Hidden in Snow (The ?re Murders, #1)(49)
She smells good, her freshly washed hair fills his nostrils with the scent of apples. Her nightgown has ridden up; he can feel her warm thighs against his.
Suddenly he is nowhere near as exhausted as he was.
He turns so they are facing each other, then gently runs his fingers over her collarbone and down to her lovely, voluptuous breasts. He has barely been allowed to touch them in recent months.
Ida wriggles slightly away from him. “Alice might wake up.”
“She’s fast asleep.”
They haven’t had sex for an eternity—not since Alice was born. He is seized by an intense longing to get close to Ida, to move inside her warmth. Make passionate love like they did in the beginning, before she got pregnant and Alice came into the world.
His yearning grows. He searches for Ida’s lips, presses his body against hers. “You’re so beautiful,” he breathes in her ear.
Ida is still resisting, but then she softens and kisses him back.
“I thought you said you were tired?” she teases him.
Her fingers find their way to his stomach and continue their sensual journey. Daniel closes his eyes as desire fills every cell in his body.
“Not that tired,” he replies, kissing her again.
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49
Hanna finds it difficult to wind down after the evening at Supper. She is lying sleepless on her back in the darkness of Lydia’s guest room, arms above her head.
The food was excellent and the evening enjoyable, but the whole thing was alarmingly expensive, even though she stuck to one cocktail. Fortunately, they didn’t split the bill equally—each person paid their own.
She doesn’t want to think about how little she has in the bank, or how she is going to get the money for a new apartment. From January it seems as if she will have no job and nowhere to live.
She absolutely doesn’t want to borrow from Lydia, who has already been so generous. Asking her parents for help is out of the question.
The wooden walls creak occasionally; otherwise there is total silence.
In sharp contrast to the city, the quiet up here brings peace to the soul. Sadeln is more peaceful than the village center, because the gardens are large and the houses farther apart. Plus there’s hardly any traffic in the evenings and at night.
You sleep well in the mountains—that’s what Hanna’s father always used to say as he tucked her in when she was a little girl.
She smiles at the memory and turns onto her side. She doesn’t remember her mother reading bedtime stories, it was always either Lydia or her father, but surely Mom must have stepped in sometimes?
She’s glad she went to Supper this evening. It was good to get out of the house, meet new people. The girls were pleasant; it was easy to join in the conversation and forget her troubles for a few hours. The only weird thing was Karro’s reluctance to talk to her brother about Amanda’s boyfriend. Still, maybe they have unspoken rules in their sibling relationship that Hanna doesn’t know about.
What would happen if Hanna contacted the investigating officers? Just to double-check that they know about Viktor’s background . . .
Karro isn’t married, so she and her brother, Anton, should have the same family name. There can’t be more than one detective in ?re called Anton Lundgren.
Karro doesn’t need to know about it.
Hanna adjusts her pillow and pulls up the covers. She must get some sleep—it’s very late.
Maybe it’s stupid to interfere in a case that has nothing to do with her. That kind of behavior is exactly why the City Police don’t want her anymore.
But what if no one involved in the investigation knows what the boyfriend has done?
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MONDAY, DECEMBER 16
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50
The house is silent when Lena opens her eyes. She peers groggily at the clock: ten to six in the morning.
She is lying in Amanda’s bed, fully dressed. She must have fallen asleep. Ludde is gone.
Lena sits up and pushes back her tousled hair. She tiptoes along the landing to check on the twins; they are both fast asleep.
Then she goes into the kitchen, shivering as she pours herself a glass of water. All the lights are on downstairs; Harald must have forgotten to switch them off.
Suddenly Ludde starts barking loudly in the hallway.
Lena hurries to see what’s wrong, tries to calm him.
“Shh, what is it?”
She places a hand on his soft head, but he shakes it off and trots toward the front door.
“Quiet, Ludde!” As a well-trained hunting dog, he usually obeys her commands without blinking. Now he is rigid, barking at the door.
He is almost howling.
Lena grabs his collar. “Quiet!” she says as forcefully as she can without raising her voice. “You’ll wake everyone!”
Ludde stops barking, but switches to a low growl.
Lena tries to peer through the frosted glass. “Is someone out there?”
Is it Amanda?
The thought makes her fling the door wide open, and the icy air comes rushing in. Snow whirls into the hallway, settling on the mat.
She peers out into the darkness. There is no sign of anyone. It is only the wind, blowing so hard that it is bending the tops of the trees into unnatural angles.