That tormented her now. The worst possible thing had happened to him, and instead of being grateful for all the joy and pleasure he had brought her, and remembering him with the respect and sorrow that he deserved as the upstanding person he had been, she had felt sorry for herself and thrown her life away.

It was when that insight hit her that the grief washed over her. The pure, unadulterated emotion, that reminded her of joy, despite the tears streaming down her cheeks. And it had been a long time since Jeanette had been happy. She was thinking that to herself as she got out of bed and went to the bathroom cabinet.

42. Sandra

42

Sandra

THE REST OF Midsummer’s Eve passed without incident, and Sandra and Erik spent the night at her parents’ once again. Erik was going to spend the whole weekend there while Sandra was working. That was the excuse she had used. She blamed the fact that lots of her colleagues were on holiday over the Midsummer weekend, which was partially true but not the whole truth. Granted, she had accepted a temporary management position until the end of July at the expense of some holiday, but that didn’t mean she had to work night and day for another five weeks. Sandra had other things to fill her time with, but her parents didn’t need to know about that.

Hallin wasn’t going to get away with his clumsy attempts to scare her into silence. Eventually, he would be forced to pay the child support that enraged him so much—there was no doubt about that—but first she wanted to give him a chance to admit his crime by doing the right thing without getting the authorities involved. In other words, she wanted to frighten Hallin into obedience at the same time that he was trying to scare her into silence. It was certainly an interesting form of limbo they had ended up in. And the provocative spate of veiled threats merely spurred her on.

Now she had the phone in her hand and was going to exchange a few words with Mrs. Hallin for the first time. Sandra was utterly convinced that a move like that would be frightening enough—she wouldn’t need to go any further than that in her first step. If Hallin picked up then she would fake a wrong number. It turned out not to be necessary.

“Gunilla Hallin,” said the voice on the other end of the line.

“Hi, my name is Sandra. I’m currently in discussions with your husband about child support payments for a little boy who is living in very modest circumstances.”

“That’s interesting,” Gunilla Hallin said. “And pretty typical of Jan, as well!”