In Bad Company (Sandhamn Murders)

by Viveca Sten

  “He’s trying to take Lukas away from me.”

  “It’s not that easy.” Anna-Maria gave her a comforting pat on the cheek. “The prosecutor and Herman Wibom have every intention of fighting for you—put your trust in them. Back in my day, legal counsel wasn’t automatically appointed, but you have someone who’s totally on your side.”

  Mina nodded shakily. She tried to remember the feeling of strength she’d had when she left the house on Trastvägen, just before Andreis spotted her. “Do you really think I can do it? Testify against Andreis?”

  Anna-Maria took Mina’s face between her two hands. “You have to testify against him. It’s your only chance. If you can help put him in jail, then you have to do it. There’s no other way of escaping from that bastard.”

  CHAPTER 78

  Dino was sitting in the back seat of the silver-gray Mercedes he usually drove. The streets were dark and empty as the car pulled into the deserted parking lot. He did his best to focus, even though he was drunk.

  “Where are we going?” he asked.

  The gorillas on either side of him didn’t react. He’d met Jovan and Nermin many times in Andreis’s company when things were a little tense and Andreis needed extra protection. Nermin was also related to Andreis.

  Right now they were acting as if they’d never seen Dino before.

  He really needed to pee.

  Emir was driving. He stopped the car and switched off the engine. “OK.”

  Dino tried to orient himself. They’d traveled for no more than twenty-five minutes. They must be outside Stockholm, but he couldn’t figure out where. They were surrounded by trees; no sign of any houses. They’d left the freeway and taken minor roads for the last few miles.

  “Are we meeting Andreis?” he asked Emir, making an effort to sound as if everything were perfectly normal.

  “Shut the fuck up.”

  Jovan pushed Dino out of the car and gripped his arm firmly. They set off toward a dilapidated building. Dino recognized it now; it was the disused factory in Lännersta. Andreis had used it in the past when dealing with people who were causing him problems.

  He forced down a sudden surge of bile. Gravel and garbage crunched beneath his feet with every step. He attempted to turn his head to see where the others had gone, but Jovan dragged him over to a metal door, then pushed down the handle and nudged it open with his elbow. He shoved Dino so hard that he stumbled and fell to his knees on the concrete floor.

  Dino looked around, but the room was pitch black. He registered the sound of dripping water just before the ceiling light came on, blinding him. He blinked several times, then saw Andreis leaning against the wall with his arms folded.

  Andreis studied Dino without saying a word.

  All trace of intoxication disappeared. Dino got to his feet, every nerve on full alert. His mouth was so dry that his tongue was sticking to his palate. “Andreis! How’s it going?” His voice shot up into a falsetto in spite of his efforts to sound normal. “Why did you want to meet here?”

  “Sit down.”

  Andreis pointed to a wooden chair in the middle of the floor. Dino knew exactly what was going to happen; he’d been in similar situations with others who feared for their lives.

  His heartbeat was pounding in his ears, and he felt dizzy.

  Andreis knew everything. He’d found out the truth, and now he was going to punish him.

  “What’s this about, Andreis? I don’t know what you think I’ve done, but whatever it is, you’re mistaken.”

  “Sit down.”

  Andreis’s tone was ice cold. Dino knew better than to argue. He moved toward the chair, although every instinct was telling him not to. He had no choice; he was caught like a rat in a trap. Jovan was between him and the door, and Nermin was on guard outside. Emir couldn’t be far away.

  Dino perched on the very edge of the chair.

  “Look at me,” Andreis said.

  Dino obeyed, suddenly aware of footsteps approaching from behind. Someone grabbed his hands and secured them with cable ties. Dino let it happen; he knew how this worked. The more you struggled, the more the ties cut into the flesh.

  He’d used them himself on other people.

  Andreis’s face was expressionless.

  Another sound behind his back made Dino break out in a sweat, but he had no way of defending himself. Something cold was slipped over his head and pushed down until it reached his neck. A wire garrote, pulled just tight enough to press on his Adam’s apple.

  The gag reflex kicked in immediately.

  “For fuck’s sake, Andreis!”

  He could hardly get the words out. They came one by one, hoarse and desperate.

  “I haven’t done anything,” he rasped. “I’d never betray you, you know that. You know me.”

  Andreis came closer until his face was only inches away from Dino’s. His eyes were bloodshot, the pupils enormous. Dino could see the same madness staring at him as earlier in the day when he’d tried to stop Andreis from shooting through the doors of the bus—but now Andreis was also drunk and high. “Are you the one who talked, you little shit?”

  Dino searched for an answer that would appease his boss. “What’s this about?” he managed to say, even though every syllable was agony. “I’ve always been loyal to you.”

  The man holding the garrote hadn’t said a word, but the aftershave was all too familiar. Emir.

  Andreis wasn’t in the mood for a discussion. The garrote was tightened until it became hard to breathe. Dino felt an intense urge to swallow, but resisted for fear that the pressure would increase still more. His field of vision was filled with little black dots; there was a rushing noise in his ears, and his temples were throbbing.

  Andreis brought his face closer. “You talked to the cops—admit it.”

  The pressure eased a fraction; it was possible to breathe. Dino filled his lungs with air. “It’s all a misunderstanding,” he gasped. “I swear on my mother’s grave, I’ve always got your back.” His head exploded with pain as Andreis struck him hard with the gun. Warm, sticky blood trickled down from his eyebrow. Through a dark-red curtain he whispered: “Please.”

  “Admit it was you.”

  He hadn’t called for Mina’s sake; he’d done it to save Andreis from himself, but Dino knew he would never be able to make Andreis understand. “I swear. For fuck’s sake, Andreis. We grew up together. You’re my brother.”

  If he could just make eye contact with Andreis, make him see that the whole thing was a terrible misunderstanding. They’d been friends for over twenty years—it couldn’t end like this.

  I don’t want to die.

  “How could you betray me?” Andreis was almost in tears. “We were brothers, you and I, yet you sold me down the river.” He kicked out at a broken pipe on the floor; it crashed into the wall. “You let me down! You let me down, you bastard, just like everyone else! I can’t trust anyone!”

  Dino pressed his back against the chair in a futile attempt to get farther away from the man who seemed to have decided that Dino had to die.

  Andreis raised his hand again and smashed the gun into Dino’s jaw. The blow was so powerful that Dino felt as if his head might actually come off. He bit his tongue, and his mouth filled with blood and fragments of tooth. He spat and swallowed at the same time, convinced that he was about to choke on his own blood. He could taste nothing but iron.

  “Why are you making me do this?” Andreis yelled. “I trusted you!”

  “I did it for your sake,” Dino managed to snivel, blood pouring from his eyebrow and chin.

  “What did you say?”

  “If you’d killed her . . . ,” Dino sobbed.

  The words were hard to make out; they were more of a pathetic grunt emerging through a sodden mess of blood and mucus.

  “That’s it, he’s confessed!” Emir rejoiced. “I knew he was the leak, I told you from the start.”

  The pressure from the garrote disappeared, and instead Dino fel
t the barrel of the gun against his temple.

  A warm stream of urine soaked his pants and ran onto the floor.

  “Look at that!” Emir yelled, somewhere above his head. “He’s fucking pissed himself!”

  Andreis’s contorted face came even closer.

  Then everything went black.

  Wednesday

  CHAPTER 79

  When Mina woke up, her body felt heavy. For the first time in weeks, she’d slept deeply, without nightmares. The sheets weren’t crumpled and sweaty as they usually were, but she still felt exhausted and disorientated, as if she were surrounded by a thick fog.

  She glanced over at the crib. It was empty.

  Lukas!

  Her heart missed a beat, then she remembered Anna-Maria’s promise to watch him during the night. She’d taken him away so that he wouldn’t wake Mina. He was absolutely fine. She didn’t need to worry about him. She was still safe at Freya’s Haven, and Andreis was far away. He didn’t know where she was, and he would never find out.

  Anna-Maria’s words came back to her. She wanted Mina to fight; otherwise Andreis would kill her. Mina had to stand up for herself.

  She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. How was she going to find the courage to do that? Maybe she could talk to Herman Wibom, tell him about the secret email account? The pictures she’d hidden away online?

  The very thought gave her palpitations.

  Andreis would be furious if he found out. He’d never stop trying to hunt her down. She wouldn’t be able to hide from him, because he wouldn’t give up. She knew him well enough to realize that.

  But she had to break free. Anna-Maria was right.

  Mina reached for her phone and logged in to the email account she’d registered eighteen months ago. She’d used it to send pictures to herself—she didn’t dare save them on her cell in case Andreis found them. She entered her password with trembling fingers. It was all there.

  Images of the cuts and bruises Andreis had inflicted on her, photos of her medical notes when she’d been forced to seek treatment for her injuries . . . the doctors and nurses had logged everything.

  She might have lied about what had happened in order to protect Andreis from the police, but the official record was there. She’d documented as much as she dared on her phone on a regular basis, and it was all accessible online.

  She closed down her account. If Anna-Maria was right, there was only one way to escape from Andreis. She got up and pulled on her robe—time to fetch Lukas. She hesitated for a moment.

  If she didn’t cooperate with the police, there was a strong probability that Andreis would walk free, as Leila had said. Then she would never know peace.

  But she was so frightened of him.

  There was no one to ask for advice; her mother was in a coma, and she didn’t want to bother her father. She sank down on the bed again. What should she do with the pictures? Could she show them to someone?

  Was she brave enough to do that?

  CHAPTER 80

  Aram stuck his head around the door of Thomas’s office.

  “Margit wants to talk to us.”

  Thomas looked up. “Now?”

  “Now.”

  Thomas followed Aram to Margit’s office at the end of the corridor. She was on the phone, but beckoned them in and pointed to the visitor’s chairs.

  The only photograph on her desk showed her grown-up daughters smiling at the camera with blond hair, tanned and relaxed—the polar opposite of Margit’s troubled expression. Bertil, her quiet husband of thirty years, wasn’t in the picture.

  “I’ll send a team over right away,” Margit said, ending the call. She put down the phone and leaned back, clasping her hands behind her neck. Thomas realized this was something serious. When Margit frowned like that, it was never good news. “A jogger has found a dead body in the Nacka Nature Reserve,” she said. “Buried.”

  “What happened?” Aram asked.

  “The jogger had his dog with him. It started scratching at the ground and barking, so he went to see what was wrong.”

  “Do we know anything about the cause of death?” Thomas said.

  “Shot at close range. The victim’s face looks like ground beef.”

  “Any sign of a murder weapon?” Aram wanted to know.

  Margit smiled wearily. “Is it ever that easy? The body and the murder weapon served up together?”

  Aram shrugged and touched the small gold cross he always wore on a chain around his neck. “Sometimes God is good.”

  “Not this time.”

  Thomas got to his feet. “Is Staffan on his way?”

  Staffan Nilsson, the most experienced forensic technician on the team, had been persuaded to stay on for a while longer, even though he should have retired several years earlier. If Margit wasn’t formally appointed as head of department soon, Thomas knew that Staffan would quit.

  “The CSIs are on the way, but I don’t know who’s on duty,” Margit said, picking up her phone. “There are so many of them these days—it’s hard to keep track.”

  CHAPTER 81

  Nora was on her way up from the subway by the courthouse when her phone rang. She stopped and rooted around in her purse. Why was it always at the bottom? Was it dictated by some law of nature?

  It was Anna-Maria from the shelter. “Good morning. I’m sorry to call you so early, but I have something important to tell you.”

  “No problem—I’m just on my way to work.” Nora popped in her white earbuds as she waited her turn to pass through the gate. There was the usual crush, with everyone in a hurry.

  “Mina’s going to testify against her husband,” Anna-Maria said.

  “Sorry?” Nora stopped dead, and a woman in a bright-red duffel coat pushed past her, giving Nora a hard shove in the ribs as she did so. Nora gave her an angry scowl, which she ignored.

  “She’s changed her mind,” Anna-Maria went on. “She’s decided to do it.”

  At last.

  When Nora left Runmarö the previous day, she hadn’t had much hope that Mina would stand up in court. She clearly couldn’t cope anymore. Nora had told Jonathan she would file the charges today; there was no point in waiting any longer.

  “Are you absolutely certain?” she asked Anna-Maria.

  “We had a long talk yesterday, then she had a good sleep while I watched Lukas. We talked again at breakfast. I think she’s reached a point where she’s realized it’s the only way to free herself from her husband.” Anna-Maria sounded relieved. “Between you and me, it’s the best that could happen. Nothing else will stop that man.”

  Nora had to agree.

  “Of course she’ll need protection, or she won’t do it,” Anna-Maria added. “She has to be able to rely on you.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll look after her.” Nora hoped she wasn’t promising too much. She would have to speak to Leila; the lack of resources was a constant concern.

  She’d reached Hantverkargatan, and turned left toward the Economic Crimes Authority’s offices. A red bus pulled up at the stop outside.

  “Mina’s ready to speak to you today, if that’s convenient,” Anna-Maria told her. “It might be a good idea to strike while the iron’s hot.”

  Nora tried to remember what her schedule looked like. She had no meetings this morning, as far as she could recall. It felt as if they were shuttling back and forth to Runmarö all the time, but it was worth it if Mina really had changed her mind.

  “We’ll be there as soon as we can,” she said. “Tell Mina she’s definitely made the right decision.”

  CHAPTER 82

  When Thomas and Aram reached the clearing in the forest, the area had already been cordoned off with blue-and-white police tape. There was no sign of Staffan Nilsson, but another technician whom Thomas vaguely recognized was on his knees by the body, a look of intense concentration on his face.

  A short distance away, a man in his forties was sitting on a tree stump, with a black Labrador at his feet. As soo
n as the dog saw Thomas and Aram, it got to its feet and started wagging its tail.

  Thomas showed his ID and introduced himself to the jogger, who was clearly still in shock.

  “We have one or two initial questions,” he explained. “If you feel up to answering them now, that would be very helpful. We can take a full statement at the station later.”

  The man, whose name was Linus Roslund, had no objections. His blue tracksuit pants were damp, with noticeable grass stains. He must have dropped to his knees by the grave when he realized what the dog had found.

  Thomas took out his notebook. “Can you remember what time it was when you found the body?”

  “Around seven thirty. I usually leave home shortly after seven, and do a circuit of just over three miles.”

  “Do you often run out here?” Aram asked.

  Roslund nodded. “Every other morning—sometimes several days in a row. I live nearby, so this is my home area.”

  Exactly the answer Thomas had been hoping for. “Did you come here yesterday? Do you always follow the same route?”

  Roslund didn’t seem to understand the point of the questions. “Yes.”

  “And do you always bring your dog?”

  “Yes. He enjoys a good run.”

  “But he didn’t react yesterday—no scratching or barking?”

  “No.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. You should have seen him when . . .”

  Roslund broke off, the color draining from his face beneath the stubble. He scratched his cheek, his fingertips and nails still grubby with earth. He must have started digging with his hands before he realized he ought to call the police.

  “Labbe went crazy,” he said. “I’ve never seen him behave like that.”

  He reached out and stroked the dog, who wound himself around his master’s legs, overcome with joy.

  “I came back to see what he was doing. He usually sticks pretty close to me.” Roslund blinked at the significance of what he’d just said. “If the body had been there yesterday, Labbe would have reacted.”