Patrick Hedstrom 07: The Lost Boy

by Camilla Lackberg

  ‘Do you remember anything about the funeral?’

  ‘No.’ Anna shook her head. ‘I remember it was important for us to have a funeral, that it seemed necessary. But I can’t recall the actual service.’

  ‘That’s okay,’ said Erica, getting up to refill their cups.

  ‘Dan said that it was your idea to take turns lying next to me in bed.’

  ‘Well, it wasn’t really my idea.’ Erica sat down again and told her sister about Vivianne.

  ‘Give her my best wishes and thank her. I’d still be lying upstairs in the dark otherwise, and I might have gone even deeper into myself. So deep that I might not have been able to come back at all.’

  ‘I’ll tell her hello when I see her.’

  The doorbell rang, and Erica leaned back, craning her neck so she could look into the front hall.

  ‘That’s probably Kristina and the twins.’

  She was right. Dan opened the front door to Erica’s mother-in-law. She got up and went out to the hall to help, noticing happily that both of her sons were awake.

  ‘They’re such little angels,’ said Kristina, casting a glance towards the kitchen.

  ‘Would you like to come in?’ asked Dan, but Kristina shook her head.

  ‘No, I think I’ll go on home now. It’s best if you have some time to yourselves.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Erica, giving her a hug. As much as she’d come to like her mother-in-law, consideration for others wasn’t really Kristina’s strong suit.

  ‘It was no problem. I’m happy to help out. You know that.’ Then she hurried off.

  Erica picked up a carrycot in each hand and took the twins into the kitchen.

  ‘This is your aunt Anna,’ she said as she carefully placed them on the floor next to Anna’s chair. ‘And this is Noel and Anton.’

  ‘There’s certainly no question who the father is, at any rate.’ Anna sat down on the floor next to the babies, and Erica did the same.

  ‘A lot of people have said they’re the spitting image of Patrik. But we can’t really see it ourselves.’

  ‘They’re wonderful,’ said Anna. Her voice quavered, and Erica was suddenly worried that she might have done the wrong thing by arranging for Anna to meet her sons. Maybe it was too soon. Maybe she should have said no.

  ‘It’s fine,’ said Anna, as if she could read Erica’s thoughts. ‘Can I hold them?’

  ‘Of course you can,’ said Erica. She sensed Dan’s presence behind them. He was undoubtedly holding his breath, just as she was. He too was uncertain as to whether this was the right thing to be doing.

  ‘Let’s take little Erica first,’ said Anna with a smile as she picked up Noel. ‘So you’re stubborn like your mamma. Is that right? Your mother is going to have her hands full with you, isn’t she?’

  She held him close, nuzzling the hollow of his neck. She put Noel down and picked up Anton, repeating the same process with him. Then she rocked him in her arms.

  ‘They’re lovely, Erica.’ Anna looked at her sister over Anton’s little bald head. ‘They’re simply lovely.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Erica. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘What have you found out?’ Patrik asked eagerly as he and Martin came into the hospital waiting room.

  ‘Well, I told you most of it on the phone,’ replied Paula. ‘The boys found a bag containing white powder in a litter bin near the block of flats. The ones that face the Tetra Pak building.’

  ‘Okay. Do we have the bag?’ asked Patrik as he sat down.

  ‘It’s right here.’ Paula pointed to a brown paper sack on the table. ‘And before you ask: yes, we’ve handled it with the appropriate caution. But unfortunately, a lot of people touched it before it came to us. The kids, teachers, and hospital staff.’

  ‘We’ll have to do a careful analysis. Could you arrange to have it sent over to the forensics lab? Then we’ll have to get fingerprints from everyone who might have touched it. Start by getting the parents’ permission to fingerprint the boys.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Gösta, nodding.

  ‘How are the kids?’ asked Martin.

  ‘According to the doctors, they’ve been through a helluva time. It could have ended very badly, but luckily they didn’t ingest much of the powder, only a small taste of it. Otherwise we’d be down at the morgue instead of sitting here.’

  That thought was so awful that no one spoke for a few moments.

  Patrik cast a glance at the paper bag. ‘We should also check whether Mats Sverin’s prints are on it.’

  ‘Do you think his murder could be drug-related?’ Paula frowned, leaning back on the hard sofa. She was having trouble finding a comfortable position, so she ended up leaning forward again. ‘Did you find out something in Göteborg that might indicate that?’

  ‘No, I can’t say that we did. We do have some more information to work on, but I thought we’d discuss it at our usual meeting back at the station later on.’ He stood up. ‘Martin and I are going to Fjällbacka to have a word with some of the teachers. Could you make sure the bag gets sent to the lab, Paula? Tell them it’s urgent.’

  She smiled. ‘They’ll probably make that assumption, since it’s coming from you.’

  Nathalie had felt slightly uneasy ever since Erica and Patrik had visited. Should she ask the doctor to come over? Sam still hadn’t uttered a sound since they’d arrived on the island. At the same time, she trusted her instincts. All he really needed was time. Time to heal his soul, not his body, which was the only thing a doctor would bother to examine.

  She hardly dared think about that night. It felt as if her brain shut down every time those horrific memories started to worm their way into her mind. So how could she expect Sam’s little soul to handle it? They had shared the same terror. And she wondered whether they now shared the same fear that it might all catch up with them out here. She tried to soothe him, telling him that they were safe on the island. That nothing horrid could find them here. But she wasn’t sure her tone of voice matched her words. Because she herself didn’t quite believe what she was saying.

  If only Matte … Her hand shook at the thought of him. He would have been able to protect them. She hadn’t wanted to tell him everything when they spent that evening and night together. But she had told him a little, enough so that he’d know why she was no longer the same person. She knew that she should have told him the whole story. If only they’d had more time, she would have confided everything in him.

  She sobbed, then took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. She didn’t want Sam to see her despair. He needed to feel secure. That was the only thing that would erase from his memory the sound of the shots, the only thing that would take away the images of blood and his pappa. It was her job to make everything right again. Matte couldn’t help her.

  It took a while to collect all the fingerprints they needed. Two sets were still missing: the ambulance medics were out on their rounds and wouldn’t be back until later. But Paula had a feeling that they were wasting time gathering all these fingerprints. Her instincts told her that it was more important to determine whether Sverin’s prints were on the bag. And they needed to know soon.

  Paula knocked on the office door.

  ‘Come in.’ Torbjörn Ruud looked up as she entered.

  ‘Hi. I’m Paula Morales from the Tanum police. We’ve met a few times before.’ She suddenly came over all self-conscious. Usually Paula was a stickler when it came to the proper procedures; after all, rules existed for a reason. Yet she’d come here to ask Torbjörn to disregard all the protocols. In her opinion, this was one of those times when the rules needed to be bent a little.

  ‘Oh yes, I remember you.’ Torbjörn motioned for her to take a seat. ‘How’s the investigation coming along? Have you heard from Pedersen yet?’

  ‘No, we’re expecting the ME’s report on Wednesday. Otherwise we don’t really have much to go on, and we haven’t made as much progress as we’d hoped …’

  She fell s
ilent, wondering how to formulate her request.

  ‘Something happened today,’ she said at last. ‘We don’t yet know whether it has anything to do with the murder …’ She set the paper bag on the desk.

  ‘What’s in there?’ asked Torbjörn, reaching for it, but drawing back his hand before he touched it.

  ‘Cocaine,’ Paula told him.

  ‘Where did you find it?’

  Paula quickly briefed him on what had taken place and what the boys had told them.

  ‘It’s not often that I have a bag of cocaine dropped on my desk,’ said Torbjörn, studying Paula.

  ‘I realize that,’ she said, feeling her face turn red. ‘But you know how things will go. If we send the bag to the forensics lab, it will take for ever to get the results. And I have a feeling this could be very important. So I was wondering if we could be a bit flexible in this situation. If you could help me find out just one thing, I’ll handle all the formalities afterwards. And I’ll take full responsibility, of course.’

  Torbjörn was silent for a few moments.

  ‘What exactly do you want me to do?’ he asked finally, but he still looked dubious.

  Paula told him what she wanted, and Torbjörn nodded.

  ‘Okay, we’ll make an exception this once. But if anything happens, you’ll have to take responsibility, as you said. And you need to make sure that everything looks above board.’

  ‘You have my word,’ said Paula, feeling a surge of excitement. She was right, she was convinced of that. Now all that remained was to prove it.

  ‘Okay, come with me,’ said Torbjörn, getting to his feet. Paula hurried after him. She was going to owe him big-time after this.

  ‘I hope I didn’t offend you today,’ said Erling. He didn’t dare look her in the eye.

  Vivianne was poking at her food and didn’t answer. As always when he found himself in disfavour, he felt his whole body knotting with discomfort. He really shouldn’t have passed on what Bertil had said about the food served at Badis. What had he been thinking? Vivianne knew what she was doing, and he shouldn’t have interfered.

  ‘Darling, you’re not cross with me, are you?’ He stroked the back of her hand.

  She didn’t respond, and he had no idea what to do next. He could usually coax her out of a bad mood, but today she seemed in no mood to be placated.

  ‘It looks as if a lot of people have accepted the invitation to the dedication festivities on Saturday. All the Göteborg celebrities are coming. Real celebrities, not just those B-list personalities like Robinson-Martin. And I’ve managed to book the band Arvingarna.’

  Vivianne frowned. ‘But I thought Garage was going to play.’

  ‘They’ll just have to settle for being the opening act. We can’t very well turn down Arvingarna, can we? They’ll bring in a big crowd.’ He was starting to forget his worries. Project Badis usually had that effect on him.

  ‘But we won’t receive our money until next Wednesday. I hope you realize that.’ Vivianne raised her eyes from her plate and seemed to be thawing a bit.

  Delighted, Erling continued on the same track.

  ‘That’s no problem. The council will cover the bills until then, and most of the suppliers have agreed to wait for payment, since we’ve guaranteed the money. So you don’t need to worry.’

  ‘That’s good to know. Of course, Anders is the one who’s in charge of all those matters, so I assume he’s been informed.’

  Now a little smile had begun to play over her lips, and Erling suddenly had butterflies in his stomach. After lunch, when he was filled with anxiety because of his faux pas, a plan had begun to take shape in his mind. He couldn’t understand why he hadn’t thought of it earlier. Fortunately, he was a man of action, and he knew how to get things done without too much advance preparation.

  ‘Sweetheart,’ he said.

  ‘Hmm,’ said Vivianne, taking another bite of the quorn casserole she’d made.

  ‘There’s something that I want to ask you …’

  Vivianne stopped chewing and raised her eyes to look at him. For a moment Erling thought he saw a flash of fear, but it disappeared at once, and he assumed he was imagining things. It was probably just nervousness.

  With an effort he knelt down next to her chair and took a small box out of his jacket pocket. The label on the lid said Nordholms Gold & Watches. It didn’t take a genius to guess what was inside.

  Erling cleared his throat. This was a big moment. He took Vivianne’s hand, and in a solemn voice he said:

  ‘I would like to take this occasion to ask if you would do me the great honour of marrying me.’ What had sounded so elegant in his mind now sounded merely pompous. He tried again: ‘Er, that is, I was thinking that we should get married.’

  That wasn’t much better, and he could hear his heart pounding in his chest as he waited for her answer. In truth he was pretty certain what she would say, but he couldn’t be absolutely sure. Women could be so capricious.

  Vivianne was silent a little too long, and Erling’s knees started to hurt. The box was trembling in his hand, and he felt tension gathering along his spine.

  At last she took a deep breath and said, ‘Yes, of course, we should get married, Erling.’

  Relieved, he took the ring out of the box and slipped it on her finger. It wasn’t expensive, but Vivianne didn’t care much about material things, so why should he spend a lot of money on a ring? And he’d got it for an excellent price, he thought happily. Tonight he counted on getting good value for his money. It had been a disturbingly long time since they’d made love, but this evening they were going to celebrate.

  He got up, his back creaking, and took his seat again. With a triumphant expression he raised his glass to Vivianne in a toast, and she replied in kind. For a second he thought he saw that strange look in her eyes again, but he pushed the notion aside and took another sip of his wine. Tonight he had no intention of falling asleep on the sofa.

  ‘Is everyone here?’ said Patrik. The question was purely rhetorical. He could see exactly who was present; he was merely trying to cut through the buzz of voices in the kitchen.

  ‘Everybody’s here,’ said Annika.

  ‘Then there are a few things we need to discuss.’ Patrik brought out the big flip-chart that they used for jotting down notes at their meetings.

  ‘First of all: the boys are continuing to improve, and they don’t seem to have suffered any permanent injury.’

  ‘Thank God for that,’ said Annika, relieved.

  ‘Before we discuss the cocaine discovery, I’d like to run through what else happened today. Paula, how did you get on with your examination of the briefcase?’

  ‘So far we haven’t come up with anything specific,’ said Paula briskly. ‘But we’re hoping to know more very soon.’

  ‘There was a load of financial documents inside the briefcase,’ Gösta clarified, after glancing at Paula. ‘We couldn’t make much sense of them, so we gave them to Lennart, Annika’s husband. He’s going to take a look before we send them on.’

  ‘Good,’ said Patrik. ‘When does Lennart think he can get back to us?’

  ‘Day after tomorrow,’ said Paula. ‘As for the mobile phone, there was nothing of interest on it. I sent the laptop over to the tech division, but God only knows when we’ll get a report from them.’

  ‘It’s frustrating, I know, but there’s nothing we can do about that.’ Patrik crossed his arms. He’d started writing notes on the flip-chart. In big letters it now said: Lennart, Wednesday.

  ‘What did Sverin’s old girlfriend say? Did she have anything to tell us?’ asked Mellberg. Everyone gave a start, and Patrik looked at his boss in astonishment. He hadn’t thought Mellberg paid the slightest attention to what was happening with the investigation.

  ‘Mats went out to see her on Friday evening, but he left sometime during the night,’ he said, adding the information to the chart. ‘That narrows down the time frame for the murder. The earliest it could have happen
ed is in the wee hours of Saturday morning, which also fits with the sound that the neighbour heard. I’m hoping that Pedersen’s report will help us to pinpoint the time of death even further.’

  ‘Did she strike you as fishy? Maybe this was all a lovers’ quarrel?’ Mellberg went on. Ernst, who was lying at Mellberg’s feet, reacted to his master’s tone of voice by lifting his head inquisitively.

  ‘“Fishy” isn’t exactly the word that I’d use to describe Nathalie, but she did seem a bit distracted. She and her son are living out there on the island at the moment. Apparently she and Mats hadn’t been in contact for many years, which tallies with what his parents told us. The pair of them were probably reliving old memories that evening.’

  ‘Why did he leave in the middle of the night?’ asked Annika, turning automatically to Martin, who looked insulted. He was a steady family man these days, but there had been a time when he’d had quite an active love life. The object of his affections had a tendency to change from week to week, and sometimes his colleagues still teased him about that. He’d turned his back on that sort of life the minute Pia came into the picture, and he’d never regretted his decision.

  Now he reluctantly thought back to the old days.

  ‘I don’t see anything strange about that. Sometimes a guy just wants to avoid all that chatter the morning after.’ Everyone looked at him in amusement, and he shrugged. ‘What? Boys will be boys.’ He blushed, making his freckles turn bright red.

  Patrik couldn’t help grinning, but then he forced himself to turn serious again.

  ‘No matter what his reason, we now know that Mats went home in the early hours of Saturday morning. But the question is, what has happened to his boat? He must have gone home in it.’

  ‘Have you checked the adverts in Blocket?’ Gösta reached for a biscuit and dipped it in his coffee.

  ‘I checked all the classified ads yesterday, but so far nothing,’ said Patrik. ‘There’s an alert posted for the boat, and I’ve talked to the Coast Guard, so they’ll keep an eye out for it.’