Ethan said, “But he was adamant—”
“He didn’t know where she was, but with the right prompting he knew where to look.”
Debbie looked more confused than he’d ever seen her as she said, “Why would she go to Sweden? It’s such a long way.”
“There are two separate issues here. I do believe that Hailey thought she was in danger. They hacked into Gibson’s network and they were convinced that they were being watched, and even followed, as a result.”
“I said it all along,” said Debbie. “The note. She said it wasn’t a good idea to stay here.”
Finn took a deep breath. “True, but it also has to be said that the perceived threat did play into Hailey’s hands, and gave her the excuse to do something she’d been thinking about anyway. You see, at some point in the past weeks or months, Hailey struck up a friendship online with a boy in Uppsala.”
Finn had already lied to them a couple of times, but now Ethan picked up the danger signals and said, “When you say a boy, do you know how old he is?”
Finn shook his head. “He’s a university student, but I’m afraid Hailey, in her online profile, also claims to be a university student. It explains the change of image, and whilst I know it won’t make you any less uncomfortable, it looks like the young man in question has no idea that Hailey is only fifteen.”
Ethan jumped up. “We have to call the police. Or the Stockholm police.” He looked at his watch, his thought processes painfully visible.
“Ethan, please.” He gestured with his hand for Ethan to sit again, which he did. “Hailey has been there for at least a couple of days, so calling the police now isn’t . . . it isn’t going to prevent anything happening. I’m not sure what the law is in Sweden, but you could also get this young guy into a whole load of trouble.”
“Good. The bastard deserves everything he gets.”
“The bastard has a name—Anders Tilberg—and chances are he’s been duped by your daughter.” Ethan looked ready to object, but Finn took on a different tone. “Which is something else to consider. Again, I don’t know the law in Sweden, so I don’t know if getting the police involved would lead to them taking action against Hailey.”
“She’d never forgive us, anyway,” said Debbie, suddenly coming back to herself, composed. “I think it best that this be done discreetly and with dignity. We have to bring her back, but that will be fraught enough without turning it into a public spectacle.”
“I’ve booked myself on a lunchtime flight tomorrow.”
Debbie accepted the fact without question, saying only, “We’ll reimburse all your expenses, naturally.”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
As if the husband and wife had swapped roles, it was Ethan who was struggling now, saying, “Just a minute, Finn, we really appreciate your help but I don’t get this. Why would you fly to Sweden? She’s our daughter—we’ll go get her.”
Finn nodded, accepting his point. Debbie looked between the two men, and Finn sensed she preferred his own plan, but he would still play safe, still tell them the truth.
“You could. I don’t know where Anders lives but I know where they’re all going for dinner tomorrow night. I could argue that it would be less of an ordeal for her if an intermediary turned up, but I’ll be straight with you—I have an ulterior motive. Apparently, Hailey has a memory stick with her, containing all the information they copied from Gibson’s network.” They both looked at him intently now. “Jonas didn’t have a copy but he made a few notes, which he showed me. It seems Gibson was running a surveillance operation and the subject was me.”
They stared in silence for so long that he wondered if either of them would speak, but then Ethan said, “I don’t . . . Gibson . . . He lived here for a year.”
“I know, and possibly the woman who was here before him, too.”
Debbie said, “So Adrienne was right—you were a spy.”
“That’s a rather emotive word, and Adrienne was guessing, as it happens. But yes, I worked in intelligence.”
“Doing what? Why would they have you under surveillance all these years later?”
“I’m hoping the memory stick will give me the answer to that question. But you have to understand that I can’t tell you any more than that. I’ve already told you more than I should have done.”
Once again, he was reminded how pointlessly he’d played the hollow man these last six years. Adrienne, to her credit, had seen through his backstory from the start, and yet he’d continued to lie even to her, perhaps in part so that he could avoid having to tell her bigger lies about his reasons for leaving.