Silver Tears(69)

Faye pressed accept to answer the call and hit the speakerphone button. Jack crouched in front of her, knife at the ready.

“Hello?” she said.

“Hi, it’s Oscar Veslander of the Stockholm Police,” a voice said.

Faye held her breath.

“This is just our daily call to check that everything is okay.”

Faye met Jack’s gaze. She was unable to recognize the man she had shared her life with. Who was he?

“Yes,” she said, Jack nodding. His hands moved down toward her groin. “Everything’s fine.”

Jack cut her top to shreds with one movement. Faye was shaking.

“Where are you?”

Faye gritted her teeth and pulled herself back to avoid the blade.

“Hello?”

She looked down at Jack, whose face didn’t display even a flicker of emotion.

“I’m at home, just working,” she said in a monotone.

“I’m afraid there’s no news about your ex-husband, but I promise we’re doing everything we can to find him.”

“Good. Great. I know you’re doing your best.”

Her voice wavered.

If Faye hadn’t been certain before, she was now: Jack was out of his mind. Completely unpredictable. He might very well decide to kill her. She had to get out of here.



“Have a nice day. And call us if you have any questions.”

“Thanks. You too.”

Faye ended the call and looked down at Jack.

He got up slowly, without lowering his gaze from her. Suddenly, without warning, he struck her again. She collapsed on the sofa. He wrenched her phone from her. She looked up at him.

“Jack, you have to disappear now. Escape. Otherwise the police will arrest you. I won’t say anything. Not that you were here, not about what you did.”

He didn’t reply.

All that was audible was his heavy breathing. Jack sat down in front of her, pulled a lock of her hair to his nose, and drew in the scent.

“I’ve missed your scent. Despite everything you’ve done to me, I’ve still missed it. You’re the love of my life. No one else meant anything—get it? Do you understand that I did what I did because I could? Because the women were throwing themselves at me? I was weak. But it was only you who meant anything.”

Faye shuddered. It sounded as if Jack was saying farewell.

“Are you going to kill me?”

“I don’t know. I did make a promise to your father that he could be the one to kill you. But maybe I will instead.”

Her pulse was beating so fast she was dizzy. Her eyes darkened.

“No, Jack. You’re not a murderer. You don’t have it in you. It’s me. Faye.”

She placed her hands on his cheeks and forced him to look at her.

“You’ve got another daughter, Jack. What’ll happen to her if you’re convicted for another murder? The police’ll catch you sooner or later. And Julienne…you’re right. She’s alive. She’s safe. If we forget about this, if you can forgive me, she’d be thrilled. She still talks about you. You’re her hero, Jack. In spite of everything, you’re her hero.”

Faye swallowed and looked searchingly at Jack to see whether her words had had any impact. In years gone by she had been able to read his innermost thoughts the second he came into the room. But now his face gave nothing away. He had been transformed into a stranger.



“And I miss you.” She let the tears flow. “Despite everything you did, I love you and always have. But you hurt me. You humiliated me. You crushed me. All I wanted was to live with you and Julienne, but you tricked me, Jack. First you deprived me of work, the right to the thing I’d helped create. Then my own family. You replaced me.”

Jack’s teeth were grinding. His facial expression was beginning to soften. She rejoiced internally. Perhaps he might just leave?

“Julienne,” said Jack. “Have you got a photo of her? I think about her every day. Every second.”

Faye remembered the pictures she had found on Jack’s computer. The awful, dreadful photos. Julienne’s vacant stare. She didn’t want to show him her one photo of her daughter. But what choice did she have? Her priority right now was to survive long enough to prevent him from getting anywhere near Julienne. Somehow she needed to persuade him to lower his guard…

She nodded slowly.

“We can call her. Just think how happy she’ll be to see you.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. He shook his head and put her mobile on the table.

“No. No phones. No technology.”

She took a deep breath.

“I’ve got a picture of her. Want to see it?”

“Where?”

“Move and I’ll get it.”

Jack got up slowly.

Once Faye was on her feet, he brandished the knife at her.

“If you try to trick me, I’ll kill you right away. Don’t you forget it.”

“I know.”

She went to the bathroom with him on her heels. Inside, she worked the bathtub away from the wall, stuck her arm down behind it, and retrieved the plastic wallet with the photograph of her mother and Julienne. She straightened up again and passed the wallet to Jack. He took it and examined the photo without saying a word. But the glint in his eye scared her. He was looking at the picture of Julienne as if she were his prey, as if he could do whatever he liked with her. He slipped it into his jacket pocket.