So Kerstin was of two minds. Jeanette was a human being made of flesh and blood who served as proof of humankind’s weaknesses. And who wasn’t weak? But there were still some limits. Jeanette probably had some fundamental values that were sensible, but unfortunately they were ones with very shallow roots. They had been torn out of the ground in a flash, along with Kerstin’s entire existence.

Just like Jeanette’s. Yet another mitigating circumstance. The question, however, was whether Karl-Erik’s death or the loss of her lover had caused Jeanette the most harm. The answer was pretty obvious. Which meant that loathing for Jeanette and her thoughtless self-absorption once again washed over Kerstin.

That was the course of her thoughts, ebbing and flowing between extremes. One moment she felt sympathy for Jeanette, the next outright hatred.

Nevertheless, Jeanette was surrounded by friends for the time being, so Kerstin didn’t have to engage. Instead, she studied her from a distance, while thoughts gnawed away inside her head.

After the conversation with Sandra, the picture had become even clearer. Jeanette was really only a minor character in the whole thing, but still an important one who could have changed the outcome of everything. Jeanette had been there when the opportunity had been presented not only to save Karl-Erik’s life, but also to put Jan Hallin behind bars for rape, drunk driving, manslaughter, and committing a hit-and-run. Which in the long term would have saved her lover’s life. When it came to that, Kerstin also felt a pang of guilty conscience, given that the murder of Peter Norling wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t tried to blackmail Hallin. He was the natural enemy in the whole affair. His crimes were so grave that they could put him away for many years—maybe even life. And even though she had known so much about him for such a long time, it was Sandra—someone she had never met and didn’t even know the age of—who had come up with the plan that would finally see him caught.

That was what they were hoping, anyway, even if they would doubtless encounter a number of tricky obstacles along the way: the burden of proof, a lack of witnesses, the ravages of time, and Hallin’s good reputation and wide network of contacts, to name but a few. The project made Kerstin feel quite exhilarated, and although she had something to lose, she was all in.

The compliancy that had characterised everything that had followed that fateful afternoon in January 2014 was regrettable. Jeanette, who hadn’t dared to say no, call an ambulance, or contact the police; Sandra, who hadn’t dared to report the rape to the police; and Kerstin herself, who hadn’t had the courage to get the police involved when her husband had disappeared on a well-marked stretch of road.