Silver Tears(23)

“The truth,” Yvonne said quickly. “All I’m after is the truth.”

Without taking her gaze off Faye, she took a piece of paper from her back pocket. Faye wondered how many things Yvonne was going to pull out. She was like Mary Poppins and her bag.

Yvonne held out the piece of paper between her thumb and forefinger, dangling it in front of Faye. Faye took it from her hand. It was an old article from the Bohusl?ningen local paper, one that she recognized immediately. Her stomach dropped and she struggled not to show Yvonne Ingvarsson the tumult within her.

“You seem to be bad luck for the people around you,” Yvonne said, before adding in a low voice: “Matilda.”

Two boys from Fj?llbacka are missing after a sailing trip with their friends. The entire community is paralyzed with grief.

“I refuse to believe that they’re dead,” says 13-year-old Matilda, who was there at the time of the accident.

Faye swallowed hard, slowly folded the printout up without finishing reading it, and passed it back to Yvonne, who shook her head.

“You keep it,” she said, turning to go. “Nice suite. Really nice,” she muttered as she opened the door before vanishing into the corridor.

Faye examined the thirteen-year-old girl who was staring straight into the camera below the headline. She looked unhappy and helpless, but Faye knew that she had only been posing for the photographer. Inside her, the darkness had been rampaging.

She lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. But she didn’t see the white stucco of the Grand—she saw something completely different. Dark, swirling water that made her stomach turn.

A shrill sound made Faye jump. She looked around in horror. For a second, before she was able to gain her bearings, she was still there by the swirling water. Her pulse slowed when she realized it was just her phone ringing. Kerstin’s name was illuminated on the display.



“I’m afraid I’ve got bad news.” Kerstin got straight to the point, as always.

“What is it now?” said Faye, closing her eyes.

Did she want to hear the answer? Would she be able to cope with any more? She didn’t know, and that scared her.

“Dagens Industri called. They’ve heard a rumor about the buyout. If we don’t manage to stop them from printing the article, the cat will soon be out of the bag.”

Faye let out a sigh.

“Which will only lead to even more sales of shares. Rats always leave a sinking ship,” she said.

“What do you want me to do?” Kerstin asked.

“I know a woman there. I’ll give her a call and see what I can do. Leave it to me, I’ll handle this.”

Faye hung up and threw the phone onto the duvet beside her. If she had been the sort to give up, she would have pulled the duvet over her head now and slept for a couple of days. But she wasn’t. She never had been. She picked up the phone again. The battle continued.





Faye was sitting in a huddled heap on the bed with the pieces of paper left by Yvonne and Kerstin’s account of the share movements in the company. Taken by themselves, these two things were enough to worry about, but taken together they were almost too much. Before long, the serious work on the American launch would be starting—someone had called from Revenge’s office on Stureplan with the news that several people who wanted to invest in the venture had been in touch following Faye’s appearance on Skavlan. Having Yvonne Ingvarsson on her heels at this sensitive stage was risky, and Faye also needed to ensure that she actually still had a company to launch in a new market.

Her mobile phone beeped and she opened the Telegram app, where her messages and images were deleted after fifteen seconds. She smiled at a photograph of Julienne by the pool.

“My little darling,” she murmured before the picture vanished.

A new knock at the door made Faye jump. She raised the throw on the bed and shoved the papers beneath it, got to her feet, and went to the door. The sight of Julienne had given her energy and awoken her thirst for battle. Yvonne Ingvarsson didn’t know who she was crossing swords with, and Faye intended to move heaven and earth to find out who was attacking her company.

David Schiller was waiting outside the door. He smiled at her.

“You look like someone who could do with a walk with a friend.”



* * *



—



Faye and David strolled over to Strandv?gen—deserted on a Sunday. It was a warm evening. People were walking their dogs along the avenue and the theme park rides at Gr?na Lund were sparkling, spinning, and shining across the water on the island of Djurg?rden. Faye had forgotten how enchantingly beautiful Stockholm summer evenings were.

“Are you feeling okay after our chat yesterday—about everything you told me?”

David sounded concerned. Faye realized she was moved.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said with a smile, and David’s blue eyes lit up.

“Great. I was worried that you might have regretted it afterward.”

“No, no, it’s fine. It was…liberating. I haven’t really talked to anyone at all about what happened, and about what life with Jack was like. Barely even with Kerstin, who I consider my closest friend. Of course, Chris knew most of it…”

“Who is Chris?” said David carefully. “You mentioned that name before.”