She pulled on a pair of gloves and carefully took a ziplock bag containing a pink toothbrush and hairbrush from her bag. They were both decorated with pictures of Elsa from Frozen. Julienne had removed them from the packaging herself and put them in the plastic bag, so that her fingerprints would be the only ones found on them.

Faye began by brushing her hair. She and Julienne had the same honey-gold shade of blond hair, the same length. She made sure to brush hard enough to pull plenty of strands out by the root. Then she carefully put the hairbrush down and picked up the toothbrush. She brushed her teeth and mouth thoroughly, pressing hard so the brush would splay and look well-used. She put the brush in the glass in the bathroom next to her own toothbrush. Then she went into Julienne’s bedroom and placed the hairbrush on her desk.

After that she washed the whiskey glass containing the sedative and refilled it with more whiskey. She took the glass and bottle of whiskey into the bedroom where Jack was still snoring loudly. Faye put the glass on the bedside table and laid the bottle down on its side next to the bed. The room really did reek of whiskey.

There wasn’t much else to do inside the apartment.

Faye picked up Jack’s mobile and went outside to his car. She quickly tossed the dummy into the trunk. It left traces of blood, just as she had been counting on.

The rest was simply a matter of logistics. Driving Jack’s car to Lake V?ttern and back. Smearing a bit of blood on one of the boats moored at a jetty. She washed the dummy and threw it in the water. There would be so much odd rubbish scattered across the bottom of the lake that no one would think to connect it to Julienne’s disappearance.

As Faye drove back towards Stockholm she knew that both the satnav in the car and Jack’s mobile could be tracked along that route. The satnav would provide more detail than the mobile, but they would back each other up. Together with the Google searches she had conducted recently on Jack’s laptop, it ought to be enough. She hoped it would be. The devil, as ever, lay in the details.

—

Faye parked the car by the promenade. A warm breeze caught her dress as Kerstin helped Julienne out of the car. They found three free sun beds and paid the attendant. Julienne ran down to the water at once. Faye and Kerstin lay on the beds, not taking their eyes off her.

“He’s been found guilty. They’re saying he’s going to get life.”

“So I heard,” Kerstin replied.

“We did it.”

“Yes, we did. Not that I was ever really worried.”

“No?”

Kerstin shook her head.

A woman was walking toward them. When she caught sight of them she stopped and waved.

“Room for one more?” she asked with a smile.

“Yes, as long as you don’t mind sharing with Julienne,” Faye replied.

“I’d be only too happy to.”

She sat down on the sun bed covered with Julienne’s turquoise towel and put on a pair of sunglasses.

“Are you coming over for dinner this evening?” Faye asked.

The woman nodded. Then she turned her face up to the sun.

The three women lay in silence together. When Faye shut her eyes and listened to the lapping of the waves and Julienne’s happy shrieks she saw Sebastian before her. His death had led her to where she was today. In a strange way she felt grateful to him.

She turned her head and looked at the woman on the sun bed beside her. She slowly reached out her hand and caressed her mother’s cheek.