Silver Tears Page 10

  The police still have no trace of Jack Adelheim and the second prisoner who disappeared from a prison transport. The Swedish Prison and Probation Service remains reticent about how the escape took place.

  “We have identified shortcomings in our procedures—that much I can say. But we want to investigate this fully before I offer any comment,” says Malm, press spokesperson for the service.

  Aftonbladet, 10 June

  Faye was reclining on her terrace with her feet on the table. She slipped her fingers into the inside pocket of her Chanel bag and took out the photograph that she kept there. It was a picture that she had taken herself of her mother and Julienne on a beach in Sicily. The sea behind them was like a mirror, and Julienne, with her long blond hair tangled and damp, was curled up in her grandmother’s arms. It was the only existing photo of the two of them together. Faye didn’t dare take or keep photos of Italy. Instead, she had to keep their memories in her heart.

  She gazed at the photo for a while before replacing it in her bag. She had to find somewhere better for it. Somewhere more secure. Her entire body ached with longing for Julienne—it was so strong that for a moment it even outweighed the worry she had been feeling around the clock since she had heard the news.

  Jack had been on the run for five days. Yet despite the authorities’ reassurances to both Faye and journalists that they had assigned significant resources to the search, they hadn’t caught him.

  The panic of the first few days had begun to dissipate. The police called her daily to check that she was okay and it seemed improbable—not to mention insane—that Jack would turn up here. Even if he did turn up at the apartment or the office, she was certain she could handle it. What kept her awake at night was his insistence throughout the trial that Julienne was alive, that Faye had hidden her somewhere.

  She had done everything she could to ensure that Julienne and Ingrid were safe in Italy. Apart from the photo that Faye kept in her bag, she’d eliminated all traces of their continued existence. Though she knew she was taking a huge risk in carrying the photo with her, she needed to look at it sometimes and remind herself about what mattered and why she was doing what she was doing.

  Her train of thought was interrupted by the ringtone on her mobile. She felt a wave of warmth when David’s name appeared on the display. He was due to come over in an hour or so and she wandered over to the wine rack to uncork a bottle to let it breathe.

  “Hi baby, I miss you,” she said.

  There was silence for a moment and she realized that something was up. For an instant, she thought she might hear Jack’s voice. Hear him say that David was dead.

  “I’m going to struggle to make it tonight,” David said. His voice was tense, almost a whisper. “Johanna is kicking up an almighty fuss. She’s shouting and screaming. The girls are very upset. And scared.”

  Faye sighed and made an effort not to get annoyed. It wasn’t his fault.

  “I’m guessing it didn’t go so well, telling her you’d met someone…”

  “I didn’t even have time to. Some acquaintance saw us together in town. It’s mayhem here.”

  “So what does she want? You’ve already decided to get divorced. Surely it’s none of her business if you’re seeing someone?”

  “I wish things were that simple. She thinks it’s too soon and she’s angry that she heard it from someone else. What picture we show to the outside world is something that really matters to Johanna. And we haven’t told anyone else that we’re getting divorced.”

  “But can’t you come anyway? Surely it won’t help for you to stay there and mess around trying to appease her?”

  David sighed.

  “She insists that I take the girls to riding camp tomorrow. She says they feel forgotten, that I think about sex more than I think about them.”

  “She’s the one who’s been stopping you from seeing them.”

  “I know,” he said curtly, pausing for breath. “Sorry. The kids are my weak point and she knows that. I don’t want them to end up getting caught in the middle. I hope you understand.”

  Faye sighed. She had to look at the situation rationally. Appease Johanna. At least for the time being. And David was sleeping in the guest room, so any attempts by Johanna to proposition him would be fruitless.

  “It’s okay. I miss you, but I understand. Kids always come first and that’s how it has to be.”

  “Thanks,” said David, and she heard the relief in his voice. “Thank you for making the hard stuff easier.”

  “See you tomorrow.”

  “Can’t wait. I promise to make it up to you.”

  After the call, Faye sat there with her phone in her hand. Despite having reassured David that it was all fine and that she would be okay, she couldn’t help feeling lonely and abandoned.

  For the first time since they’d met, she felt disappointed in him, even though she knew that was unfair. David couldn’t help that he’d had kids with a woman who’d turned out to be something other than he had first thought—no more so than Faye could be blamed for Jack. What kind of man—or human being—would he be if he didn’t try to do what was best for his daughters? On the contrary, his love for them said a lot about the kind of person he was—someone Faye wanted to get to know far better.

  Faye reached for the phone and messaged Kerstin, asking if she wanted to come over and have a bite to eat. She realized she was starving and didn’t want to eat alone. Kerstin arrived within five minutes: one of the many benefits of living next door.

  “I brought some cold cuts and cheese,” she said. “I went past the market earlier today.”

  “Kerstin, you’re an angel.”

  Faye poured a glass of Amarone and handed it to Kerstin, who sat down on the sofa.

  “What’s happened?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” said Faye, filling her own glass.

  The conversation with David was weighing on her mind and she needed to gather her thoughts.

  “Are you up to talking about Revenge, then?” said Kerstin, reaching for a slice of prosciutto. “We can’t afford not to.”

  “I guess so,” said Faye. “We need to figure out who our allies are now. We won’t be able to solve this on our own.”

  “You know who I think you should contact.”

  “And you know that I think you’re crazy for even having that thought, let alone suggesting it…”

  “Maybe we need a little craziness right now.”

  Faye nodded slowly. Despite it being summer, she had lit the fire in the living room and it was crackling merrily. She held her glass up toward the fire and contemplated the red wine glittering like rubies against a background of flames. She reached for some Taleggio. She finished chewing it before replying, buying herself time to think.

  No matter how much she hated the idea, she knew Kerstin was right. They needed Ylva Lehndorf on board. But could she bear to let Ylva back into her life?

  Before she had stolen Faye’s husband, Ylva had been a rising star in publishing—an industry she had revolutionized in the space of just a few years. As a matter of fact, it had been Faye who had convinced Jack to hire Ylva—she’d had her eye on her ever since she’d been at the Stockholm School of Economics. That was why the betrayal when she had found them in bed together had been a double whammy. But now she couldn’t help looking at the situation through fresh eyes. God only knew what Jack had told Ylva to turn her against Faye. Wasn’t Ylva also one of Jack’s victims? Like Faye, she had been infatuated and manipulated. Tamed and caged. And he had exploited her love—he had made her stop working, turned her into a suppressed little housewife. But the fact remained: Ylva Lehndorf was one of the most brilliant economists in Sweden and right now she had a red end-of-year sale sticker stuck to her forehead.

  “Okay, I know what you think about Ylva. Perhaps that’s the right way
to go.”

  She took a sip of her wine before continuing. “I’ve been thinking about someone else who could help us.”

  “Oh?” said Kerstin, leaning in. “Who?”

  “Alice Bergendahl.”

  “Alice? The bored, soon-to-be-divorced housewife from Lidingö?” Kerstin laughed.

  “Yes, exactly. Her.”

  During Faye’s marriage to Jack, Alice had seemed like the personification of an unachievable ideal. She was the perfect housewife. Beautiful, loyal, and understanding. Sexy without being vulgar. She looked like a seductive pixie with tastefully done silicone implants and legs so long you could sail a ferry under them.

  That was why Faye’s surprise had been all the greater when she had been plunged into Alice and Henrik’s divorce, courtesy of the gossip rags. Previously Alice wouldn’t even go to the bathroom without consulting her husband, and then pausing en route to check whether he wanted sucking off before or after dinner. It had come as a shock when she suddenly turned up in the evening tabloids and celebrity magazines with an armada of divorce lawyers at her side. The protracted divorce had been the talk of the town and the hottest topic in Stockholm society for a couple of months.

  Faye was curious about what had precipitated the transformation of the previously accommodating Alice. But she already knew that there had been a rebellious streak in her, given that Alice was one of the women to have invested in Revenge without her husband’s knowledge.

  “Nothing creates unity like a common enemy,” said Faye. “Although I can’t understand why Henrik is doing this. He’s done well for himself. He’s landed on his feet, and more than clawed back whatever he might have lost.”

  Kerstin put a hand on Faye’s shoulder. She squeezed it gently.

  “It means nothing to a man like Henrik that he’s made a success of himself again,” she said. “You dragged him into a scandal; you harmed his reputation. For men like Jack and Henrik, that means you wounded their pride—their manhood. That’s why he hates you. That’s why he wants to take Revenge from you.”

  Faye nodded.

  “You’re probably right,” she said. “But I think you’re underestimating Alice. If there’s anyone who knows his weak points, it’ll be her.”

  “Alice. And Ylva,” said Kerstin thoughtfully, reclining on the sofa. “That’s probably not such a bad combination, you know.”

  Faye took another sip of wine. Maybe they were on to something. She looked at Kerstin.

  “I need to speak to Irene too. I have to find out why she betrayed me.”

  Alice and Henrik Bergendahl’s splendid mansion was at the very tip of Lidingö and had its own private sandy beach. A jetty ran out into the water and beside it there was a large motorboat bobbing up and down, glittering in the sun.

  “I’m glad you called,” said Alice. “I’ve actually missed you.”

  They were sitting in a lounge suite on the enormous terrace just six feet from the shoreline. On the table in front of them, Alice had set down four or five bottles from Henrik’s wine cellar. She was wearing a simple red dress and her long blond hair was in a chignon.

  When Alice had first opened the door and seen Faye, she had looked shocked. Her embrace had been stiff, but once they had sat down outside, the conversation had begun to flow more easily. Now it almost felt as if she were talking to an old friend.

  “It’s pretty lonely some evenings,” Alice continued.

  “Where are Henrik and the kids?”

  “We’ve got an apartment on Danderydsgatan too—he’s had rooms decorated for them there.”

  Alice leaned forward, read the label on one of the bottles, nodded, and then reached for the corkscrew.

  “We find ourselves in new times,” said Faye.

  “Better times. Well…Sorry. Of course I didn’t mean that.” It took a split second for Faye to realize that Alice was talking about Julienne’s death. “I’m really sorry about what happened, and I think about her every day.”

  “Thank you,” Faye said softly, accepting the glass that Alice held out to her. “Let’s talk about something else. Why don’t you tell me what happened with Henrik? The uncensored version, if you don’t mind.”

  Alice took a sip and then nodded slowly.

  “Well, as you know, I was fine with the fact that Henrik was notoriously unfaithful to me,” she began. “So long as he kept it tidy—on the side—and it didn’t affect me or the kids, I considered it a price I was willing to pay. Successful men are unfaithful. That’s what I thought. Sometimes I told myself it was the very key to their success. You know, the hunger. For money, power, and, well…women. I suppose I wasn’t entirely innocent toward the end either, as you know.”

  Her well-shaped lips bent into a knowing smile and Faye remembered the hot young guy with the tattoos who Alice had been seeing once a week, while telling Henrik she was attending Pilates classes.

  But then there was a hint of sorrow in Alice’s eyes.

  “In August last year we hired a new au pair. She was the daughter of one of Henrik’s childhood friends, one of his biggest financiers and clients. She was seventeen, in her senior year, and needed cash for a trip to Rhodes with her friends. You know the type. She rode a moped. Tossed her hair and was always chewing gum. Probably had Hello Kitty pants from H&M. The thought never even crossed my mind.”

  Alice shook her head.

  “What happened?”

  “I came home one afternoon after she had picked up the kids. I parked, got out of the car, and could hear the kids rampaging around the garden. I came around the corner and discovered they were on their own. The bathroom is downstairs and the window was open. From inside I could hear…well, you know…”

  Alice moistened her lips, drained the final drops from her glass, and pushed it away. Faye felt for her. She had walked in and found Jack with someone else, so she knew that nothing in life could prepare someone for that kind of shock. She remembered being frozen to the spot and then storming into the room in tears. Jack had announced he wanted a divorce, and Faye had begged him to stay—while Ylva Lehndorf and Jack were still naked in bed. She had promised to forget. Get her act together. If only he didn’t leave her.

  She shivered at the memories welling up.

  “I thought I’d be angry, crushed. But instead I realized I had to act. Immediately. I got out my phone and filmed them through the crack in the window.”

  “That video…”

  “…is worth a couple of hundred million kronor to the right blackmailer.” Alice laughed. “And I took a couple of stills just to be sure. Zoomed in good and proper. Faye, you have no idea. I’m getting half of everything. If I don’t, then Sweden is going to see rather more of financier Henrik Bergendahl than they would like. And I’m very doubtful that Sten Stolpe will want to carry on doing business with Henrik after seeing him taking the apple of his eye from behind.”

  She shrugged slightly.

  Faye leaned forward.

  “Why are you still here in the house, given what happened with Henrik and the au pair?”

  “Because it’s the house of my dreams. I’ve always been happy here. I’m not going to let him take that away from me. But I don’t use the bathroom. Once the divorce goes through, I’m going to have it converted into a walk-in closet.”

  It was a still, light evening. A fish splashed down in the water and Alice turned toward the noise, stroking her own arm in a slow movement. She suddenly looked infinitely sad.

  Faye cleared her throat gently.

  “Is everything okay, Alice?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do you miss Henrik?”

  Alice laughed and stared at her.

  “Are you crazy? I miss the kids when they’re not with me. But building your life around a man, waiting for him to come home, only seeing yourself in his reflection, by
his side…being more a member of the household staff than his partner. No, I don’t miss that. It’s just that the days without the kids are lonely. The only people I spend any time with are my divorce lawyers.”

  “I hope they’re good-looking at least. Fuckable.”

  “Considering what I’m paying them, they should look like Greek gods. Alas. The chubby, bald look seems to be du jour in legal circles.”

  “Oh, that’s a pity. But here’s to you,” said Faye with a laugh. “You need to find a man. I’m sure we can sort you out.”

  “Yes, after all these years with Henrik’s micropenis, it’s about time I was reminded of what it feels like when it’s actually in there,” Alice said. “Cheers.”

  Faye laughed so hard she nearly spurted wine through her nose. This new Alice was one she could be friends with.

  They brought their wineglasses together, and Faye echoed her loudly. Both Henrik and Jack had always admonished them for saying cheers in that way.

  “Vulgar,” the two of them said together in put-on voices and then collapsed in laughter again.

  They did it again just for the hell of it. Faye took a swig. It was an exquisite wine.

  “You have to fill your days with something, Alice. Otherwise you’ll go under. No disrespect to your divorce lawyers, but you need something to fight for. Everyone does.”

  Alice nodded slowly. Her gaze swept thoughtfully across the water.

  “I met Henrik when I was young and let him deal with everything to do with money. I’ve spent my entire working life as a well-paid, beautiful housemaid. We’re being honest with each other, right? Well, the thing I’m good at is throwing parties, smiling at my husband’s guests and making them feel comfortable. That was my area of expertise for all those years. Who would hire me?”