Secrets?

by Christer Tholin

  “Goodbye kisses and that sort of thing?”

  “No, he still does that, even if the initiative comes from me. I’m thinking more of spontaneous hugs and holding hands.”

  “All right. Got it.” Elin leaned back and took the last piece of her cinnamon roll. “How were you picturing this? Should I just tail your boyfriend for a few evenings?”

  Helena nodded. “Yes, exactly. I’m giving you our home address and his work address along with a description of his car, including the license plate number. I’ve already prepared and printed it all for you.” She handed Elin a piece of paper with the promised information. “I can also send you an email, if you’d rather have it electronically.”

  “Yes, great. Then I’ll always be able to access it on my smartphone. Is there a specific day when Markus regularly disappears?”

  “No, unfortunately not. He may have some preference for Tuesday, but on the whole, it’s fairly random—although I do notice it happening at least twice a week.”

  “Is it only during the workweek, or does he also disappear on the weekend?”

  “Both. He works on weekends as well. That’s when the most showings take place.”

  Of course. Elin should have known that. It really wasn’t her day, and now the headache also seemed to be coming back for some reason. Probably from having to concentrate on their talk.

  The two women then discussed the financial details of the job. That part was easy: Elin suggested a respectable price, and Helena had no objections. She didn’t even hesitate to pay a small advance. After that, Helena stood and said goodbye. She promised to inform Elin immediately if she noticed that her friend had gone astray on a particular day or if he let her know ahead of time that he would be late.

  Elin decided to remain at the cafe a bit longer. She got a second coffee, reviewed their talk once more in her head, and made a few notes. Somehow she still had the feeling that Helena had not told her everything. She couldn’t point to anything specific, but her intuition told her that Helena was hiding something under her hat. Oh well, all she could do was to hope she wasn’t missing any crucial information for her assignment. Never mind. She had landed her first job, even in her hungover state. At least, she could be proud of that.

  ***

  On Sunday, Elin felt well again. She no longer had a headache and could also think clearly. After a jog through nearby Kristineberg Park, followed by a shower, she was back up to speed. On her run, she had thought of a few more questions she should have asked during her talk with Helena. For instance, she knew absolutely nothing about her client—what kind of work she did and where, etc. She also had no idea what Markus looked like and had completely forgotten to ask for a photo. She really had been far less on the ball than usual.

  The issue with the photo was probably solvable, since most real estate offices had a website with employee contact information, which often included photos. Elin did an Internet search on the company and was in luck: Markus Lager was listed on the site, complete with photo, email, and phone number. She wouldn’t have to reveal her weaknesses and ask Helena, after all. Markus was good-looking, though not exactly a lady-killer. But photos could be deceptive—it was hard to capture charm.

  In any case, Elin could now start planning the surveillance. Every afternoon after work, she would watch for Markus outside the real estate firm and then tail him. She would have to borrow Maja’s car for this, but that would surely be no problem. Maja rarely used her car during the week.

  3

  Elin exited the door of the office building where she worked. She would have to hurry to begin her surveillance on time. She wanted to avoid letting Markus get too large a head start, or she might miss the time of his meeting. Her tracking program was showing that he was already underway and heading south. The day before, Elin had managed to slip a tracking device onto his car, which was harder than she had imagined. His firm’s office had an underground garage that required an access code, and at his home, Markus’s BMW was parked inside a gated courtyard. That was another matter she had forgotten to mention to Helena. Of course, she still could have asked her client for access to the courtyard, but since Markus was already home on the first surveillance day, that move was no longer logical.

  Yesterday, though, on her second day of surveillance, while Markus was showing a residence and his car was parked on the street, Elin was able to attach a tracking device to the vehicle. Following him was now an easy task. It was a good thing the equipment was available at Elin’s workplace and that she was in charge of it. That way, no one would notice if she borrowed a sender and laptop.

  Maja’s car was parked around the corner. Elin had already paid the parking fee for the entire day, which was a bit pricey but worth it, since now she could take off immediately without first having to pick up the car from the house.

  The trail kept leading southwards, evidently out of the city. Elin’s laptop sat next to her on the passenger seat, and she kept checking it to make sure she was actually following the green dot on the map. So far, she had not seen Markus’s car—the distance between them was too great. She hoped that his current venture was not just another professional matter—a home showing or client appointment—because then her tracking would be pointless. Although ... it was possible that Helena was wrong and that her friend was not involved in another relationship. How long should she tail him then? That was yet another thing they had failed to discuss. Elin cursed herself once more for her excessive winebibbing the night before their first meeting. It really had robbed her of her ability to think. Oh well, she would give it two more weeks at most: if the surveillance still proved fruitless, she would meet with Helena again for another talk.

  Elin’s smartphone beeped. She had a text message, which she checked at the next stoplight. The text was not from Maja, as she’d supposed, but from Helena, who informed her that her dear Markus had just disappeared from the friend-locator app. All right, that sounded promising and might even mean that something of interest could still take place today. Elin’s motivation strengthened. Now it all hung on lessening the distance between them. She had no desire to reach her goal, only to find that Markus had already vanished into some house.

  For the next twenty minutes, the road led south and out of Stockholm. Elin had almost caught up with Markus as he turned off County Road 259 to pursue his course on the smaller byways. Now she deliberately kept her distance: she had no desire to be seen. The speed decreased as the roads narrowed. Hardly a house was in sight; instead, fields took turns with forest. Finally, Markus veered into a small community of vacation homes. Elin followed cautiously, stopping before a garage door to see what destination Markus had in mind. In this area, she would not be able to observe him as planned. If he entered a house, she would immediately stand out. Elin watched the green dot on the screen. Markus continued down a small dirt road on the other side of the colony. Elin started to move again. As she neared the road, she began to have doubts. Should she keep on following Markus in the car? It was a single-lane road, with passing likely possible only every three hundred feet. From what she could see on her screen, the road didn’t go much farther. There might be a couple of houses at the end, but nothing more. In a car around here, she would blend about as well as a homeless man in a top-tier restaurant. She had better continue on foot. Should she haul her laptop along? No, that was not a good idea. Moving with that unwieldy thing beneath her arm would be far too hard, and at no cost did she want to be seen. Elin parked the car around the next corner and waited for the green dot to arrive at its goal. The road made several loops; then Markus swerved to the right once more and finally stopped after several hundred yards. To make sure that he didn’t start driving again, Elin waited another two minutes and then got out. She had donned a baseball cap and equipped herself with a smartphone, binoculars, a digital camera with zoom, a jackknife, and an extendible baton—you just never knew. After following the dirt road for a while and encountering neither cars nor people, Elin came to
the place where Markus had turned off. Not a single house could be seen for miles and miles. But it was here that the forest began, and there could easily still be houses that were tucked away from her sight. Elin decided to leave the road and follow a parallel course on foot through the woods. It would take longer and be more strenuous because of the heavy undergrowth, but at least it would serve as a cover if anyone came.

  It was only a short while before Elin reached the end of the road. There stood a small cabin, painted dark red with white window frames and bright-red shingles—entirely typical of the kind found all over Sweden. It was probably a summer house or perhaps a rest stop for lumberjacks. All around her, Elin saw firewood piled in heaps. Two cars stood parked outside the cabin: one was Markus’s black BMW; the other, a dark-blue Volvo V70. There was no one sitting in either car, nor was there anyone in the yard. Elin remained under cover of the trees as she carefully circled the grounds. She took her binoculars and tried to look in through the windows, but all she could see were some shadowy movements. She had no choice but to wait. It had all the appearance of a tryst—Markus’s lover had probably come early and longingly awaited him. It wasn’t too hard to guess what they were doing in there. If she could photograph them through the window and catch them in flagrante delicto, that would be best. But by no means would she risk being seen. Elin eyed the piles of wood. She decided to take a chance and crept along the back of a stack of wood until she reached the corner of the house. Then she darted along the cabin wall to a window on one side. Everything went smoothly. Not one thing stirred. She listened attentively, but all she could hear was the murmur of voices. Had they turned on the radio or television? Elin slowly straightened up beside the window and peered cautiously into the hut. She could see only a part of the living room, but there she detected two people, though not in the unambiguous position she had hoped to find. Furthermore, they were both men—she was quite sure of that. One of them was sitting at a table in front of a PC. The other—that had to be Markus—was standing behind him and also viewing the monitor. Elin pulled her head back. What did this mean? Was Markus gay, and was this where he and his lover met? But didn’t they have anything better to do than play with a PC? Elin looked inside again. Now she was certain that it was Markus with another man. She turned on her digital camera and checked the flash to make sure it was off. Then she held the camera to the window and took a couple of shots. Yes, the photos were all right. Elin examined the small screen to confirm that both men could be clearly seen. That should be good enough. She might even capture them one more time as they left the house. She snuck back to the woodpile and searched for a hiding place among the trees where she had a good view of the cars and the door. Then she took one more quick shot of the Volvo, making sure that the license plate could be easily read from the photo.

  It was a long wait, and the woodland populace was no help. From below came the ants, which she had to repeatedly brush off her pants; from above, the mosquitos descended with their shrill hum. Sadly, Elin had neglected to bring mosquito spray. After all, she hadn’t counted on the surveillance ending up in the woods. Why couldn’t Markus carry on his affair in the city, like a sensible person?

  Almost two hours and a ton of mosquito bites later, the door of the house opened. Elin raised her camera and pointed it at the doorway. But what followed left her so speechless that she almost forgot to hit the shutter release. Out came four men, with Markus among them. One by one, they walked down the three steps before the entrance. The last, who was very tall, locked the door behind him. On saying goodbye, they all briefly raised one hand and shouted “hejdå,” but there was not a single show of affection or other suspicious action. Then they got in their cars, two men in each, and drove off. Elin remained behind, perplexed. What was going on here? Or rather, what was not going on? This bore no resemblance to a relationship. Nor did she have any clue why these men had to meet in the wilderness if the whole thing was totally harmless.

  Elin waited another ten minutes to be sure that no one returned. Then she went up to the house and shot some more photos through each of the windows, even though there was nothing worth noting inside. The setup was primitive: a large room with a kitchenette in one corner, a smaller room with a bed, and a simple bathroom. The only oddities were the two desktop computers in the living room—one on the table and the other on a stand by the wall.

  On the way back, Elin would ponder what conclusions she should draw from it all. In any case, she had found nothing to confirm Helena’s suspicions.

  4

  It was Saturday again, and once more, the two women were sitting in the Vete-Katten cafe. As before, Helena had been the first to arrive, this time without the red handbag. Otherwise, she was just as trimly dressed as at the first meeting: black blazer, white blouse, beige pants, gold necklace with a ruby-red pendant—again, no costume jewelry here. Elin had already fetched herself a coffee and now sat down.

  Helena regarded her earnestly: “You didn’t want to tell me anything over the phone. Now I’m very anxious to hear what you have to say.”

  Elin sensed a slight reproach. “Yes, Helena, I didn’t think it would be appropriate to discuss it over the phone. Even if it’s not as dramatic as you seem to fear. To get right to the point, I found no evidence that your friend has been seeing another woman or even having a relationship.”

  Helena visibly relaxed. She leaned back in her chair. “But you could have told me that over the phone.”

  “Maybe. But I wanted to tell you the whole story in one sitting. Besides, I have a couple of photos you should see.” Elin paused and took a breath. “So you know I’ve been following Markus for the past few days. On Tuesday, you sent me a text that he’d signed out of the app. On Tuesday and also on Thursday, it soon became clear that he was not on the road for his job.”

  “True. He came home later on Tuesday. On Thursday, he said nothing, but he didn’t come home that late.”

  “Yes, he had driven to the cabin and spent only half an hour there. Which means that he was already back home by 6:30.”

  Helena leaned forward and asked suspiciously: “You say ‘cabin.’ Does that mean he was meeting someone after all?”

  “That’s right. He met with three men on both days. The cabin is south of Stockholm, in a wooded area near Vidja, which is between Flemingsberg and Haninge. The cabin is quite remote, and Markus drove there alone each time. The other men came in their own car. The first day, the three men were already there, and after Markus arrived, they stayed two hours. Here—I took some pictures of the cabin, the men, and their cars.”

  Elin spread out a series of prints on the table, and Helena examined them in detail. Elin watched her carefully as she did so, but Helena gave no hint of knowing anything about the situation. She had knit her brow, which had formed a small crease above her nose.

  “I don’t know these men, and the cabin doesn’t look familiar to me, either.” Helena looked up. “What are they doing in there?”

  Elin hesitated. “Well, that part is still unclear to me. If you want, I’d be happy to look into it more closely and find out more. In any case ... as you can see from the third photo, one of them is sitting in front of a PC, and Markus and this man seem to be looking at something on the monitor. From the next two pictures, you can see that there are at least two computers in the cabin. I took the pictures after the men had already left. Both were desktop computers, which is why I’m assuming that the four men meet there often and use this equipment on a regular basis. Maybe they’re playing computer games or working on some online business idea.”

  Helena was staring into space. She seemed to be lost in thought.

  Elin continued: “At first, I saw only Markus and one other man, which made me wonder whether he was having a relationship with another man.” Helena vehemently shook her head, so Elin quickly moved on. “But there was absolutely no sign of that. All I could see was that they were working together on the PC. And it was all very chummy when they said goodby
e. You can see from this photo that one of the men rode off with Markus, but I don’t think it was the same one who was sitting at the computer with him.” Elin pointed at the different photos.

  “I can’t imagine that Markus would be involved with another man. That’s absolutely ridiculous!”

  “Yes, fine, that was just the first thing that came to mind.” This was apparently an extremely uncomfortable notion for Helena. Maybe her views on homosexuality were somewhat conservative. Elin figured she had better not mention her own lesbian relationship with Maja. “As I said, there was no hint of a romantic relationship.”

  “All right, so the pictures were all taken on Tuesday, correct?”

  “Yes, that’s right. On Thursday, I did not follow Markus to the cabin. Instead, I waited for him at the start of the dirt road. Then all four men returned there a half hour later. I also took these two photos at that spot, but all you can see are the two cars. It’s hard to make out who’s sitting in them, although it looks like Markus took one of the others with him again. But that evening, I didn’t follow them any farther.”

  What Elin did not say was that the Volvo had stopped for a moment and that the two men inside seemed to be looking at her car. Elin had quickly ducked and hoped that none of the four had seen her. Luckily, the men hadn’t gotten out but had driven on after a moment of terror for Elin. Elin also refrained from telling Helena about the tracking device that had allowed her to see how Markus had driven straight home afterwards. He had probably dropped the other man off somewhere along the route. On Friday, when Markus’s car was briefly parked in front of the real estate office, Elin had succeeded in removing the device again.

  “All right, I understand.” Helena seemed content. “I mean, my suspicion that he’s been seeing another woman has not proven true. That’s good enough for me. Whatever he’s doing in the cabin with his chums is irrelevant to me. I have no idea why he’s made such a big secret out of it, but that’s his business. I don’t tell him everything, either.”