Three Seconds

by Anders Roslund

  "That's them."

  The older guard glanced quickly at the author presentations on the back sleeve, leafed through some pages here and there without really concentrating and then handed them over.

  "Nineteenth Century Stockholm. The Marionettes. What the hell is all that?" "Poetry."

  "A bit gay, eh?"

  "Maybe you should try reading some."

  "Listen here, you prick, I don't read faggot books."

  Piet Hoffmann closed his cell door enough so that no one could see, but nor so much that it would arouse suspicion. He put the six books on the small bedside table; titles that were seldom borrowed and which therefore had to be collected from the store in the basement of Aspsås library when the request from the large prison came through that morning, and that were then handed over to the driver of the library bus by an out-of-breath, single female librarian in her fifties.

  The knife he had stolen from the kitchen had felt sharp enough when he had run his fingertips across the blade.

  He pressed it hard down the hinge between the front board and the first page of Lord Byron's Don Juan. It loosened thread by thread and soon the front and the spine were hanging just as freely as they had thirteen days earlier when he had opened it at a desk on Vasagatan. He thumbed to page 90, took hold of all the pages and pulled them off in one go. In the left-hand margin of page 91, a hole that was fifteen centimeters long and one centimeter wide, with thin walls constructed of Rizla papers, three hundred pages deep. The contents lay there untouched, just as he had left them.

  Yellowish-white, a little sticky, exactly fifteen grams.

  Ten years earlier he had consumed most of what he smuggled in himself. Only occasionally when he had too much might he sell some on. On a couple of occasions he was so hard up that he used it as part payment for his most pressing debts. This time, it was going to be put to different use. Four books with a total of forty-two grams of 30 percent manufactured amphetamine was his weapon for squashing the competition and taking over himself.

  Books, Blossom.

  Small amounts, but he didn't need more right now. The tricks he had learned over the years were foolproof and wouldn't be discovered by prison routines.

  Back then, he'd been sent to Österåker as soon as he'd come back from his first secure leave. Someone had tipped the guards off about drugs up his ass or in his belly, and he'd been put in the dry cell, with glass walls, a bunk to lie on and a toilet that was a closed system… that was it. He had stayed there for a week, naked twenty-four/seven, three guards watching him when he went for a dump, checking his shit, eyes staring at him through the glass as he slept, always without a blanket, an ass that couldn't be covered.

  He had had no choice then, what with the debts and threats, he became just another dry celler. But now, he had a choice.

  Every day in every prison, every waking hour was about drugs: how to get them in, and how to use them without it being discovered by the regular urine tests. A relative who came to visit was also a relative who could be forced to smuggle in some urine, their own, urine that was clean and would test negative. Once, in his first few weeks in Österåker, some mouthy Serb got his girlfriend to piss into a couple of mugs, the content of which was then sold for a great deal of money. None of them tested positive, despite the fact that more than half of them were under the influence, but the tests did show something else, and that was That every man in the unit was pregnant.

  Don Juan, The Odyssey, My Life's Writings, French Landscape.

  He emptied them one after the other, stopping every now and then when he heard steps passing his cell door or sounds that were unfamiliar-fortytwo grams of amphetamine in four books that not many people chose to read.

  Two books left. Nineteenth Century Stockholm and The Marionettes. He left them on the bed, untouched, texts that he hoped he would never need to read.

  He looked at the yellowish-white substance that people killed for. Every gram would cost more in here.

  Here demand was greater than supply. Here the risk of being caught was greater in a locked cell than when you were free. Here the judgment inside would be harsher than outside; the same amount would always give you a longer sentence.

  Piet Hoffmann divided up the forty-two grams of amphetamine into three plastic bags. He would keep one himself for the Greek in Cell 2 and put the other two out for collection, for Block H where the two other major suppliers were, on the top and bottom floor. Three plastic bags with fourteen grams that would knock out all the competition in one go.

  The spoons from the kitchen were still in one of his trouser pockets.

  He took them out and felt them, then pressed them hard against the edge of the steel bunk until they were both bent to nearly right angles like two hooks; he checked them, they would do. His blue jogging pants with the Prison and Probation Service logo were lying on his bed. With the knife he cut the waistband, pulled the elastic out and then cut it again into two lengths.

  The cell door ajar, he waited-the corridor was empty.

  The bathroom was fifteen fast steps away.

  He closed the door behind him, went into the toilet cubicle furthest to the right and made sure that the door was properly locked.

  Ewert Grens had gone to get another plastic cup of black coffee and bought yet another crumbly almond slice with sickly icing on top. The handwritten list of seven names had acquired several more brown stains, but it was still legible and it would stay where it was on the table by the sofa until they had all been investigated and struck off one by one.

  They had three days.

  One of those handwritten, coffee-stained names held the key to keeping open the investigation into an execution carried our during the day at a rented flat in the middle of Stockholm. Or else, in three days, it would be scaled down to one of the thirty-seven preliminary investigations in thin files on his desk and would probably never amount to much more than that. There was always a new murder case, or an assault that would gobble up all the resources for a week or two until it was solved or left on a forgotten pile.

  He studied the names. Maciej Bosacki, Piet Hoffmann, Karl Lager. All owners of security firms, which, like all other security firms, installed alarm systems, sold flak jackets, gave courses in self-defense, offered bodyguard services. But these three had all been used by Wojtek Security International in connection with Polish state visits. Official jobs with official invoices. Nothing strange about that, really. But it piqued his curiosity. Sometimes what was official concealed what was unofficial and he was looking for things that couldn't be seen, if they existed at all-links to another Wojtek, the real organization, the one that bought and sold drugs, weapons, people.

  Ewert Grens got up and went out into the corridor.

  The feeling that the truth was laughing at him got stronger. He tried to catch it and it just slipped through his fingers.

  He had spent two hours studying three personal ID numbers in the Police Authority's databases-page after page with lists of ARREST WARRANT INFORMATION, IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION, CRIMINAL RECORDS, INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION, PERSONAL HEALTH-and he had got a number of hits. All three had previous convictions, all three names were in the criminal intelligence database and suspects' register, they had all given fingerprints, two were in the DNA register and had been wanted at some point, and at least one of them was a previously confirmed gang member. Grens hadn't been entirely surprised, as more and more people moved in a gray zone where knowledge of crime was a prerequisite for knowing about security.

  He walked a couple of doors down the corridor. He should perhaps have knocked, but seldom did.

  "I need your help."

  The room was considerably bigger than his and he didn't come here very often.

  "How can I help you?"

  It wasn't something they'd ever talked about. But in some way they had just agreed. In order to work together, they made sure they never met. "Västmannagatan."

  Chief Superintendent Göransson has no piles of p
aper on his desk, no empty paper cups, no crumbs from artificial cakes from the vending machine. "Västmannagatan?"

  So he can't understand where it's coming from; this feeling of discomfort, that there's no room.

  "That says nothing to me."

  "The killing. I'm investigating the last names and want to check them against the firearms register."

  Göransson nodded, turned to his computer and logged on to the register which only a few authorized people had access to, for security reasons. "You're standing too close, Ewert."

  The discomfort.

  "What do you mean?"

  It came from inside.

  "Can you move back a couple of steps?"

  Whatever it was that demanded more space.

  Göransson was looking at a person he didn't like and who didn't like him, so they seldom got in each other's way. That was all there was to it. "Personal ID?"

  "721018-0010. 660531-2559. 580219-3672."

  Three personal ID numbers. Three names on the screen.

  "What do you want to know?"

  "Everything."

  Västmannagatan.

  Suddenly he understood.

  "Göransson? Did you hear? I want everything."

  That name.

  "One of them has a license. For work, plus four hunting guns." "Guns for work?"

  "Pistols."

  "Make?"

  "Radom."

  "Caliber?"

  "Nine millimeter."

  The name that was still blinking on the screen.

  "Damn it, Göransson. Damn it!"

  The detective superintendent had gotten up quickly and was already halfway out the door.

  "But we already have access to them, Ewert."

  Grens stopped mid-step.

  "What do you mean?"

  "There's a memorandum here. All the weapons have been seized. Krantz has them, no doubt." "Why?"

  "It doesn't say. You'll have to ask him."

  The dull sound of a heavy body limping away down the corridor. Chief Superintendent Göransson didn't have the energy to fight the feeling that something was afoot, the dread that made him shrivel inside. He looked at the name on the screen for a long time.

  Piet Hoffmann.

  Ewert Grens would only have to press a few buttons and make a couple of phone calls to find the registered gun-owner's current domicile and then go to the small town with a big prison to the north of the city and he would question him until he got the answer he mustn't get.

  What wasn't meant to happen had just happened.

  Piet Hoffmann waited behind the locked toilet door until he was absolutely sure he was alone.

  Elastic, spoon, plastic bag.

  This was exactly how he had hidden drugs and syringes in Österåker. Lorentz had told him that it still worked despite the fact that it was so damn simple. Maybe that was why. No guard in any prison would search the actual toilet U-bend.

  The cistern, the drains, the waste pipe under the sink, hiding places that you might as well forget these days. But the U-bend, after all these years, they still had no idea.

  He put the elastic, the bent spoon, and the plastic bag full of amphetamine down on the filthy toilet floor. He attached the plastic bag to one end of the elastic and the spoon to the other, then got down on his knees beside the toilet bowl, holding the plastic bag in his hand and pushing it as far down the pipe as he could, stretching the elastic. His arm and sleeve were wet up to his shoulder when he flushed and the pressure of the water pushed the plastic bag even farther down the pipe, the bent spoon catching on the edge of the pipe. He waited, flushed again. The elastic should stretch even more and the plastic bag would be suspended at the other end somewhere far down the pipe.

  You couldn't see the spoon that was hooked over the edge of the pipe, holding the plastic bag in place.

  But it would be easy to get hold of next time.

  Down on his knees, hand in the wet, carefully haul it in.

  Ewert Grens had left Göransson and the Homicide offices, and the truth that he couldn't quite grasp wasn't laughing so loud now. Radom. For the first time since the preliminary investigation started he had a lead, a name. Nine millimeter. Someone who might be the link to an execution.

  Pier Hoffmann.

  A name he had never heard before.

  But who owned a security firm that got official bodyguard jobs from Wojtek International when there were state visits. And who had a license for Polish-manufactured guns, for work purposes, despite having served a five-year sentence for aggravated assault. Guns which, according to the register, were already in the hands of the police. Seized two weeks ago.

  Ewert Grens got out of the elevator on his way to the forensics unit.

  He had a name.

  Soon he would have more.

  Piet Hoffmann had sore knees when he got up off the toiler floor and listened to the silence. He had flushed twice more, listened again, but there were still no other sounds when he unlocked the door and went out into the corridor, making it look like he'd been sitting in there for a while, dicky tummy that took its time. He went over to the TV corner, shuffled a pack of cards, made it look like he was entertaining himself for a few minutes, while he sneaked a look over at the wardens' office and the kitchen in order to locate the guards that ran around in the unit.

  Faces that were turned away, uniformed backs doing something. He held up his middle finger, that usually got them moving.

  Nothing. No one reacted, no one saw.

  The others still had an hour left of their afternoon stint in the classroom and workshop, the corridor was empty, the screws were some place else. Now.

  He walked toward the row of cells. A quick look back at nothing. He opened the door to number 2.

  The Greek's cell.

  It looked the same, the same damn bed and the same damn wardrobe and chair and bedside table. It smelled different, stuffy, maybe sour, but it was just as fucking warm and the air he breathed was just as dusty. A photo of a child on the wall, a girl with long dark hair, another photo of a woman, his daughter's mother, Hoffmann was convinced.

  If anyone opened the door.

  If anyone saw what he was holding in his hand right now, what he was about to do.

  He gave a start, just an instant-he mustn't start to feel.

  Not many injections or snorts-thirteen or fourteen grams-but enough in here, enough for a new judgment and extended sentence and immediate removal to another prison.

  Thirteen or fourteen grams that had to be put somewhere up high.

  He tested the curtain rail, pulling it carefully; it came loose on the first attempt. A bit of tape around the plastic bag and it stayed in place against the wall. It was easy to lift the curtain rail back.

  He opened the door and had a last look around the room-he stopped at the photo on the wall. The girl was about five, she was standing on a lawn, and in the background some happy children were waving. They were all on their way somewhere, a school trip, backpacks in their hands and yellow and red baseball caps on their heads.

  Her father wouldn't be here when she came to visit next time.

  Ewert Grens bent forward over the low workbench and the row of seven guns.

  Three Polish-manufactured Radom pistols and four hunting rifles. "In one gun cabinet?"

  "In two gun cabinets. Both approved."

  "He had a license for them?"

  "The very ones issued by city police."

  Grens was standing beside Nils Krantz in one of the forensic unit's many rooms that look like a small laboratory with fume cupboards and microscopes and tins of chemical preparations. He lifted up one of the pistols, held the plastic covered weapon in his hand, weighed it in front of him in the air. He was absolutely certain-the dead man lying on the sitting room floor had been holding one like this in his hand.

  "Two weeks ago?"

  "Yes. An office in a flat on Vasagatan. Serious drug offense."

  "And nothing?"

  "We've tes
t-fired them all. None of them have been used for any other crime."

  "And Västmannagatan 79?"

  "I know that you hoped you'd get another answer. But you're not going to. None of these weapons have anything to do with the shooting."

  Ewert Grens hit his hand hard on the piece of furniture that was closest. A metal cupboard shuddered as the books and files fell to the floor.

  "I don't get it."

  He was about to hit the cupboard again when Krantz stood in his way to save it.

  Grens chose the wall instead-it didn't shudder as much but made just as much noise.

  "Nils, I don't bloody get it. This investigation… it's like I'm standing on the sideline the whole time, watching. So, you seized all his weapons? Twenty days ago? Damn it, Nils, there's something that's not right. Don't you understand, this bastard, he shouldn't have any guns at all, even less a license issued by us. Okay, it's ten years ago, but… given the conviction

  . I've never heard of such a serious criminal being given a permit."

  Nils Krantz was still standing in front of the metal cupboard. It was never easy to know if his colleague was done with thumping inanimate objects.

  "You'll have to talk to him then."

  "I'm going to. When I find out where he is."

  "In Aspsås."

  Ewert Grens looked at the forensic scientist who was one of the few people who had been in the building as long as he had.

  "Aspsås?"

  "That's where he's doing his rime. And it's a long sentence, I believe."

  He had sat in his new place in the TV corner this afternoon again and waited until his neighbors came back from the workshop and classroom one by one. They had played more stud poker and a couple of games of casino and talked about the bastard guards who had been on duty that morning and quite a bit about a bank job in Taby that had gone wrong and then got engrossed in a passionate discussion about how many times you could jerk-off on a gram of injected amphetamine. They had laughed raucously at several graphic descriptions of a speed hard-on, and Stefan as well as Karol Tomasz and a couple of Finns had bragged about having a boner and fucking for days, as long as there was enough strong whizz. After a while, Piet had given the Greek a vague nod and offered him a chair without getting any response; the man who sold and controlled the supply here, who had the highest status wasn't prepared to talk to a fish.