“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “If Axel was working for you, why would he give Danilo up to the police?”

“Why isn’t your problem.”

“But it has become yours.”

“More of Anders’s problem.”

Jana took a step forward, tried to relax her body, but the aggression held her in an iron grip. She lowered her head.

“You know it’s over now, Father.”

“Why is that? What are you intending to do?” he asked calmly.

“You know what I have to do.”

His look darkened. “If you report me,” he said, “you’ll never see your boxes again. You’ll never touch your journals. Never. And you’ll never know whose hands they might end up in.”

His voice was clear and distinct. She saw how he clenched his fists and felt the room fill with his suppressed fury.

“Do you hear me?” he said loudly, rushing her, grabbing her arm and shoving her into the wall. He stood so close to her that she could feel his breath on her face.

Jana nodded and whispered, “Yes.”

“Answer so I can hear you!”

“Yes.”

Then he struck her. The blow landed on her cheek.

“Answer me!”

When he held up his hand to hit her again, she raised her arm and blocked the blow. He first reacted with surprise, then increased rage. He raised his hand again, but now she gripped his wrist, twisting his arm, twisting hard.

Without blinking.

“Yes,” she hissed at him. “I understand.”

He tried to say something. She saw it in his eyes. Let go!

But she squeezed even harder.

Let go, let go!

He said it, pleading, begging, but she wouldn’t let go.

He doubled over, huddled up, sat there, miserable, old and gray.

Only when the doorbell rang did she let him go. Then she looked away from her father.

All this took only one single second. But it was enough.

* * *

He heard the doorbell ring inside the house and pushed the button again and again. He took a few steps backward, looking up at the window of the upper level. She was in there—Per Åström was sure of it.

He had seen her car in the driveway. He’d gotten out of the taxi and asked the driver to wait, then walked cautiously through the snow. Now he tried to calm himself, tried to breathe rhythmically, tried not to seem like a crazy person who had been searching for her, stalking her.

Nothing was actually suspect or out of the ordinary, really. Jana’s car being parked at her parents’ house was completely normal.

Yet he felt very anxious for her. He pressed the doorbell again.

Snowflakes landed on his face and jacket, making his bare hands cold.

No one came to open the door.

He left the front door and walked around the house, surveying, searching around the yard and patio and looking in the windows again.