The Return

by Håkan Nesser

  The garden was overgrown, no two ways about that. He stuck a toothpick in his mouth and looked around. He began walking around the house but was forced to give up about halfway when he found himself up to the armpits in nettles. No matter, he thought. It wasn’t too difficult to get an impression of what it must have looked like once upon a time. A plot of land taken over by man around the middle of the last century, tamed by plow and harrow, a lot of hard work and tender loving care. But now well on the way back into the arms of Mother Nature. Aspen and birch saplings had eaten into large chunks of the orchard; paved areas, the cellar and outhouses were lost in undergrowth and covered in moss; and the big barn, which had presumably been the famous poultry farm, would surely not survive many more winters. It was very clear that a border had been crossed—the limit beyond which it was no longer possible to reclaim what nature had taken hold of.

  Not for an old lag living on his own, at least.

  The Big Shadow?

  With hindsight it was obvious that the house name was prophetic. He found the key, and after considerable effort succeeded in opening the door. He had to bend down so as not to hit his head on the door frame, and inside there was only just sufficient headroom for him to stand upright. He recalled having read in the newspapers about a month ago that the average height of people had shot up remarkably over the past hundred years. His own six feet two inches would presumably have been considered abnormal when the first settlers moved into this house.

  Two rooms and a kitchen on the ground floor. A narrow, creaking staircase led up from a three-foot-square hall to a loft full of old newspapers, broken furniture and other junk. A faint smell of soot and sun-warmed dust clung to the rafters. He sneezed several times, then went back down to the kitchen. He felt the big iron stove, as if expecting to find it hot. Examined the bad reproduction of an almost equally bad original landscape painting hanging over the sofa, then entered the living room. The cracked windowpanes. A sideboard. Table and four ill-matched chairs. A sofa and a typically 1950s television set. A sagging bookshelf with getting on for a hundred books, most of them cheap crime novels or adventure stories. On the wall to the right of the stove was a mirror and a framed black-and-white photograph of a runner breaking the finishing tape. His face seemed tormented, almost tortured. At first he thought it was Verhaven himself, but when he went up to it and examined it more closely, he saw the caption and recognized the man: Emil Zatopek. The Czech locomotive, as he was called. The self-torturer. The man who overcame the pain barrier.

  Had he been Verhaven’s ideal?

  Or was it just typical of the time? Zatopek had been the king of the track in the early fifties, if his memory served him rightly. Or one of them, at least.

  He left the living room for the bedroom and stood gazing at the double bed that, despite its modest size, took up almost all the floor space.

  But a double bed? Yes, of course, Verhaven had lived with a lot of women. Not all of them had been murdered. At least, he assumed not.

  “Was this your bedroom, then?” muttered Van Veeteren, fumbling for a new toothpick. “Did you get one night’s sleep as a free man, or didn’t he even allow you that?”

  He left the bedroom.

  What the hell am I doing here? he thought suddenly. What am I kidding myself that I can sort out by strutting around here? Even if I begin to form an impression of what Verhaven was really like, that’s not going to get me one inch closer to the answer.

  The answer to the question of who murdered him, that is.

  He was overcome with exhaustion and sat down at the kitchen table. Closed his eyes and watched the flickering yellow light that floated past from right to left. Always from right to left: He wondered what that might be due to. They had warned him that he would have moments of weakness, but he hadn’t fully realized that they would be as treacherous as this, practically making his legs give way under him.

  He rested his head in his hands. Reinhart always said you should never try to think about anything important when your head’s not right. It’s better to shut down altogether, otherwise you’ll only fill it with a lot of garbage.

  An unusually ugly tablecloth, he thought therefore, when he had opened his eyes again. But it seems somehow familiar. Didn’t Aunt K. have one like it when I visited her in summer about the beginning of the fifties? In that boathouse heated by the summer sun, where you could hear the water lapping under the floorboards. It felt a long way away from The Big Shadow in both time and space, but it must have been around the time when Verhaven left his father here in Kaustin to lead his own independent life.

  Forty years ago, or thereabouts.

  And then things turned out the way they did….

  That’s life, Van Veeteren thought. One big goddamn lottery!

  Or wasn’t it like that, in fact? Were there directions and patterns?

  A determinant?

  Münster leaned against the old gravestone and looked at the clock.

  Ten minutes past ten. There were voices inside his head stubbornly urging him to go to the car and immediately drive back to The Big Shadow. The chief inspector had been on his own for more than an hour at this point—recently operated on, weak and sickly; it could be regarded as irresponsible not to keep an eye on him.

  But there were other voices as well. Van Veeteren hadn’t actually insisted on any more than one hour of solitary majesty, although he had set the limit at half past ten. Münster had to choose between arriving too soon and arriving too late. An awkward choice, certainly; but if he stuck to the later time, at least he would escape being told off for disturbing the chief inspector’s holy thought processes. If Van Veeteren turned out to be unconscious somewhere among all the junk, that would be a serious matter, to be sure. But he’d rather turn up as an angel of mercy than as an unwelcome and premature intruder.

  Münster closed his eyes. From inside the church came the muted, monotonous chanting of today’s sermon. He had watched the whole flock—about twenty pious souls—come wandering at regular intervals along the newly raked gravel path to the church door, where the shepherd had greeted each one with a handshake and a watery smile. Münster had tried to remain discreetly in the background, but the prelate had naturally got wind of him and fixed him with his beckoning gaze. Who was this person remaining willfully outside the temple gates?

  But Münster had resisted. The other sheep had trotted slowly and patiently inside. The shepherd followed them in. The bells binged and bonged ten o’clock, a flock of temporarily homeless pigeons fled the steeple, and the service got under way.

  The average age was unusually high, Münster noted as the doors closed behind them. It was clear to him that all the faithful would doubtless have deepened and sealed their relationship with the church within ten to fifteen years at most. By lying down to rest in the churchyard, that is.

  Or being laid to rest, rather.

  On a day like today he was almost inclined to envy them, just a little bit. Or at the very least to detect something serene and transfigured in this well-tended graveyard surrounding the ancient stone-built church with its recently repaired and profane red-tiled roof and black lacquered weathercock. Here, obviously, there was no cruel and avenging God. No trumpets sounding on the day of judgment. No eternal and inevitable damnation.

  Only tenderness, reconciliation and the forgiveness of sins.

  Mercy?

  And then Synn intervened and interrupted (or joined in) his pious thoughts. The image of her naked body, curled up on her side in a summer-warm bed, her knees raised and her dark hair fanned out over the pillow and her shoulders: This image filled him with another kind of tenderness, the same uncomplicated happiness he had felt at the kitchen table a few hours ago, perhaps. And before long, he was recalling the talk about making love in the sight of God in the Garden of Eden He had created. If they could work out how to keep the children out of the way for a while, that ought not to be impossible. They had managed it before; soon he was busy recalling various
moments of passion…. Making love in the rowboat on Lake Weimar last summer. In the middle of the lake with only the sky and the gulls as witnesses. And another occasion, early one morning high up on a Greek mountain with a panoramic view over the deep blue Mediterranean Sea. Not to mention the beach at Laguna Monda—that was before Bart was born, one of the very first times…. They had lain there in the warm, dense darkness with the breeze from the mountains caressing her body, her incredibly smooth skin and her…

  A chord from the organ brought him back to his senses. Presumably it was intended to wake up a few other sheep dozing off in the flock inside the church. He opened his eyes and shook his head. The hymn singing gathered strength. With the vicar’s baritone, magnified by the microphone around his neck, leading the way, it floated out of the open windows and rose unshackled through the leaves of the trees, up into the heavens, where it was received and enjoyed, one can assume, by those already in residence to whom it was doubtless and unreservedly addressed.

  Hallelujah, Münster thought, and yawned.

  He sat up and checked his watch.

  Twenty-seven minutes past. Time to act. He stood up, made his way through the graves and jumped over the wall next to where his car was parked. He had just opened the door and was about to get in when he clapped eyes on the chief inspector. He was strolling toward the churchyard, an unpleasant sight with his shirt unbuttoned down to his navel and a garishly colored handkerchief knotted over his head. There were sweat stains under his arms, and his face was worryingly red; but amid all the wretchedness was a certain expression of satisfaction. A sort of restrained, contented grimace that could hardly be overlooked. Certainly not by somebody who had been around for as long as Münster had.

  “There you are,” he said. “I was just going to get you. How’s it gone?”

  “OK, thanks,” said the chief inspector, removing the handkerchief from his head. “Damned hot, though.”

  “You took your time, I reckon,” Münster ventured. “Was there really all that much to scratch around in up there?”

  Van Veeteren shrugged.

  “There was a bit,” he said. “I had a chat with the neighbors on the way down as well. Had a beer with the Czermaks. It was all go.”

  He wiped his forehead. Münster waited, but the chief inspector said nothing more.

  “Did you get anywhere?” Münster asked eventually.

  “Hmm,” said Van Veeteren. “I think so. Let’s be off, then.”

  As usual, Münster thought, slumping down behind the wheel. Just the same as ever.

  “Where exactly did you get, then?” he asked once they had got under way, and the wind coming in through the windows had begun to restore the chief inspector’s usual facial color.

  “I have an idea about who might have done it,” said Van Veeteren. “An idea, remember that, Inspector! I’m not claiming that I know anything.”

  “Who?” asked Münster, but he knew that he was wasting his time.

  Instead of answering, the chief inspector leaned back in his seat, stuck his elbow out the window and started to whistle Carmen.

  Münster stepped on the gas and switched on the radio.

  IX

  September 11, 1981

  33

  At least nobody would be able to say that she hadn’t been out in good time.

  She started prowling around the Covered Market as early as half past eight. He didn’t usually finish until about a quarter past nine or even half past, but obviously, it was best to leave a safety margin. The stakes were high, and Renate had made it clear that she wasn’t prepared to wait any longer for her money.

  A lousy two thousand guilders. A few years ago she’d have been able to cough up twice as much as that with no trouble at all. Simply dig down into her purse, pull out a bundle of notes and tell the dolled-up slut to shove the change up her ass.

  It wouldn’t really matter if Renate didn’t get her money; she wasn’t dependent on her. But she was dependent on Raoul, and Renate happened to be Raoul’s woman. For the time being, at least. Without him she would soon be without an apartment and without any work, that was for sure. But what the hell, she could manage on her own account, of course she could, start again from scratch like she’d done before; but there was no denying that it was good to have everything taken care of and made easy for her. Certainly. She was living a pleasant life as middle age started to creep up on her….

  So it was worth making an effort to scrape together the money she owed. She hadn’t really understood how serious the situation was until last night, that was why she was a bit short of time now. Renate hadn’t sounded the same as usual on the telephone; she wouldn’t be able to get away with excuses this time, that had been very obvious.

  Two thousand guilders. A quarter past ten at the Rote Moor. Otherwise, you’re in the shit.

  That was her problem, basically.

  She’d phoned three or four friends, but it had been a waste of time, needless to say. She could have got a few hundred, maybe more, if she’d kept going a bit longer, but it was nearly midnight, and there were limits.

  And then there was Leo Verhaven. He’d struck her as a possibility—perhaps the best one—the moment she’d put the receiver down after Renate’s ultimatum.

  Leo.

  And he didn’t even have a telephone.

  That was somehow typical.

  She checked that the van was parked where it usually stood. By the loading bay in Kreugerlaan. Then she wandered through the market hall and across the square, but she didn’t see him anywhere. She wanted to bump into him as if by accident. A happy coincidence. Hover around like a cat faced with hot milk, perhaps.

  Or would it be better to come straight to the point? Hard to say. Verhaven wasn’t exactly easy to handle.

  She stationed herself next to the monument in Zwille, where she could keep an eye on both the van and the lower part of the square. Sat down on one of the benches under the statue of Torres, lit a cigarette and waited. The pale autumn sun had risen over the rooftops and was spraying jets of heat onto her back and her neck, giving her a feeling of hope and well-being, despite everything. Now she was a cat in the sun again, and when she noticed the furtive looks being given her by some of the passing men, she automatically started adjusting her clothing; she took off her scarf, unfastened a couple of buttons in her blouse, opened her legs the couple of inches every man worthy of the name noticed without being aware of it….

  This is me, she thought. I’m made for this, and I’m better at it than any other woman in the world.

  That was an exaggeration; she knew it was, but just now she needed all the self-confidence she could talk herself into.

  She checked her watch.

  Twenty minutes to ten.

  She had less than two hours left to live.

  He turned up at a quarter to eleven.

  She stood up immediately, crossed over the street and bumped into him just as he was coming round the corner.

  “Leo!” she said, and thought she’d made it sound as much of a nice surprise as she’d intended.

  He stopped. Nodded in that slightly surly way of his. As if she’d interrupted him in the middle of some important calculation or fascinating line of thought. He gave her what might have been the beginnings of a smile. Perhaps there was hope after all.

  She moved closer to him and placed her hand on his arm. Continued smiling. They’d had sex—she counted the occasions in a flash—six times. He was the hot type; no interest at all in foreplay or romantic stuff. Easy to start, hard to drive, as her friend Nellie usually said.

  “Where are you going?” she said.

  Verhaven shrugged. Nowhere, it seemed. Or at least, nowhere important.

  “Could we get together, maybe?”

  “Now?”

  “Yes. I have to meet a friend of mine shortly, but after that if you like.”

  He shrugged again. Not a good sign, she realized that, but she had no choice,

  “I’ve
got a little problem.”

  “Really?” said Verhaven.

  She hesitated. Looked rather worried as she stroked his arm.

  “What kind of a problem?”

  “Money.”

  He didn’t answer. Looked away and stared over her shoulder.

  “Can you help me, please?”

  Nicely put. Just the right pitch between pleading and pride.

  “How much?”

  “Two thousand guilders.”

  “Go to hell.”

  She ran out of steam.

  “Please, Leo…”

  “I have to go.”

  She took hold of him with the other hand as well. Spoke close to his face now.

  “Leo,” she said, “it’s so very, very important. I’ll repay every single…”

  “Let go!”

  He tore himself free. She took a pace back. Bit her upper lip hard and managed to fill her eyes with tears in only one second.

  “Leo…”

  “Good-bye.”

  He thrust her to one side and walked past her. She spun around.

  “Leo!”

  He didn’t even stop. Kept on walking down Zwille and turned into Kreugerlaan. Oh, shit!

  Fucking shit!

  The tears were almost genuine now. She stamped several times and gritted her teeth. Shit!

  A car pulled up beside her. The driver leaned over and rolled down the window.

  “Like to come with me?”

  Without hesitation she opened the door and jumped in.

  When she had dried her tears with the handkerchief he held out for her, she saw who it was.

  She also looked at her watch.

  Ten to ten.

  Maybe it would turn out OK after all.

  X

  May 23–28, 1994

  34

  “Right, we’re dropping this case as of now!”