CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
IT SEEMED LIKE Lena Wikström was still in pain. She pressed her right hand against her kidney and glared at Jana Berzelius who was standing in front of her with the loaded gun. She had stood there a long time, her eyes just staring.
“The necklace,” Jana whispered.
She was suddenly hit by the incredible force of a memory. With a girl, a boy and a woman. The woman had a gun and she and the boy threw themselves backward. He got a firm hold of the woman’s arm and twisted it to make her drop the gun. A shot went off. The sound echoed between the trees.
The woman shrieked with pain when the boy forced her arm back.
The girl got hold of the gun and immediately pointed it at the woman. Then she saw the boy sink down on the grass. He had been hit.
And the girl...was me.
It was me!
Jana felt dizzy and had to hold on to the kitchen table to support herself.
“Hades,” she said slowly.
Lena gasped.
“You! You killed him!” said Jana. “I saw it. You killed him right in front of my eyes!”
Lena was silent, her eyes turned into narrow slits and she examined Jana from top to toe.
“Who are you?” she then said.
Jana’s hands started to shake. The gun vibrated. She held it in both hands to keep it still, to keep her aim on Lena.
“Who are you?” Lena repeated. “You can’t be the person I think you are.”
“Who do you think I am?”
“Ker?”
Jana nodded.
“It can’t be true...” said Lena. “It can’t be.”
“You killed him!”
“He isn’t dead. Who has said he’s dead?”
“But I saw it—”
“Don’t believe everything you see,” Lena cut her off.
“You know what’s inside those containers, don’t you?” Jana said slowly.
“Yes. You ought to know too,” said Lena.
“Tell me!” said Jana.
“You don’t know? Can’t you remember?”
“Tell me what was in them!” Jana insisted.
Lena got up with some effort from the floor, sighed heavily and sat with her back against the kitchen cupboards.
“Nothing remarkable...”
Lena winced with pain, pulled up her sweater and looked at the red mark that Jana’s blow had left.
“Go on!” Jana said.
“About what?”
“What was in them? Narcotics?”
“Narcotics?” said Lena. She looked with surprise at Jana and smiled.
“Yes, exactly,” she said and nodded. “That’s right, narcotics. We...”
“Which we! Tell me!”
“Pah, there isn’t so much to tell...it started mainly by chance, one could say, but then it got more...organized.”
“Do you know why I have a name carved on my neck?”
Lena didn’t answer.
“Tell me!”
Jana took a step forward and pointed the gun right at Lena’s head. Lena played it cool and shrugged her shoulders. “It was his idea. Not mine. I had nothing to do with it. I just...helped a little.”
“Who is he? Tell me!” screamed Jana.
“Never,” said Lena.
“Tell me!”
“No! Never, never, never!”
Jana held the gun in a new grasp. “And Thomas Rydberg, what did he do?” she said.
“He knew when the containers were on their way. Then he informed me. First by calling, later by sending me a message. Stupid, really.”
Lena took a deep breath.
“But he paid well,” she said.
“Who? Thomas? Who paid well?”
Jana suddenly heard the sound of a car braking.
“Are you expecting anybody?”
Lena shook her head.
“Get up. Be quick! Up!” Jana ordered when she heard car doors slamming. She held the gun against the back of Lena’s head and pushed her toward the window.
“Who is it?”
“The police!”
“The police?” Jana thought. What are they doing here? What do they know?
She bit her lip. They must immediately leave the house. But what should she do with Lena? She smothered a vengeful impulse to kill her. Killing Lena was of course absurd. Lena was an important source and for the moment she was the only one who could say who was responsible for everything that had happened and why. But what should she do? Tie her up? Leave her be? Knock her unconscious?
Jana swore to herself. She put her hand into her pocket and pulled out Thomas Rydberg’s phone and placed it in front of Lena.
“Using texts these days isn’t stupid at all,” she said. “In fact it was extremely well done. Do you know what this is? It’s Thomas Rydberg’s cell.”
“Why have you got it?”
“That doesn’t matter, but now I know how to get rid of it.”
Jana nodded to Lena.
“Move!”
Footsteps could be heard outside the door.
Jana held the gun pointed at the back of Lena’s head and pushed her toward the bedroom.
When she saw the open suitcase on the bed, she told Lena to sit down next to it. She wiped the mobile and pressed Lena’s fingers on it.
“What are you doing? What do you think you’re doing!?”
She put the mobile in the suitcase.
“The police are here. You will confess everything to them. That it was you who was behind the murder of Hans Juhlén and Thomas Rydberg.”
“You’re crazy. Never.”
“I see you’ve got children. Grandchildren too. I shall kill them, one for each day that passes, until you confess.”
“You can’t do this!”
“Oh yes, I can. And you know I can.”
“It won’t end here. It will never end. Never!”
“Yes, it will.”
“You’ll get caught for this! I’ll make sure you’re caught, Jana, just so you know!”
“You know what? I don’t think anybody will suspect a prosecutor. And as for that, you and I will meet in court. In about two weeks I’ll charge you for murder. Murder gives the highest penalty in Sweden. So, yes, it will end here. It’s over. For you, Lena.”
When there was a ring on the door, Jana left the bedroom.
She silently unlocked the back door. The garden was embedded in a darkness that embraced her when she stepped out.