of her car when the police car with the two detectives pulled up in front of her. Anneli slouched down in her seat and watched their every move. At first they stopped in front of the neighboring apartment as if they were going to enter, but then they changed their minds and knocked on the door of the girls’ apartment, shouting something through the mail slot and tapping on the window. It looked odd and somehow also very unsettling.
What did they suspect? That the girls were guilty of robbery and murder? But how could they know? Or were they there because they wanted to question someone? Perhaps they had discovered that Michelle had been living there; you could never know. The girl might have had a receipt or a telephone number on her that indirectly led them to the apartment. But then why did they give up and disappear into the other apartment? How did that fit in?
As the men finally left the building and walked a few meters past her car, she held her breath. And when the tallest man, the one who looked Caucasian, turned his head and looked directly at her through the car window, she thought he would stop. That he would ask her why she was still there. She pretended to be asleep, and he seemed to buy that.
She saw everything from behind her sunglasses. And when the cops finally left, she saw the curtain in the girls’ apartment move and a face peeping out. So Anneli took off her sunglasses, but because of the distance she couldn’t quite make out if it was Jazmine. However, the way the face at the window jumped backward, as if something had scared her, left little doubt. Jazmine probably wasn’t sure who or what she had seen, but she knew that Anneli drove a Ka because she had told her so herself.
Anneli weighed the situation. Jazmine had not wanted to reveal herself to the police. But had they been foiled, or were they on their way to get reinforcements or whatever it was called?
Sensing that she didn’t have much time, Anneli quickly got out of the car. Fate had helped her many times before, so she certainly wasn’t going to second-guess it now.
She would have run directly from the stairwell up onto the walkway, but there was a woman checking her mailbox, and who knew if she was on her way up or down. If she went up onto the walkway, Anneli had better wait until the coast was clear.
So Anneli walked straight through the entrance hall and out the back door that led to the large communal grass area between the two blocks.
Just as she walked out, she saw a suitcase lying on the grass with its contents spread everywhere. Anneli dashed out onto the lawn and looked up at the girls’ apartment. She wasn’t surprised when she saw a makeshift rope of sheets swaying from the balcony.
Anneli looked all around and finally caught sight of a slim woman running as fast as she could at the far left end of the block.
There was no doubt in her mind that it was Jazmine. She dressed and moved exactly like that. It was a perfect match. Anneli cursed her own carelessness and ran back to her car as fast as her unfit body allowed.
She’s on her way down to the station, she thought, knowing each twist and turn of the road, because that was where she had killed Michelle.
She saw Jazmine a few hundred meters in front of her, almost in the same spot where Michelle had met her end. But this time the sidewalk was not quite as deserted as last time. A group of rowdy young men were leaving the station. They were already in full summer mood, walking along with their jackets swinging on their shoulders and beers in hand. It would be impossible to drive into Jazmine here.
But that wasn’t her intention.
Anneli rummaged for Denise’s pistol in her bag and sped up when she found it. In front of her, the young boys started shoving one another playfully, and then suddenly cut over the grass, kicking some of the beer cans on their way.
A second later, Anneli drove past Jazmine and hit the brakes hard ten meters in front of her. She reached straight over to the passenger door and flung it open.
Jazmine looked completely defeated when she saw Denise’s pistol pointing directly at her.
“We need to talk, Jazmine,” said Anneli as she stepped out onto the pavement. “I have Denise at my place, and as you can see I’m in possession of her pistol. And now I really want to get to the bottom of what you’ve started.”
She gestured to Jazmine to get in the car.
“Get in!” she ordered.
Jazmine transformed into a completely different girl from the contemptuous brat who had not long ago sat backstabbing Anneli in the waiting room, calling her a cow and a ridiculous ugly bitch. A very different girl from the one who used to challenge her in her own office.
“I haven’t done anything to you,” said the girl in a subdued voice next to her. But Anneli turned the car around and drove back toward the parking area at Sandalsparken.
“I don’t think for a second that you have, Jazmine, but now we’ll drive back to the apartment and get your suitcase. Then we’ll go and put the kettle on and get to the bottom of this before we go and get Denise, okay?”
Jazmine shook her head. “I don’t want to go back to that place.”
“Well, now I’m the one who decides. So you can protest all you like.”
“I didn’t do anything. It was Denise,” she whispered, rather unmotivated. Anneli wasn’t quite sure what she was hinting at, but it didn’t matter.
“Of course it was Denise, Jazmine,” she answered diplomatically. “After all, I am your caseworker, so it shouldn’t surprise you that I know you both well.”
The girl was about to say something else but stopped herself, and Anneli didn’t give a damn anyway. In ten minutes, the world would be rid of her.
—
Jazmine stopped on the walkway a few meters from the door.
“I don’t know how we’ll get in,” she said very convincingly. “I climbed down from the balcony and the door is locked. The key is inside the apartment.”
Anneli looked suspiciously at her. Was she pulling her leg?
“We’ll have to go somewhere else. Can’t we drive to your place?”
Was she trying to win time, or was it true? After all, Anneli had seen that the key was not in the suitcase when they had picked it up along with all the clothes.