The Treacherous Net by Helene Tursten

her lust for life. The day he died she had slipped on that fateful patch of ice as she was on her way to see him. Losing both Sture and her health was too much for her. She rarely left her apartment these days. When Irene tried to persuade her to go out, she made excuses, blaming her dizziness and the pain in her hip. “I can’t manage the stairs anymore,” she would say with a sigh and a long-suffering expression. There was no point in trying to persuade her to move to a ground- floor apartment. “Never! You know perfectly well that intruders always go for apartments on the ground floor!” Irene had tried to tell her that wasn’t the case at all, but to no avail. She simply had to accept that her mother didn’t want to move; the very idea was just too much for her. At the same time, Irene realized that the day would come when Gerd couldn’t stay where she was, two floors up with no elevator. To tell the truth, that day had already come, since her mother could no longer manage the stairs. She couldn’t go shopping alone or out for a walk. When she had a doctor’s appointment, she couldn’t get down to the patients’ cab service. The laundry room in the cellar was completely inaccessible. In fact she needed help with most things if she had to move from one place to another, but she could still cope with personal hygiene, cooking, and light housework.
    It took several hours to clean the apartment from top to bottom; Gerd was very pleased with the final result. The smell of detergent and the sight of sparkling windows with freshly ironed curtains cheered her up enormously. Krister had brought lunch: salmon pie with spinach and cheddar cheese, accompanied by a crisp salad and homemade flatbread, to be enjoyed with a little extra-salted butter. Gerd looked very content when they had finished eating and the coffee machine had been switched on.
    “It’s so kind of you to help me. I hate always having to ask; I’m used to getting by on my own,” Gerd said.
    Krister put his arm around his mother-in-law’s thin shoulders.
    “Well, you helped us out for many years when the twins were little. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
    “It was my pleasure. They’re my grandchildren after all! To be honest, without them I would never have gotten through the period when Rune and my parents died. I went to four funerals that year: Rune, my parents and my cousin Gunnar. It was a terrible year, but the girls were a glimmer of light in the darkness.”
    She smiled and met Irene’s gaze. Suddenly she became serious again.
    “It’s such a long time ago now. Seventeen years. Time passes, and so do we,” she said wearily.
    She looked out of her clean kitchen window at the sparse leaves beginning to unfurl on the tops of the trees.
    “All these deaths . . .”
    A deep silence fell in the little kitchen. Irene looked at her mother’s lined face. How old she looked these days! Really, really old. It had happened so fast. But she didn’t say anything; it was Gerd who broke the silence.
    “I really need to see a dentist. I’ve lost a filling, and it’s painful. Could one of you go with me?”
    Irene sighed to herself. Both she and Krister were really busy with work.
    “I’ll give your dentist a call and book an appointment for when I’m free,” Krister said.
    Irene gave him a grateful smile. Her husband was an absolute rock, and she loved him for it.
    •••
    “I want to quit.”
    Irene almost ran into the car in front of them when Krister dropped his bombshell with no warning. She managed to stamp on the brake and avoided ending up in the trunk of the Renault Laguna.
    “What do you mean, quit?” she said, taken aback.
    “I’m getting sick of the job. That little TV chef spends all his time running around showing off. He’s barely turned thirty and he thinks he’s the greatest master chef ever, just because he stands in front of a camera on a local TV station once a week throwing a meal together.”
    He