Postcard killers

Chapter 75

Dessiefingered her wineglass. she'd never told anyone the whole truth about how she bought the apartment, not even Christer or Gabriel a. So why should she tel Jacob Kanon?

He was a cop on top of everything.

"I inherited a large sum of money a while back," she said. "From my mother."

Jacob raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you said she worked with the elderly and the sick?"

"That's right, she did."

"So you're upper class," he said. "I hadn't guessed that."

She knew exactly what he was thinking. He thought her mother was the sort who jangled their jewelry in front of the poor at charity galas.

"You're wrong," she said. "Do you real y want to know this story? I don't do chitchat very wel."

"I real y want to know."

She put her glass down on the coffee table.

That security van raid I mentioned yesterday – you remember?"

He nodded and emptied his glass, then fil ed it again.

"Three of my uncles were involved," she said. "They got hold of almost nine mil ion kronor, which was something like eight and a half mil ion more than they were expecting, and they panicked. They didn't know what to do with al the money. They buried some of it, but they put most of it in my mother's savings account."

"What!" Jacob exclaimed, almost choking on his wine. "You're kidding me."

"It was pretty smart of them, as it turned out. Al the money they buried was found, but no one thought to check my mother's account."

She watched careful y for his reaction. Was he about to turn his back on her? Dismiss her as the daughter of a scheming criminal?

"Your uncles can't have been the sharpest knives in the drawer," he said.

She avoided his gaze as she went on with the story.

"They al got the same punishment, five and a half years for aggravated robbery. They were due to be released in May four years ago. That winter had been unusual y snowy in Adalen, and my mother helped the old folks clear the snow, which she wasn't supposed to do because the doctor told her… But she was stubborn. And proud."

Dessie picked up her glass and turned it slowly in her hand.

"She died on Hilding Olsson's drive with a snow shovel in her hand."

She took a careful sip. "The amount in her savings account was completely untouched, and I was her only heir."