Was it that simple? Jeanette thought to herself. Some half-baked ideas about where the money might be, a couple of days’ searching, and they were safely into port. And with what, exactly? What was going to happen to the money? And to Jeanette?

But it had been pretty good fun while it lasted, she told herself as she dried her hands on her trousers. The search. Now it was over and everything would go back to the same old misery.

She didn’t get any further than that in her thoughts before she stopped mid-movement. She had taken one step towards the privy before spotting the headlights over by the drive up to the cabin. Then she heard the rumbling of the car engine through the din of the rain.

It was impossible. A car in the middle of the woods in this weather. At a hunting cabin no one had set foot in for ages. And just when they were engaged in what could only be described as a burglary, even if the intended loot wouldn’t be missed by anyone.

Jeanette had no intention of being discovered, so she took a step back and curled up behind the rainwater barrel. Things looked less good for Nanna, who had just cried out in joy over all the money she had found. It had to be assumed she didn’t want to go to prison either.

But there was still the hope that the driver of the car hadn’t heard Nanna’s joyous outburst through the noise of the rain on their windscreen and the engine—and maybe the air vents on full blast too. What seemed more troubling was that Nanna would wonder why Jeanette wasn’t answering, why she hadn’t come to her, and that she might come marching straight out of the privy with the two bags in her hands.

Which was tantamount to stepping straight into the spotlight cast by the car while holding six million kronor that could hardly be considered hers.

61. Kerstin

61

Kerstin

SHE MANAGED TO close the door just as quickly as she had opened it. With her disgusting gloves on, but still.

There was a car coming up the drive to the hunting cabin.

Given the speed with which she vanished back into the outbuilding, Kerstin didn’t manage to see the driver’s face behind the rain-spattered windscreen with its frenetic wipers working away. She hadn’t had time to think; all she had known was that this encounter was not allowed to happen.