Hidden in Snow (The ?re Murders, #1)(95)

She accompanies Sanna into the living room. Ebba is curled up on the sofa with a gray blanket over her. She looks small and desperately unhappy. Sanna sits down beside her, offering Hanna the armchair.

“Hi, Ebba,” Hanna begins. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all day. I have a few more questions about Amanda’s job, which we talked about yesterday.” She does her best to sound gentle and approachable. “It would be very helpful if you could tell us everything you know.”

Ebba looks as if she wishes she were somewhere else, a long way away.

“We’ve found out that Amanda was working for a woman called Linda,” Hanna continues. “Were you aware of that? Did you work for her too?”

Sanna strokes her daughter’s hair. “If you know anything, you have to speak up,” she says encouragingly.

“The most important thing is for the police to find the person who killed Amanda.”

Ebba intertwines her fingers. When she eventually speaks, her voice is shaky. “We both worked for Linda.”

“And what did that involve?”

“We cleaned houses up in Bj?rnen and Sadeln. It was a secret, that’s why I didn’t dare tell you before.” Ebba glances at her mother. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I knew if I told the police, you and Dad would find out, and you’d be mad.”

Sanna takes Ebba’s hand. “It’s fine. It’s good that you’re being honest now.” She turns to Hanna. “We didn’t want Ebba to work during the semester. We thought it was better for her to concentrate on her studies and her grades.”

Hanna appreciates Sanna’s support; this is not the time to chastise her daughter.

“Plus it was . . . off the books,” Ebba adds. “We couldn’t say anything—Amanda’s dad is a politician, he always insisted that everything had to be perfect. He kept telling her mom they couldn’t afford to be in the papers for cheating on their taxes or anything else that might damage his career.”

“I understand,” Hanna says. She isn’t surprised to find that both Ebba and Amanda are involved, nor that it happened without their parents’ knowledge.

“Could you tell me how it worked?”

“We just did a few jobs every other week to earn some extra money.”

“This Linda—what’s her surname?”

“I’ve never met her. We only communicated on Messenger.” Ebba wipes away a drop of snot from under her nose.

“So what about the practicalities? Payment, addresses, house keys?”

Surely they must have met the mysterious Linda a couple of times at least.

“Amanda used to collect the keys and the cleaning stuff because she has . . . had . . . a driver’s license.” The involuntary error makes Ebba’s voice break. It takes a few seconds before she is able to go on. “I haven’t taken my test yet, but Amanda would borrow her mom’s car, because Lena walks to work. Linda’s office was in the village, so Amanda stopped there before she came to pick me up.”

“Do you know the name of the cleaning company?”

Ebba shakes her head, which is disappointing. However, the fact that Linda’s office is in the village points to Fj?ll-st?d.

“So how did the two of you start working for Linda?”

Hanna asks, crossing her legs to sit more comfortably in the low armchair.

“We have a friend who did it before us—Alva.” There is a little more color in Ebba’s face, as if it is a relief to get all this off her chest at long last. “She left school last year and went to university in Ume?. She asked us if we wanted to take over. It was a really good way of earning money.” She glances at Sanna, as if to reassure herself that her mother isn’t annoyed.

“Would you be able to show us some of the houses you’ve cleaned?” Hanna says. “Then we could speak to the owners, find out the name of the company.”

“I think so. A lot of them were in Sadeln.”

It has to be Fj?ll-st?d.

Sanna gently pats her daughter’s cheek. “Is that everything?”

Ebba clamps her lips together. She has the beginnings of a cold sore at one corner of her mouth, a whitish blister that is spreading.

“Not quite,” she whispers.

Hanna waits patiently. She doesn’t want the girl to shut down again.

“Something happened a week before Amanda . . .

disappeared.” Ebba tugs at the sleeve of her pale-pink sweatshirt, which covers her knuckles.

“Take your time,” Hanna says. “Try to remember as much as you can.”

Ebba pushes her light-brown hair back from her forehead. “Amanda was going to clean a house in Sadeln. I was supposed to be there too, but I had really bad period pains, so I stayed home.” She moves a fraction closer to her mother. “When Amanda arrived, another girl was already there. A foreigner—Amanda thought she was from Uzbekistan. She spoke English, but very badly. There had been a misunderstanding about who was supposed to be working where on that day.”

Hanna is holding her breath.

“Amanda realized something was wrong. This girl was really unhappy and she had lots of bruises, as if she’d been beaten. Eventually Amanda persuaded her to talk.” Ebba pulls the blanket more tightly around her shoulders, as if she is freezing. “Amanda was that kind of person—people trusted her. You felt you could tell her anything.”