The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg Read Free Book Online

anniversary last fall so it would be…seventeen years. For fifteen of those years we’ve run this gallery together.’
    She fell silent and to Erica’s astonishment lit a cigarette. For some reason she hadn’t pictured Francine as a smoker. The Frenchwoman’s hand shook a little as she lit the cigarette, and then she took a deep drag without taking her eyes off Erica.
    ‘Didn’t you wonder where she was?’ Erica asked. ‘She must have been lying there a week before we found her.’
    It occurred to Erica that she hadn’t thought to ask Henrik the same question.
    ‘I know it sounds strange, but no, I didn’t. Alex…’ she hesitated. ‘Alex always did pretty much as she liked. It could be incredibly frustrating, but I suppose I got used to it over the years. This wasn’t the first time she was gone for a while. She usually popped up later as if nothing had happened. Besides, she did more than her share when she took care of the gallery all alone when I was on maternity leave. You know, in some way I still think the same thing is going to happen. That she’s going to come walking in the door. But this time I know she won’t.’ A tear threatened to spill from her eye.
    ‘No, she won’t.’ Erica looked down into her coffee cup to allow Francine to dry her eyes discreetly. ‘How did Henrik react whenever Alex simply vanished?’
    ‘You’ve met him. Alex could do no wrong in his eyes. Henri has spent the past fifteen years worshipping her. Poor Henri.’
    ‘Why poor Henri?’
    ‘Alex didn’t love him. Sooner or later he would have been forced to realize that.’
    She stubbed out the first cigarette and lit another.
    ‘You must have known each other inside-out after so many years,’ said Erica.
    ‘I don’t think anyone really knew Alex. Although I probably knew her better than Henri did. He has always refused to take off his rose-tinted glasses.’
    ‘During our conversation Henrik hinted that in all the years of their marriage it felt as though Alex was hiding something from him. Do you know whether that’s true? And if so, what it could be?’
    ‘That was unusually perceptive of him. I may have underestimated Henri.’ She raised a finely shaped eyebrow. ‘To your first question I will answer yes: I’ve always known that she was carrying some sort of baggage. To the second question I must answer no: I don’t have the faintest idea what it could be. Despite our long friendship there was always a point at which Alex would signal, “so far, and no farther”. I accepted it, while Henri did not. Sooner or later it would have broken him. And it probably would have been sooner.’
    ‘Why is that?’
    Francine hesitated. ‘They’re going to do an autopsy on Alex, aren’t they?’
    The question took Erica by surprise.
    ‘Yes, that’s always done for a suicide. Why do you ask?’
    ‘Because then I know that what I’m about to tell you will come out anyway. My conscience feels lighter, at least.’
    She stubbed out the cigarette carefully. Erica held her breath in tense expectation, but Francine took her time lighting a third cigarette. Her fingers didn’t have the characteristic yellow discolouration of a smoker, so Erica suspected that she didn’t usually chain-smoke like this.
    ‘You must know that Alex has been going to Fjällbacka much more often for the past six months or so?’
    ‘Yes, the grapevine works very well in small towns. According to the local gossip, she was in Fjällbacka more or less every weekend. Alone.’
    ‘Alone is not exactly the whole truth.’
    Francine hesitated again. Erica had to check her impulse to lean across the table and shake the woman to make her spit out whatever she was holding back. Her interest was definitely aroused.
    ‘She had met someone there. A man. Well, it wasn’t the first time that Alex had an affair, but somehow I got the feeling that this was different. For the first time in all the years we’ve known each other, she seemed almost