She felt the helicopter make a sharp turn to the left. It sunk down, rocking gently.

“We’re here,” she heard through her headset.

The helicopter’s spotlight illuminated a boathouse. Mia turned in both directions, looking out through the helicopter’s windows, but she saw no movement on the ground.

They climbed up again.

Then she saw something near the pier, someone moving in the water.

“There,” Mia yelled. “I see a person there! We have to land!”

“But we can’t land here. We have to find a better place.”

Mia heard the rumbling from the engine. As they ascended again, she felt suddenly alone. All of the other operations she’d been part of had been with Henrik. And it was always Henrik in command. Now the responsibility was on her.

And maybe now was the time for her to take the opportunity to stand out.

Show what she was made of.

Especially if she could close the whole case. Especially if she could do it entirely herself.

She got ready as they sank down on a white field. The snow was swept away. The helicopter hovered, sinking slowly and then standing still, softly rocking. She immediately unlatched her seat belt, but she was told to stay in the helicopter until the engine had stopped.

Then she ran, crouched against the wind, ran as fast as she could over the cliffs and down to the boathouse.

Chapter Thirty-Six

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

THE SOUND FROM the helicopter had stopped, and silence enveloped Jana Berzelius and Danilo Peña.

For a second, it seemed to her that they were alone in an icy emptiness. Panting and trembling, surrounded by whirling, whipping snow.

“Why are you saying that? Why can’t you kill me?” she said, feeling the pulsing pain in her head.

“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” he said, coughing. A string of viscous blood ran out of his mouth.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

He coughed again. Warm, steaming blood ran from his body. He was breathing far too quickly, and Jana knew he was close to losing consciousness.

“Killing is the only thing you can do,” she said.

“Killing isn’t particularly hard. What’s hard is not doing it.”

She saw the streak of blood trickle along the veins that were tight in his neck. She saw that he was suffering.

“I still don’t understand,” she said, forced to close her eyes for a moment because of the pain in her head.

“Everything I’ve done...has been to protect you.”

She shook her head and looked at him.

“No,” she said. “Don’t even try. You’re lying.”

“Think about it, Jana!”

“No,” she said. “I don’t want to hear it.”

But he continued.

“I could have killed you in Knäppingsborg, do you remember? But I didn’t do it, did I?”

“No, you couldn’t. There was a witness, whom you clearly were forced to kill.”