Never before had Selma Falck come across such a good liar as Jan Morell. He was even better than she was.

‘I see,’ she said. ‘If you think of anything, give me a call.’

She stood up. The bags of peas fell off. When she bent down to pick them up from the floor, it hurt her right hand so much that she wondered if she’d broken something.

‘Let me get them,’ Jan said. ‘Do you really mean it? That it’s all just window dressing? That Hege’s been sabotaged in order to damage me? Are we talking about some sort of revenge, then? Some kind of …’

‘See you later,’ Selma broke in, as she headed for the door.

‘Someone like that would have to be mad,’ Jan said as he helped her on with her jacket. ‘Totally mad!’

‘Let’s hope you’re wrong,’ Selma replied curtly, opening the front door. ‘Let’s hope, sincerely and wholeheartedly, that you’re wrong, Jan.’

EINAR FALSEN

‘There are so many gypsies here,’ Einar whispered.

He was well hidden inside his sleeping bag, nestled in a hollow surrounded by four boulders, when Selma arrived.

‘It’s swarming with them!’

‘Not at all,’ Selma said quietly. ‘There are no Roma people here now. None at all. Just you and me.’

‘And loads of gypsies.’

He seemed terrified. The stink was worse than ever, and the hole left by the recently disappeared canine tooth was almost certainly infected. The distinct swelling and his sickly breath indicated that he ought to see a dentist pronto.

That was not going to happen, as Selma well knew.

‘Let’s sit you up a bit,’ she said, taking hold of his armpits.

‘They’re coming! They want my space. The gypsies are going to kill me, Selma.’

‘Look what I’ve got for you, Einar!’

She didn’t like giving him alcohol, and did so very seldom, but she always had a hip flask of Brandy Special in her handbag. To be on the safe side. For occasions such as this. Brandy Special was what he always wanted. Never anything else.

She opened the flask and held it out to him. His hands were shaking when he grasped it. Guided it to his mouth. Drank. He drained the flask, with brief pauses in between times. Neither of them spoke until he finally returned it with a groan.

‘Good, Mariska. That did me good. Can I have some more?’

‘No. Lie down now.’

He lay back between the rocks.

‘They’ll take me,’ he whimpered. ‘Go away!’

His arms were waving in the air.

‘I’ll look after you, Einar.’

‘Will you?’

‘Yes, I’ll sit here and watch over you. You need to sleep.’

‘You can borrow my Nille blanket. The light-blue one. I haven’t used it, so it doesn’t smell too bad. Here …’

He tried again to scramble up into a sitting position.

‘I’ll sort it myself, Einar. You get some sleep. I’ll stay.’