She spent the rest of the morning going through the text file in minute detail, tracking everything he’d been doing on his computer. His porn searches for “young girl,” “teen,” and “petite,” banter with Henrik about the “slut” he’d had sex with in the office, and mockery of a female employee’s weight. It could all come in useful one day.

Faye packed her new laptop away and told Kerstin she was going out. She went and sat in Starbucks at Stureplan and carried on looking through the documents. Compare was going to be put on the stock market on Tuesday the following week. That gave her plenty of time to work out a precise plan of how to use what she’d found. She’d probably be in a position to set everything in motion on Friday. Four days from now.

Her mobile buzzed. It was Jack. Can’t stop thinking how much fun we had. Do you want to meet up? he wrote.

She considered how she should reply. Things had started to move faster than she had expected. She needed to keep him interested until it was time for the final step. She thought for a while longer, then tapped a quick message and pressed send.

—

Chris was drinking apple juice at a table on the upper floor of the Sture Bathhouse. The air was humid. Retirees wrapped in white bathrobes were eating two-hundred-kronor salads, all to the accompaniment of the water lapping in the pools below.

Faye pulled out the chair opposite her and sat down.

“Why did you want to meet here?” she asked.

Chris looked up in surprise.

“Oh, hi. I didn’t see you. I don’t know. The sound makes me feel calmer somehow. It’s like being in a great big womb.”

Faye looked at her as she hung her jacket on the back of the chair. There was a distant look in Chris’s eyes.

“How are you feeling?”

“Today’s a good day,” she said. “But then I haven’t had to go to the hospital. I’m having dinner with Johan tonight.”

“What did he say when you told him?”

Chris looked down at the tabletop.

“I haven’t told him. I . . . I can’t do it. I can’t lose him.”

Her eyes filled with shame. And fear. That frightened Faye. She had never seen Chris look ashamed before. Never seen her show any fear.

She took her friend’s hand.

“Oh, sweetie, I understand. Would it be easier if I was there when you told him? Just . . . well, just in case.”

Chris nodded slowly.

“Would you do that?”

“Of course I would, if it would make it easier for you.”

“I hate to be a nuisance, but I feel so weak, so helpless. The few hours when I manage to be myself are so exhausting that all I can do when I’m not with Johan is sit around. Who’d have thought this was where I’d end up spending my last days. At the Sture Bathhouse.”

And with that she smiled a real smile. A trace of the real Chris, Faye thought, and smiled back.

—

The school where Johan worked was a big red-brick building on Valhallav?gen. A few boys and girls the same age as Julienne were hanging around the gates. They looked over as Faye and Chris got out of the taxi and walked into the schoolyard.

They entered a long corridor full of turquoise lockers. There was no one in sight.

“Do you know where he is?” Faye asked.

“No, but there should be some sort of lunch break now, shouldn’t there?”

Faye looked at the time. Midday. At that moment the classroom doors ahead of them opened in a synchronized movement and the pupils streamed out. She grabbed a spotty teenager in a cap and padded jacket and asked if he knew where Johan the Swedish-language teacher was.

“Johan Sj?lander,” Chris added.

He shook his head and walked off.

They pushed up against the lockers to avoid being sent flying by a group of very noisy boys.

“Try calling him.”

Chris put her mobile to her right ear and covered her left ear with the other hand. She turned away when he answered.

The corridor started to empty. Faye found being back in school unsettling. The height differences, the insecure, flitting eyes, the hierarchies. The tensions were all on the surface, ready to snap at the slightest provocation. Matilda had tried to move through corridors like this as invisibly as possible, but it had never worked. Everyone always knew who she was. Everyone knew what had happened.

Chris tapped her on the shoulder.

“He’s meeting us outside.”

“What did he say?”

“He seemed . . . surprised that I was here. And pleased.”

She sounded nervous and excited at the same time. They followed the stream of pupils through a glass door, down the steps into the schoolyard again, and found a free bench close to some bushes.

“How are you feeling?” Faye asked.

“Nervous.”

“It’s going to be fine. Absolutely fine.”

Chris nodded but didn’t seem convinced. A door opened and a tall, thin man in jeans and a checked shirt came out. His blond hair was unkempt. He caught sight of them and headed in their direction with a broad smile on his lips. There was something very open, generous about him, Faye liked him immediately. He was nothing like the other men Faye had seen Chris with over the years. She took this as a definite plus. Chris had never been good at choosing men, but Faye had a feeling that Johan was very different.

“Chris,” he said brightly. “Great to see you! What are you doing here?”

Chris leaped to her feet and hugged him. When they separated he turned to Faye.

“You must be the famous Faye. Lovely to meet you at last. I was starting to wonder if you were Chris’s imaginary friend.”

She shook his outstretched hand. He must have realized that their visit wasn’t quite as cheerful as he had thought at first, because an anxious look appeared on his face.

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

“Perhaps we should sit down,” Faye said, gesturing toward the bench.

Chris sat between them. She took a deep breath, hesitated, but Faye nudged her gently with her elbow. Chris glared at her, then took Johan’s hand.

“Johan, there’s something I need to tell you . . .” she began, and Faye nodded encouragingly. “I’m ill. I’ve got cancer. The sort it’s hard to do anything about.”

Her words came out quickly, and were almost unintelligible. But Johan’s face revealed that he’d heard what she’d said. His mouth opened to say something, then closed again. He took a deep breath and nodded.

“I know,” he said slowly.

“You do?” Faye and Chris exclaimed in unison.

“I saw the note about your chemotherapy appointment in your apartment.”

“Why didn’t you say?”

“Because . . . I thought it was up to you if you wanted to tell me or not. I assumed you would when you felt ready.”

Chris wrapped her arms around him.

“And you . . . you don’t want to leave me? If you did, I’d understand.”

The fear in her eyes was so great that Faye broke into a cold sweat.

But Johan laughed and shook his head. A fractured, ragged laugh, but still a laugh.

“Bloody hell, darling. It would take a hell of a lot more than cancer to make me leave you. I’ve never been with anyone who makes me as happy as you do.”

“But I might die. I’m more likely to die than survive.”

Johan nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, you might. And if you do, my ugly face will be the last thing you see.”

Around them children were yelling and shouting, full of hope for the future, good and bad times alike ahead of them. Triumphs and mistakes. Chris ought to have plenty of mistakes left, she had always been world-class when it came to mistakes. She’d always said bad mistakes were what made life worth living.

Faye turned away so Chris wouldn’t see her tears. From the corner of her eye she saw Chris lean against Johan as she explained the current situation. In spite of the terrible circumstances, it was the most beautiful conversation Faye had ever heard. And Chris smiled like a child whenever Johan so much as opened his mouth. Faye wondered how Jack would have reacted if she’d told him anything like this. Jack didn’t like illness. Or weakness. He’d be gone before the end of the first sentence, on his way toward fresh adventures.

Faye got up to leave them alone but Johan asked her to stay. He turned to Chris.

“Okay, you’ve had your say, so now I want to say something that I’ve been holding back. And it’s probably best if Faye stays, seeing as you might leave me after this, and then I’d need someone to give me a hug.”

Chris looked worried, and Faye felt annoyed. Now wasn’t the time to confess to any indiscretions or whatever else he was going to say. She got ready to drag Chris away from there.