As some kind of initial first step in her terror campaign, she had been planning to tell his wife about that brief and transient moment of infidelity. He had told her from the start that this would be no use—since Jan and his wife kept no secrets from each other. It was the truth, albeit modified, but Gunilla undeniably knew most of what had happened that afternoon with Sandra.

What was worse was that in the heat of the moment, he had also dropped some comment along the lines that things hadn’t gone well for the last person who had tried to blackmail him. It seemed stupidly premeditated now that the bitch was writing a book in which he was accused of murder. As a guy who murdered blackmailers, to be precise.

But that statement hadn’t had the intended effect either—soon enough this Sandra had made good on her threat to get his wife involved. The sexual act itself hadn’t been news to Gunilla, but the fact that it had resulted in a child was something she hadn’t taken as well as Jan had hoped she would. She had been very upset, and even though she hadn’t had the slightest desire to serve up almost seven hundred thousand kronor, she had stepped up to defend Sandra and made Jan feel ashamed.

So much so that he had been forced to admit to himself that he actually wanted the boy gone from the face of the earth. So that he didn’t have to deal with paternity tests, demands for child support payments, and rape reports, and all that this involved. And all the other misery that as sure as fate would come along too.

But now, with something akin to an answer key in her hands, it was the mother of the brat who seemed to be the biggest threat. Who would have guessed she would write a book about what had happened more than four years ago? That she would have such an improbable amount of knowledge about what had happened even after the so-called rape that she could write a whole fucking book about it? A book that was being serialised in Gotlands Allehanda? And all while she was still nagging at him for the bloody child support, threatening him with this and that. When the worst that could happen was already happening—he was being dragged through the mud in public, being pilloried before all of Gotland.

The very fact that she had the stomach to do it—it made him feel sick just thinking about it. He wished so hard that he had spotted that serial while it was still in its infancy.

The widespread public interest in the publication would probably get the odd police officer and prosecutor to raise their eyebrows, and soon enough the circus would be in full flow. Which would inevitably result in a personal catastrophe for Jan.