“When will we move to the big house, Daddy?” Beatrice called from the backseat.
I looked at Peter, who was sitting next to me, keeping an eye on his phone’s GPS. He looked up.
“Well, it’s no secret we’ll be moving soon, is it?” said Peter.
There was no point in making a comment.
“When, Daddy?”
With her shrill voice Beatrice had excited Benjamin, who started singing to himself.
“You did look through the descriptions of the houses I set up as favorites?” Peter said calmly to me while Beatrice started kicking against my back support.
“Hmm…Five rooms, right? Should we turn here?”
“Four. A townhouse, but pretty nice, I thought,” said Peter.
“When Daddy, when Daddy, when Daddy, when Daddy…”
“Damn it, be quiet, Bea, and stop kicking.”
I yelled at her. Regretted it immediately. Sighed. She turned quiet. In the corner of my eye I saw Peter looking at me. I gripped the steering wheel, my eyes straight ahead. It bothered me that I wasn’t as calm with the children as he was.
“The house has a pretty big patch of lawn out the back.”
I didn’t understand the point of moving from a small five-room apartment in the city to a four-room townhouse in the suburbs. The one thing I definitely didn’t want was to be a suburban mom in a crowded townhouse area. I could hardly imagine anything worse.
“Stop,” said Peter. “We drove past the turnoff. You’ll have to turn around.”
I clenched my jaw. Felt my irritation growing. I made a quick U-turn over the double line, making every loose object in the car rattle around. Then I accelerated back.
“It must be here,” said Peter when at last we came to a row of blue wooden houses.
It was one of the gloomiest areas I’d seen. Rows of identical wooden buildings all joined together. I shuddered.
“You can get out, I’ll go and park the car.”
As far away from the house as possible, I thought, so it would take a while for me to get there, and Peter would’ve already had a look.
“You can probably park in the driveway,” said Peter. “It looks like that family is leaving.”
We were barely inside the door before a cheerful agent’s assistant demanded our names and telephone number.
“Let us look a little first,” I said and was about to squeeze past.
He looked at Peter who came after.
“Peter Lindberg, hi there.” Peter was polite, as always. “What a nice house this appears to be.”
I went in while he gave his phone number to the agent’s assistant. In the kitchen I was met by an energetic real estate agent who pressed a prospectus into my hand.
“Welcome! I’m sure it was easy to find? Did you come by car or did you take public transport?”
I couldn’t bear to answer.
“There are very good connections into the city from here. Here you see the kitchen, an extremely roomy kitchen that’s well suited for a family of…” The real estate agent looked for the other members of my family, who had now made their way into the kitchen. “Four. Even five will be just fine if you’re planning more.”
He winked at Peter and laughed. I didn’t smile. Peter looked at me worriedly, as if he expected an outburst. I didn’t intend to offer him that.
I looked out the window. The patch of grass that Peter had described as “pretty big” wasn’t even worthy of being called a patch. It was no bigger than a terrace. There didn’t appear to be grass on all of it, either. Parts of it were brown-spotted, and in certain places it was just dirt. I took a quick look around on the top floor, mostly for the sake of appearances. I looked the way you look out the window from an express train — looking, but seeing no details. I tried to keep from imagining what it would be like to live there and went downstairs again. Peter was standing by the window and seemed to be having a conversation with the children about whether they could place a swing set on the left or right side of the dirt pile.
“Are you already through looking?” the real estate agent asked when I was on my way out.
“I want to see the yard too.”
I went straight to the car. When Peter finally came out with the children he was clearly irritated. He didn’t say a word but instead put the kids in their car seats in the back and got in.
“I think it’s way too small, Peter. If we’re going to move we need at least a five-room place.”
He stared out the window without showing that he had heard me.
“By the way, I have to go past the office,” I said. “Can you go by yourself to Aspudden? I can go to the extra showing tomorrow if you think I should see the house.”
Peter didn’t reply. I stopped and got out at work. Let him take the car. He went around the front of the car, got in the driver’s side, and slammed the door.
THIRTY-ONE
I picked up two cups of coffee on my way to the conference room. I must have turned off the alarm clock in my sleep that morning. Peter and the kids were gone. Presumably he had gotten up, fed them breakfast, and taken them to day care. I jumped into the shower and drove straight to work. Not a good way to start the week.
I was still annoyed at Claes for ordering me to work with Minna and Sam, but I promised myself I wouldn’t take it out on them. Hopefully they were enthusiastic and eager to work, so I could toss them a few unimportant tasks.
I stepped into the conference room. My new associates were already there. On time. Heavens, they looked so young. I hadn’t taken much notice of them before, although they had been on the squad for at least a couple of weeks. They looked innocent and undisturbed, somehow. I had learned, however, that it was dangerous to make conclusions based on appearances. Several times I had worked with colleagues who looked as friendly as anything, but in the field they turned into real monsters at the slightest provocation.
The conference room was cold, but the cardigan I needed was at home. The thin turtleneck I had on would hardly be warm enough for an hour in a cold conference room. It would have to be a short meeting.
“This is a special case, you understand. I assume that like everyone else you’ve followed it in the press,” I said.
Minna and Sam nodded. God, what sleepy puppets. Shouldn’t the new, young ones be a little more alert and hungry?
I’d heard rumors that Sam was perhaps not the brightest of colleagues. He had been transferred, which meant that he hadn’t fitted in at his previous squad. This didn’t necessarily indicate that he was completely stupid. Being a little different could be enough for certain managers to think that a person didn’t fit in. Even so, judging by what came out of his mouth at coffee breaks and meetings, I had detected a certain lack of intelligence. He said things like “That crook is gonna get it” and “You know what that sort is like.” Minna, on the other hand, appeared to be his exact opposite. She was quick-witted and sharp. When she opened her mouth, something relevant usually came out. I would need to keep an eye on her. At the moment they were both sitting quietly, waiting for instructions.
“I want you to drop by the Image and Audio Analysis Group and pick up all the video surveillance both from SEB and from Forex. They’re probably looking at it right now but I want you to look through everything instead so that nothing gets missed. Start with SEB.”
I had complete confidence in the Image and Audio Analysis Group. They were efficient and professional. The reason I wanted Minna and Sam to look at the surveillance material was because I wanted them out of the way of the investigation.
“It’s a lot of hours to watch, so you’ll have to stock up on popcorn and Coca-Cola. Keep an eye on people who stay a long time on the premises or seem to be casing it. Note if anyone returns often, or if some people are seen at both crime scenes. In that case, identify them. Report back to me as soon as you see anything unusual. And by that I don’t mean every person who looks a little different, just when you’ve found something of importance to the inve
stigation.”
I was tired of overly sensitive, hyper-suspicious colleagues who were convinced that everyone who looked different from the average Swede was a criminal.
“As I said, don’t bother me with a lot of unfounded guesses.”
“Was that all?” said Minna. “We’ve been told both by Claes and by the head of investigations that we should be involved in the whole investigation.”
I stared at her, over to Sam, and then back at Minna. Leaned slowly forward over the table, keeping my eyes on Minna.
“Let’s be clear that I’m the one running this investigation. The only reason the two of you are here is that I’ve given my approval. The slightest fuss or mistake from you and I’m going to see that both of you go back to Property Crimes. Is that understood?”
It was an act from my side. But showing clearly that they shouldn’t even think about starting to mess with things behind my back was important. Maybe I had overdone it, but it seemed to work. Both of them were staring at me goggle-eyed.
“Understood?” I said, raising my eyebrows, my eyes fixed on Minna.
“Of course,” said Minna quietly, looking down.
That was enough. I softened my tone.
“Believe me, you’re going to be busy. There are hours and hours of video. There is also footage from the nearby subway entrances, escalators, platforms and even from inside the subway cars, if you start to think that the girl might have taken the Red line to the bank.”
I would have expected a little smile, but the goggle-eyes only stared vacantly at me.
“Right. There were a heap of interviews with witnesses who were around the crime scenes. Quite meager. Go out and hold supplementary interviews with the ones who gave vague information.”
Sam did not appear to be listening.
“Listen up, because this is the most important thing of all,” I said. “If anyone contacts you from the media, refer them to me, for God’s sake. Believe me, you don’t want to risk making a blunder.”
They could not so much as breathe a word to the press. Police were generally unwilling to make statements to the media, but you never knew with new colleagues. They might get the idea that they would be noticed within the agency if they stuck their neck out and made a nice-sounding statement. They were probably unaware that it was impossible to get a nice-sounding statement published by the press. The newspapers always twisted and turned every word, so that when all was said and done, the credibility of the whole agency could be jeopardized by one little quote. And the credibility of the agency was sacred. What was left of it, anyway. Not that it had any great significance to me. I just didn’t want any information about the case to get out.
“Questions?”
“Are we going to share your office?” asked Sam.
Hardly, I thought. And here I thought I wasn’t very perceptive. This guy was a joke. I raised my eyebrows. Pretended to be shocked.
“What? Ha! No, no.”
I started gathering my papers.
“You can hold the interviews out where the witnesses are or in the interview rooms. Surveillance video you can look at wherever there’s a computer available or in the video room. If you need space beyond that you can speak to Claes.”
“But it was Claes who said that the three of us should —”
“Is that understood?”
I looked at Minna, who had already started squirming when Sam had asked the question. Both nodded quietly.
I left the room. It was nice to have gotten them out of the way. It would take them at least a week to check through all the surveillance video and interview the witnesses, and in the meantime I could continue working in peace.
THIRTY-TWO
“Leona!”
I turned around. In the drizzling rain I saw Gunnar from the forensics team come running across the inner courtyard inside the police building. It was a sight I had never seen before. He was big and tall. Lumbered along. I couldn’t help smiling; it looked too funny.
“Oh, I’m too old to be running after the ladies,” he said. “The smallest effort gets me out of breath these days.”
I smiled. He had a sense of humor and self-awareness, anyway. He walked beside me on the flagstones, toward the entrance.
“I have some info for you about the girl robbery. One is that the shoeprint we found turned out to be from a plastic sole. You know how kids always used to wear something called slipper socks. It was a pair like that, children’s size twelve. Unfortunately I don’t think that will help you at all because you can find them in quite a few places. But there was another thing that was interesting. We found fibers on the floor of the bank that proved to be fluff from fabric. I read that she had a stuffed animal with her. It might very well be from that.”
“Yes, the girl had a teddy bear with her.”
There was nothing new here, I thought.
“The interesting thing is that there were traces of an odor-eliminating substance.”
I stopped and looked at him with raised eyebrows, trying to look perplexed.
“It’s a chemical mainly used to cover a person’s or an object’s own odor.”
I frowned.
“How does it work?” I said.
“Either you dip the object into the agent or else you spray it on directly. These products are not usually very high quality but there are some that work surprisingly well.”
“Where do you get hold of such things?”
“So far none has been approved by the EU, so they’re sold over the Internet. In the US, though, they sell a lot of them. They’re mainly used by hunters who want to hide themselves from animals in the woods.”
Gunnar slowly shook his head and looked at me.
“It doesn’t appear to be amateurs you’re dealing with, Leona. If it was bad weather besides, windy, it would be hard for the pooches to pick up any trace.”
I looked at him and nodded.
“Now a starving man is going to get some lunch,” he said. “I’ll send you the forensic report later. I just wanted to tell you as soon as possible.”
“Thanks, Gunnar. Give me a call if anything else shows up.”
THIRTY-THREE
With one hand around a paper coffee cup, I called and listened to my voice messages.
“Leona, this is Stina Hedlund from the Myggan day care center. It would be good if you could come and pick up Benjamin as soon as possible. He has stomach cramps again.”
I sighed. Stina sounded irritated. I had wanted to change day care centers for a long time but Peter had insisted that the children should stay where they were. According to him it was the most practical choice, because Myggan was closest to home. Personally I thought that what was most practical was someplace that didn’t irritate and upset me as soon as I had to deal with it. Stina and I had never gotten along. She was probably good with the kids, but she didn’t seem to like adults. Possibly that said something about the level of her intelligence. On the other hand, she seemed to like Peter. I didn’t understand why Stina hadn’t called him instead. I had lots of work to do, but I didn’t have the energy to call and argue with Peter about going to pick up Benji, so I got into the car and drove to the day care center.
Next week we had an appointment with Benjamin’s new doctor.
“He’s in the cozy room,” said Stina curtly. “By the way, he’s only been asking for his dad.”
“So why didn’t you call him?” I said, leaning over to take off my boots at the shoe boundary.
The one time I had been stressed and gone past the boundary with shoes on, Stina’s shrill voice had almost broken in her eagerness to reprimand me.
“I did, of course, but he didn’t answer. He was probably in an important meeting.”
She studied my well-polished shoes with envy in her eyes.
“By the way, it would be good if in the future you could be easier to reach. We don’t have time to be calling around when the children are sick.”
I ignored her and went straight into
the cozy room. The walls were painted in a warm orange color and the furniture consisted of large stuffed cubes in various hues. At the back was a red sofa with giant pillows where Benjamin was lying in Linnéa’s arms. Linnéa was the teacher he turned to most. He always called her Nea. She was reading from a book and looked up when Benjamin caught sight of me.
“Mommy,” he said in a weak voice.
“Hi honey, how are you? Does your tummy hurt?”
“Gone, gone.”
I looked at Linnéa.
“Yes, it actually seems to have passed. He had cramps at times during the morning. At lunch he felt sick and didn’t eat anything, and he’s just been lying here resting.”
“No pancake.”
“There were pancakes today that he couldn’t eat,” said Linnéa. “After lunchtime the cramps came back but since we called you he’s been calm. Maybe he can stay, if you have a lot to do at work?”
“No, I think we’ll go home and have pancakes instead, or what do you say, honey?”
“Yes! Pancake!”
The reaction was expected. He loved pancakes with blueberry jam, just as I did when I was a kid. Even if they were made of lactose-free milk and almond and coconut flour instead of wheat flour, he liked them. No lactose and no gluten, doctor’s orders. Now that the cramps had passed he would probably be able to eat a little. I smiled and picked him up.
“Bye now, Benjamin,” said Stina without giving me so much as a glance on my way out.
I felt peace in my body when I had him near me. His small arms around my neck. His smooth forehead against my throat. His smell.
I walked from the day care with Benjamin in my arms. From a distance I could see a man leaning against the hood of my car. It was Christer Skoog.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I said.
“Leona! Nice to see you too. I’ve been looking for you.”
He was puffing on a cigarette that he nonchalantly tossed away, blowing the smoke out toward the sky. I unlocked the car, put Benjamin in the car seat and closed the door.
“What the hell do you mean by coming to my kid’s day care! Are you stalking me? You should be fucking careful about following me or anyone from my fam —”
Leona Page 14
