Tomorrow she would return to the office. She made that decision on the spur of the moment—she could no longer sit here doing nothing. She was needed at the newspaper, and she needed distraction from the never-ending wait for something that might never come. In the event that something happened during the day, she could note it in the evening—the book project would proceed as a diary project. For her own sake, and for Erik’s.

The serial, however, would need to be drawn to a close before the summer ended. She needed to tie up the story somehow, so that any followers weren’t disappointed. But there was plenty of time to work out how—the readers had only just passed midsummer in the story.

Sandra fell to thinking about Kerstin. Despite the fact that four days had passed since Erik’s disappearance, Sandra hadn’t informed her about what had happened. Partly because she didn’t feel up to talking about it, but mostly because she felt in two minds about it all. On the one hand, they barely knew each other. She and Kerstin had never met. On the other hand, Kerstin knew more about Sandra—in some regards—than anyone else. Kerstin had been initiated into the project, and was helping with the fact-checking and other elements. Like finding the cash from the robbery.

Sandra was in a situation where she didn’t need to take anyone else into account, but she still had pangs of guilt when it came to Kerstin. She felt disloyal. Kerstin had nudged the door to her innermost self ajar, and was now letting Sandra write about it in the newspaper—possibly with legal consequences for Kerstin. During their calls, Sandra had been driven to explain that she had been raped and by whom. But that was it.

Their original relationship was built on unilateral trust, but it had developed into so much more. They were pursuing a project together, working towards the same goal. And Kerstin’s contribution was so great. If anyone had earned the right to her trust, it was Kerstin—Sandra owed her the full story, not just the crime report.

While Sandra was at home feeling depressed, Kerstin was out and about—together with her worst enemy—on the hunt for evidence for the investigation that would hopefully follow this entire episode. Completely ignorant of why Sandra hadn’t gotten in touch or why she was dismissive and curt when she had.

Sandra felt that she could no longer keep Kerstin in the dark about this. It hadn’t been a conscious choice from the beginning, and there was no particular reason to tell her now either, other than it being the right thing to do. And rather than sending a simplistic and unnuanced text message, she opted for the more personal approach: a phone call.

“How’s it going?” she asked. “Have you found anything?”