When I had sat with Gerry, it was obvious how important he had been to Stieg. He was Stieg’s friend and mentor for more than twenty years. But Eva had known Stieg for ten years longer than that, and when he passed away, she was closer to him than anyone. She was his life partner. And she lost her life partner when he died. I wouldn’t ask her again how it felt to live with a loss like that, so I chose a different question instead. “How much did Stieg work?” I said. Eva stopped. She leaned forward over the table between us and looked me in the eye. “It’s not possible to work so many hours of the
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