Hinseberg turned out not to be the best place to spend your summer! There was no Cadier bar or Veranda restaurant here, oh no. No goose or pyramid cake either, for that matter. Martha tossed and turned in her bed and found it hard to get to sleep. It was hot, and unfortunately she couldn’t go to the window and open it wide. She was in prison, after all. She pulled the covers off, puffed up her pillow and lay down again. But sleep eluded her, and Liza was at the back of her mind all the time. Perhaps it had been foolhardy to challenge her. Anyway, it had happened now and tomorrow she would lay the table for all of them.
When Liza came into the kitchen the next day she pretended not to notice that the coffee cup and plates were set out for her, but just sat down and helped herself to breakfast. As usual she looked as though she was in a mood, and she didn’t even acknowledge Martha’s presence. She held her hands around the coffee cup and now and then threw a glance out the window. Martha wondered what was wrong with the girl, because you could see that she was extremely unhappy. Her facial features were taut, her skin was grey and she had a vacant look in her eyes. If anyone spoke to her, she just muttered or simply didn’t bother to answer. A little later, in the gym, Martha decided to try to talk to her.
‘Hello,’ said Martha.
‘What are you doing in here?’
‘Even a dinosaur has to keep in shape.’
Some other girls came in and went directly to the exercise machines. Liza ignored them, put a mat on the floor and started with sit-ups.
‘I hear you’re going to get a temporary release,’ said Martha after a while when Liza took a break.
She got a grunt in reply.
‘Aren’t you pleased?’
Liza stretched out full length on the floor and began to do press-ups. Martha shrugged her shoulders and lifted some dumb-bells.
‘You know what, when I get my first temporary release I won’t have anywhere to go,’ Martha said after a while in a new attempt to start up a conversation. ‘I left the retirement home, now God knows …’
Liza, who was now on her way to the exercise cycle, stopped.
‘Welcome to reality. Those of us who end up in prison always lose our apartments. In the workshop we earn enough to buy candy and ciggies, but no more. If we haven’t got parents or a guy on the outside who’ll pay the rent, then we get kicked out. Then the authorities wonder why we relapse into crime.’
Martha had never thought of that. Then how could you make your way back to a normal life when you were finally released?
‘You must have been through quite a lot, I suppose?’ Martha went on.
‘I don’t want to talk about it!’
‘But—’
Liza got up and left the gym.
During the next few days, Liza governed her domain as before, and she pretended not to even see Martha. A few days before Liza was due to go, Martha was in the laundry room alone when Liza came in. Martha gave a start.
‘Did I give you a fright?’ said Liza when she caught sight of Martha. She nipped past her and stood so that she blocked the door. ‘Well, look what we have here! So you dare to go around alone?’
The ceiling light was rather weak and there was a smell of wet wool and laundry soap. The floor was wet, and a laundry basket had been tipped over in the corner. Martha pretended to be indifferent, but her heart was beating faster than usual. She had gone to the laundry room to see if she could handle the machines without any help. She hadn’t counted on bumping into Liza.
‘Is this washing machine okay?’ Martha asked, nodding at the one closest to her. She hoped that her voice sounded natural.
‘See for yourself. Stick your head in the drum and I’ll turn it on,’ Liza answered and lit a cigarette.
Martha pretended she hadn’t heard the malicious remark, cleared her throat and coughed because of the smoke.
‘Is this your laundry?’ she asked, pointing at one of the machines that was in the middle of a drying cycle.
‘Yes, but I’ll come back when it’s finished.’
Martha headed towards the door, but Liza wouldn’t let her get past.
‘Hinseberg is an aquarium, have you thought about that? The screws can see you everywhere. But not here. Not here and not in the showers. Sit down.’ She pointed at the bench beside the washing machines.
‘I thought I’d go out and wait till you’ve finished.’
‘No, sit down.’
Martha hesitated at first, but then went and sat down.
‘About the paintings. I’ve been thinking about them,’ said Liza as she took a bit of tobacco off her tongue. ‘A Renoir and a Monet; a lot of money, that is.’
‘For the person who finds them, yes.’
‘Come off it. Where are they?’
‘Don’t know. We managed to steal some of the most valuable paintings in Sweden, and then they disappeared after we received the ransom money. I wonder if there is a link there, if somebody traced us and got into the suite when we were gone.’
Liza took a step forward so that she stood right in front of her. Far too close, thought Martha.
‘OK, you’re a first-timer, but you don’t seem to have understood. We stick together in here. Out with it. Where are the paintings?’
‘They were in the suite when we left the Grand Hotel and they were gone when we got back. I don’t know any more than that.’
‘Which suite?’
‘As if I’d tell you that,’ said Martha. ‘Anyway, the paintings aren’t there any longer.’
‘Oh yeah, then it doesn’t matter.’
‘That’s right, of course.’ Martha stopped. ‘Yes, I wonder myself what happened. Who got into the suite to steal the paintings? It must have been somebody who knew that we had disguised them.’
‘Disguised them?’
‘Yes, you should have seen what the paintings looked like,’ said Martha, and now she had to smile. ‘We painted in a hat and sailing boats and a bit more besides so that they wouldn’t be recognizable. But nevertheless they disappeared.’
Liza knocked the ash off her cigarette and took a deep drag.
‘Somebody could have recognized the paintings and then sold them.’
‘But who? We were only gone two nights.’
‘The hotel staff or the other guests, of course. If somebody hasn’t simply switched the paintings.’
‘Actually, there were two others hanging there when we came back,’ Martha remembered.
‘There, you see, aren’t I right?’
‘But the police have been round the entire hotel and searched. They didn’t find anything. And we were going to give the paintings back when we got the ransom money.’
‘And you got it?’
‘The money disappeared.’ Here Martha did actually stretch the truth a little, since she didn’t want to say that some of the ransom money had been saved and was waiting for them in the drainpipe.
‘Hang on, this is getting confusing. You carry out a record-breaking coup but you lose the loot and the ransom money?’
‘Yes, it was our first crime, you see. It’s a pity about the pictures.’
Liza took a step closer and leaned over Martha. For a moment she wondered if Liza was going to stub out the cigarette in her face.
‘Have the police questioned the cleaning staff?’
‘Don’t know. The police must have interrogated everybody.’
‘Somebody, one of the staff, could have taken the paintings. A bit of money might get them to talk.’
‘But I’m locked up for a year.’
‘I get my temporary release in a few days. I can help you, but I want ten per cent of the ransom.’
‘The money has disappeared, I said.’
‘Listen, sweetie. It can’t all have disappeared. I’ll go along with perhaps some of the money disappearing, but not all of it. And the paintings are out there somewhere. They have either been sold down the line, in which case it’s too late, or somebody has them and is lying low. Anybody at the hotel could have recognized them and now they are simply waiting for the police to offer a reward.’
‘You’re right. Why didn’t I think of that?’
‘Being a criminal is a profession. You need assistance. Admittedly, you are as old as the hills, but that doesn’t make you any wiser.’ Liza gave Martha a measured look. ‘I can do the rounds and ask my contacts. When I’ve found the paintings, I’ll get my ten per cent. We will both be winners then.’
‘I don’t know, there are several of us involved. I can’t decide this on my own,’ Martha answered.
‘Listen. It doesn’t actually make any difference. You’ve already revealed enough for me to fix this myself.’ Martha saw a dark expression pass over Liza’s face before she continued. ‘Did you really think I would share with you? Lesson one here at Hinseberg is that you shouldn’t say too much. Lesson two is that you shouldn’t trust anybody.’
‘But—’
Liza took her clothes out of the dryer and walked off without another word.
The night before her temporary release, Liza suddenly succumbed to a severe stomach bug. She lay in bed all the next day and the day after, and she and her probation officer never actually left. Nobody except Martha knew what had caused it. She still had some of Rake’s herbs. Nobody had searched the reflector arm of her walker.