“Consider this cash as evidence,” said Sandra. “As the background to a sequence of dramatic events. You’ll have to decide yourselves how to respond to them. They’re all described in this document, which also contains the as-yet unpublished conclusion to the summer serial in Gotlands Allehanda.”

Now she let the manuscript drop onto the table: a printed copy of all the words and sentences that comprised the story of the fateful events forever binding together Sandra, Kerstin, and the destinies of several others. The police around them—ten or so by this point—exchanged looks, unclear whether to be taken aback at the workload or to look forward to getting stuck into the thick bundle of prose.

“Here’s the mobile that has photos from the hit-and-run at the ravine in Madvar,” Sandra continued. “That’s evidence too. And here’s a document that sets out the real details that I’ve disguised in the serial. It includes names, ages, years, dates, times, weather, places, car brands, professions, modus operandi, and so on. You’ll find everything that you need to proceed all set out nicely.”

There was a murmur spreading among the police now, which gradually rose and became an expectant hubbub while the mobile was examined, the bags opened, and the manuscript thumbed through.

It suddenly felt very good to see the police officers’ reactions to the handover, and it was no use denying that Kerstin felt a certain pride at having been involved in the work that had gone into that thick document. She had obtained redress of sorts for Karl-Erik, and perhaps even for herself. Despite what it had cost her. And what it might cost her in the future.

INGENIOUS UNMASKING OF MURDERER AND KIDNAPPER WITH A STARRING ROLE FOR GOTLANDS ALLEHANDA

A 52-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of abduction, attempted murder, and murder. The kidnapping of three-year-old Erik has been resolved thanks to the popular summer serial “Black Ice.” The author is anonymous, but is responsible for a number of revelations that eventually led the police to the guilty party.

The boy went missing without a trace on the last Friday of June during a kindergarten outing to the idyllic Furulundsskogen woods just outside Visby. The woman, who works in the healthcare sector, is thought to have seized the boy in an unguarded moment, drugged him, and transported him to a property in the east of Gotland. He is thought to have been held captive there for a period of four days in a subterranean space, and this is now being classified as attempted murder.

Thanks to thorough groundwork by the author of the serial and the woman who eventually found the missing boy, the police have been handed photographic evidence uncovering the woman’s guilt in the kidnapping drama.