Camilla Läckberg - The Stone Cutter

It took another moment before Mary spoke. 'No, I haven't read them. And don't call me "darling",' she said, then waited with curiosity for the reply. She was no longer afraid of the woman facing her. The monster inside her had gradually devoured that fear as the hatred had grown. With so much hatred there was no room for fear.

Agnes couldn't pass up such a splendid opportunity for a dramatic scene.

'You didn't read them!' she shrieked. 'Here I sit locked up while you're out running loose and having fun and God knows what else, and the only joy I have is to know that my dear daughter is reading the letters I spend so many hours writing. And I never got a single letter from you or a single telephone call in four years!' Agnes was now sobbing loudly, but no tears came. They would wreck her perfect eyeliner.

'Why did you do it?' asked Mary quietly.

Agnes abruptly stopped crying. With great composure she took out a cigarette and carefully lit it. After taking a few deep drags she replied with the same ghastly calm, 'Because he betrayed me. He thought he could leave me.'

'Couldn't you simply have let him go?' Mary leaned forward so she wouldn't miss a word. She had gone over this topic so many times in her mind that now she didn't want to risk missing even a syllable.

'No man leaves me,' Agnes said. 'I did what I had to do.' Then she shifted her cold glance to Mary and added, 'You know all about that, don't you?'

Mary averted her eyes. The monster inside her stirred restlessly. She said curtly, 'I want you to sign over the house in Fjällbacka to me. I'm thinking of moving there.'

Agnes looked as though she wanted to protest, but Mary hastened to add, 'If you want to have any contact with me in future, then you'll do as I say. If you sign over the house to me, I promise I'll read your letters and write to you.'

Agnes hesitated, so Mary quickly continued, 'I'm the only person you have left now. That may not be much, but I'm still the only one you have.'

For a few unbearably long seconds Agnes weighed the pros and cons, evaluating what would benefit her most, and finally decided.

'All right, that's the deal then. Not because I can understand why you'd want to live in that hole, but if you want to, then fine…' She shrugged, and Mary felt joy rise inside her.

It was a plan that had developed over the past year. She would start over. Become a whole different person. Shake off the past that clung to her like a musty old blanket. Her application to change her name had already been submitted. Gaining access to the house in Fjällbacka was stage two, and she had already begun the work of changing her appearance. Not a single unnecessary calorie had passed her lips in a whole month, and the hour-long walk each morning had also helped. Everything would be different. Everything would be new.

The last thing she heard when she left Agnes sitting in the waiting room was her astonished exclamation, 'Have you lost weight?'

Mary didn't turn round to answer. She was on her way to becoming a new person.

By the next day the storm had subsided, and the autumn was showing its best side. The leaves that had survived the windstorm were red and yellow and fluttered softly in a light breeze. The sunshine gave no warmth, but it still raised the spirits and chased away the raw chill in the air – the kind that crept inside your clothes and made your body feel cold and damp.

Patrik sighed as he sat in the kitchen. Lilian was still refusing to talk, despite all the evidence they had against her. At least it was enough to remand her back into custody, and they still had time to charge her.

'How's it going?' said Annika as she came in to refill her coffee cup.

'Not much happening,' said Patrik with a deep sigh. 'She's as hard as a rock. Doesn't say a word.'

'But do we need a confession if the evidence is sufficient?'

'No, no really,' said Patrik. 'But what we're lacking is a motive. With a little imagination I could come up with a number of plausible motives for killing one husband and attempting to kill the second. But Sara?'

'How did you know that she was the one who murdered Sara?'

'I didn't,' said Patrik. 'Not until now. But all this has made me see that somebody lied about the morning when Sara disappeared, and that somebody had to be Lilian.'

He turned on the tape recorder sitting on the kitchen table. Morgan's voice filled the room. 'I didn't do it. I can't sit in prison for the rest of my life. I didn't kill her. I don't know how the jacket ended up at my place. She was wearing it when she went into her house. Please, don't leave me here.'

'Did you hear that?' said Patrik.

Annika shook her head. 'No, I didn't hear anything special.'

'Listen one more time, very closely.' He rewound the tape and pressed 'play' again.

'I didn't do it. I can't sit in prison for the rest of my life. I didn't kill her. I don't know how the jacket ended up at my place. She was wearing it when she went into her house. Please, don't leave me here.'

'She was wearing it when she went into her house,' Annika said quietly.

'Precisely,' said Patrik. 'Lilian claimed that Sara left and then didn't come back, but Morgan saw her go into the house again. And the only person who would have a reason to lie about it was Lilian. Why else wouldn't she have told us that Sara came home again?'

'How the hell can someone drown their own grandchild? And why did she stuff ashes into her mouth?' said Annika, slowly shaking her head.

'Yes, that's exactly what I want to know,' said Patrik in frustration. 'But she just sits there and smiles and refuses to say a thing, either to confess or to defend herself.'

'So what about the little boy?' Annika continued. 'Why did she attack him? And Maja?'

'I think Liam was just a random choice,' Patrik said, rotating his coffee cup in his hands. 'A crime of opportunity. It was a way of deflecting attention from her family – from Niclas most of all, apparently. And attacking Maja was a way of getting back at me for investigating her and her family.'

'I heard that you also had a bit of luck that helped you solve the murder of Lennart and the attempted murder of Stig.'

'Yes I did, and unfortunately I can't claim any personal insight. If I hadn't watched Crime Night on the Discovery Channel, we never would have found out about it. But they were featuring that case of a woman in the States who poisoned her husbands, and one of them was first diagnosed with Guillain-Barre. That's when it all fell into place for me. Erica had mentioned that Charlotte's father died of a nerve disease, and when Stig's illness was added to that… two husbands with the same rare symptoms; that made me wonder. So I woke up Erica, and she confirmed that Charlotte had said her father had died of Guillain-Barre. But I must tell you I wasn't completely sure until I rang the hospital. It was great when the test results were done and they showed a sky-high arsenic content. But I only wish I could get her to tell me why. She refuses to say anything!' He ran his hand through his hair in frustration.

'Well, you can only do so much,' said Annika, turning to go. Then she turned back to Patrik and said, 'Have you heard the news, by the way?'

'No, what?' said Patrik wearily, showing scant enthusiasm.

'Ernst really has been sacked. And Martin has recruited some woman to work here. He apparently got a little pressure from higher up regarding the lop-sided gender distribution in the station.'

'The poor guy,' Patrik chuckled. 'Let's hope this woman has a thick skin.'

'I don't know anything about her, so we'll see when she shows up. Evidently she'll be here a month from now.'

'I'm sure it'll be fine,' said Patrik. 'Anything will be an improvement compared to Ernst.'