Autumn Killing (39 page)

And at the moment Christina says the word love, two small children run into the room, a little girl and an even younger boy. The children rush over to their mother, talking at the same time: ‘Mummy, Mummy, what’s happened? Mummy, tell us.’

‘Mum? Is that you? It’s a bad line.’

Tove.

It’s not yet half past two and it’s already starting to get dark over on the horizon beyond the jagged, shredded Östgöta plain. Malin is sitting in the Volvo with Zeke, on their way to Katarina Fågelsjö’s address.

She wants Tove to say she’s coming round this evening, that she’ll stay the night in the flat in the city and not out at Janne’s.

They drive past Ikea, the car park full at this time of day, and at the petrol station near Skäggetorp, people are filling their shiny, well-kept cars. She looks at the spot where she parked when she went to buy clothes and seems to see two men gesturing to each other beside a car.

Malin blinks.

When she opens her eyes again the men are gone.

Down by the river and the Cloetta Center, the new high-rise block is going up, the tower, a miniature skyscraper, a pointless piece of showy architecture so that another of the city’s vain property developers can stamp his name on Linköping’s history.

‘Mum? Is that you? I can’t really hear you.’

‘I’m here,’ Malin says. ‘Are you coming home this evening? We can do egg sandwiches.’

‘Maybe tomorrow?’

And mother and daughter talk, about how they are, what they’ve been doing, what they’re going to do.

Malin hears her own voice, but it’s as if it doesn’t really exist. As if Tove’s voice doesn’t exist. And this absence of voices forms a loneliness, which forms itself into an inadequacy, which forms itself into grief.

The car pulls up outside Katarina Fågelsjö’s modernist villa down by the river, fallen apples are still lying under the trees, and only now does Malin see the decay, that the house needs plastering and that the entire garden could do with being cleared out and maybe replanted.

Malin and Tove hang up.

The windscreen wipers are working frantically.

Their movement makes the shape of a heart, Malin thinks. Painted hearts, rubbing suncream onto a woman’s skin.

Signs of love that were never interpreted.

And she knows which question to ask Katarina Fågelsjö.

As if she had been waiting for this to happen.

Katarina is sitting in front of Malin and Zeke on the sofa from Svenskt Tenn. Her face betrays no dismay, no grief, no despair.

She has just had news of a death.

Your brother has been murdered.

And Katarina seems to shrug her shoulders, brush herself off, and move on. He was still your brother, Malin thinks, in spite of his shortcomings.

Malin looks at the Anna Ancher painting on the far wall, the woman at a window facing away from the viewer. She reminds me of your father, Katarina, by the window facing the Horticultural Society Park, as if they’re both trying to hide their faces at all costs, to avoid having to reveal what they feel.

Is that what you’re supposed to do? Pretend the world outside, any feelings, don’t exist? Or is there something else you’re hiding?

She hears Zeke asking questions, and Katarina answering.

‘Yes, Father was here. He went home. I went to bed. No one can verify that. Is that necessary?

‘I didn’t kill my own brother, if that’s what you’re thinking. We’re not behind either of the murders. Matter closed. Enemies? Fredrik was harmless. He didn’t have any enemies. Yes, the day my father dies I’ll inherit almost everything now, but I’ve had everything I need for a long time.’

The irony sharp as a razor blade as Katarina says these last words.

Zeke runs out of questions.

Katarina folds her hands in her lap, letting her fingers rest on each other on the blue silk of her knee-length skirt, and Malin thinks that she has that gentle restlessness you only see in women who have no children, a mournful longing that finds expression in an edginess, a chronic nervousness, and sudden attempts at warmth.

Katarina frowns, and Malin thinks that a single feeling can define a person’s life if it’s sufficiently strong, make that person want to live in that feeling, even though it will never return.

Another painting on another wall. A woman on her own in blue, facing a misted window, Impressionistic. She’s longing for something, Malin thinks.

‘You and Jerry Petersson,’ Malin says. ‘You went out together, didn’t you?’

And Malin can hear how hard, inadequate and clumsy her words sound, and she sees Katarina’s face contort before she says: ‘Surely now’s not a time for fantasies, is it, Inspector?’

I see you leave Katarina’s house, Malin, then I see you enter the police station
.

You’re trying to validate your own shortcomings in those of other people, aren’t you? You want so badly to believe that your own pain can be eased simply because other people feel a similar pain.

That’s arrogant, Malin.

But you’re good at dragging things out into the open, I have to admit that. You dare to follow your instincts, the traces of feelings lingering in the air, the way in which we human beings breathe each other’s love.

We are parasites on each other’s love, Malin. Trying to shift it to where we want it to be, trying desperately to understand what it wants with us. What are we to do with all the love, friendship, fear and despair?

Did you expect Katarina to answer your question?

Or that I would whisper the answer as I drift, my mouth just a few centimetres from your ear?

I don’t think so.

No victories are won so cheaply.

You can do better than that, Malin.

Now you’ve gone to see your boss, Karim Akbar.

He doesn’t mention it to you, but he’s just turned down a job he was offered at the Immigration Authority. Nor will he say that he feels good, standing there looking out over the innards of the police station, and the detectives he realised he appreciated more than he could possibly have imagined while he was thinking about the job offer.

Karim is also thinking about a book he’s in the middle of writing, about immigration issues, work on which has been very slow for too long.

And then there’s you, Malin.

What are we going to do with you?

What are we going to do with all these lives that are stuck inside themselves?

The paperwork Hell in the police station feels more claustrophobic than ever.

Lovisa Segerberg, Waldemar Ekenberg, and Johan Jakobsson have been over at the Östgöta Bank to fetch files and computers from Fredrik Fågelsjö’s office, as well as his personal computer, and other documents from out at the Villa Italia.

It’s half past three.

Outside in reception the vultures are waiting for some sort of statement, but apart from a press release confirming the name of the victim they haven’t been given a thing. Karim is refusing to hold a press conference, wants to let the investigation proceed in peace, as he just said in the staffroom.

Johan rubs his eyes, thinking about his wife, who’s probably at home playing with the kids now.

Fredrik Fågelsjö’s father.

Jerry Petersson’s files. They haven’t even got through a tenth of Petersson’s papers yet, and now there’s a whole new set from a new murder.

In spite of their silence, television and radio news are featuring the murder heavily. There are profiles of both Jerry Petersson and Fredrik Fågelsjö. Naturally the
Correspondent
has the murder as the lead item on its website, a lengthy article written by that journalist that Johan is convinced Malin is having a relationship with, or at any rate fucks sometimes. He’s written that the second murder might perhaps have been avoided if the police had been more efficient in solving the first. Was he even out there at the castle?

Waldemar is sitting at the end of the table sipping a cup of coffee. Strong and black, and he looks bored out of his mind. Huffing and puffing, he doesn’t seem to want to get down to work. Lovisa, on the other hand, is concentrating on Fredrik Fågelsjö’s computer, clicking from one document to the next. Maybe she’s hoping to find a connection between Jochen Goldman and Fredrik Fågelsjö?

Then Waldemar gets up and goes over to stand behind Lovisa, and starts massaging her shoulders, saying: ‘You like this, don’t you?’

Lovisa stands up.

Turns towards Waldemar.

Says in an ice-cold voice: ‘Don’t fucking touch me. I don’t give a damn how many young female officers you’ve sexually harassed in your time, but you don’t fucking touch me. Understood?’

Waldemar backs away.

Throws out his arms with a grin.

‘Calm down, love. No sense of humour?’

‘I’ve had an email from Interpol in Stockholm,’ Sven Sjöman says as he heads towards Malin’s desk.

The beginnings of a headache. Withdrawal, Malin thinks. But no hangover at least.

‘Jochen Goldman left Tenerife,’ Sven says. ‘Three days ago.’

‘Where’s he gone?’ Malin asks.

‘Stockholm, via Madrid. But no one knows where he went after he landed at Arlanda.’

‘So it could have been him who put the pictures through my letterbox?’

‘Unlikely. But he might have got someone else to do it. Maybe simpler for him to arrange direct from Stockholm.’

‘So he was in the country when Fredrik Fågelsjö was murdered,’ Malin says.

‘We haven’t got any connection at all between them so far, but we’ll see what the files throw up,’ Sven says.

‘We haven’t got anything on him at all,’ Malin says. ‘He’s got every right to do whatever he likes. Maybe those photographs are just part of a warped game.’

‘I still don’t get it, though,’ Sven says. ‘Why would Goldman want to come to Sweden right now?’

‘Who knows?’ Malin says. ‘But I’m convinced Jochen Goldman is behind those pictures. It can’t be anyone else. Aronsson just gave me the results of her search: no one I’ve put away who might want revenge has been released recently.’

Sven pulls in his stomach and reminds her that they have a case meeting in five minutes.

‘We really need to start making some progress here, Malin. The vultures in reception are demanding quick results.’

Tired detectives around a conference table.

Words flying through the air, summaries, new ideas. A criminal investigation that’s treading water, where every conversation and exchange risks leading their work in an emotional direction rather than a logical one.

The playground of the nursery empty.

Sven Sjöman summarises the state of the investigation.

‘We’re still going through Petersson’s files. Nothing unusual so far, no other relatives or significant figures in his life. We still haven’t found the murder weapon, probably a stone, or the knife that was used to inflict the post-mortem wounds.

‘We need to keep digging into Petersson’s relationship with the Fågelsjö family, especially Fredrik and Katarina. We also need to find out more about his dealings with Jochen Goldman. And we’re still looking into the circumstances surrounding the car crash.’

Then Sven falls silent.

Looks at Lovisa Segerberg.

‘Anything new?’

She shakes her head.

‘Nothing so far.’

‘There’s so much fucking paperwork,’ Waldemar Ekenberg snarls. ‘It doesn’t feel like we’re getting anywhere.’

‘If you feel stuck, dig even deeper,’ Karim Akbar says, and Malin thinks it sounds as if he’s trying to convince himself rather than his detectives.

‘We need to start making some progress here,’ Karim goes on. ‘We haven’t got anywhere yet.’

‘You’re right about that,’ Malin says.

‘The media are going crazy. We’ve got a press conference in two hours.’

‘Those pictures you received, of your parents. We’re assuming that Goldman’s behind them,’ Sven says, and Malin tries not to listen as he goes on about the photographs.

Then he runs through the state of the investigation into the murder of Fredrik Fågelsjö, about Axel and Katarina Fågelsjö’s questionable alibis, and the fact that Fredrik Fågelsjö’s parents-in-law have confirmed his wife’s alibi.

‘Most murders occur within families,’ Waldemar says. ‘And Axel and Katarina have plenty of reasons for wanting to get rid of that black sheep of theirs after he fucked up their finances. Maybe they were worried poor little Fredrik would crack and give them away?’

‘Do you really believe they did it?’ Malin asks. ‘Murdered their own son and brother? No matter what the reason?’

‘Even if Axel and Katarina didn’t do it themselves,’ Waldemar says, ‘they could have arranged for it to happen. That goes for both murders.’

‘But why such a grandiose gesture?’ Zeke asks.

‘To divert attention away from themselves,’ Waldemar says.

‘We just need to do more work here, into every aspect, this feels like our main line of inquiry right now,’ Sven says. ‘Try to work out what they’ve been up to recently, what calls they’ve made, to start with.’

‘Email?’ Johan Jakobsson says.

‘We’d need to seize their computers for that,’ Sven says. ‘We’ll start with their mobiles. We’ve got enough grounds for that now.’

‘It’s too early for computers,’ Karim adds. ‘After all, we’ve got nothing concrete on them at all.’

‘We spent today checking the neighbours closest to the castle again,’ Sven says, ‘and around Fredrik Fågelsjö’s house. Chances are he was there on the evening he was murdered. But no one saw anything. Linnea Sjöstedt didn’t bother with her shotgun this time round.’

The detectives laugh.

‘And Karin’s report?’ Zeke goes on.

Sven nods.

‘She was quick. It’s just arrived, even though she said it would be tomorrow at the earliest. Fredrik Fågelsjö died of a blow to the back of the head. A blunt instrument, a rock, something like that. A hard blow, but not hard enough to rule out the perpetrator being a woman. And, as she said at the crime scene, it’s impossible to tell if the perpetrator is right- or left-handed. Not much blood-loss, but the blow caused severe internal bleeding in the brain that will have made him lose consciousness immediately. Time of death sometime between ten o’clock on Thursday evening and two o’clock Friday morning, which basically gives Axel and Katarina Fågelsjö alibis, unless they’re involved in this together. Axel’s supposed to have left his daughter’s at two o’clock that night.’