“I could have killed you long before...before he showed up...”

She looked straight out toward the rough sea and thought about their encounter at the entrance to Knäppingsborg. Was he telling the truth?

His body was shaking and tears were running down his face. She knew he wasn’t crying; the tears were from the pain.

“Where are my boxes?” she asked quietly.

“Boxes?” he repeated.

“You took my boxes, left a sketch so that I would know that it was you who’d been there.”

He was blinking constantly, as if he were trying to focus his eyes, and she felt a terrible chill when she suddenly realized the truth.

“You don’t have them?”

“Who the hell cares about some fucking boxes?”

“I do.”

“They must be valuable.”

“No, but the contents are.”

She was breathing quickly. The question was on the tip of her tongue, but she hesitated, not knowing if she wanted to know the answer.

Danilo’s body was still. From his mouth came small, quick bursts of air.

“So why are you protecting me?” she asked.

“I’m not the one protecting you.”

He moved his arm, clenching his jaw, and took something from his pocket and stretched out his closed fist. She held out her trembling hand and accepted her glittering, glimmering necklace, read the initials and slowly began to understand. Everything that had happened to her fell apart, piece by piece, in small individual events, illuminated by an icy, cold blue light.

She stood with great effort, feeling the pain in her head.

“Jana,” he said. “You can’t leave me here...”

He spoke slowly and quietly. His face was covered in beads of sweat, his lips blue and stiff.

She raised her eyes and saw small beams of light creeping between the tree trunks. She bent down, picked up the knife and fastened it at the small of her back.

“Jana! You have to help me get away from here.”

“You knew that the police were coming here. Someone tipped you off, right? That’s why you pushed Isra into the water. You wanted to hide your tracks and run away.”

Danilo clenched his jaws.

“Help me into the boat,” he pleaded.

“No. I can’t let you disappear again,” she said.

“I’m not going to make it. Help me.”

She looked at him for a long time, thinking that he didn’t have much time left, that maybe it was better to end everything, right here and now.

But he was in an out-of-the-way place, and when the police found him, it’d already be too late.

She began to walk away.

“Jana,” he said. “Wait!”

“No,” she said.

“I protected you!”

“I know,” she said, turning around. “But I’m a prosecutor. I protect victims, not perpetrators.”

She increased her pace, heard him yell something, but his voice disappeared in the wind.