Frozen Moment (4 page)

    'Please,
Åke… I can't explain.'

    It
was hopeless. Åke's expression made it clear that he had no intention of
listening to her. Instead he bent down to pick up some rubbish as if he too
were part of the police operation.

    'Excuse
me, but could you identify yourselves?'

    A
uniformed officer placed his hand on Åke's shoulder. Seja realised that her
options were limited at this point: she could either keep digging herself into
a hole, or she could hold up her hands, apologise and be told off and sent
away. A part of her wanted to disappear before she was found out. It must be
breaking some kind of law, surely, poking around a crime scene like this? But
another part of her wanted to stay, wanted to see before it was too late. See
the dead man before they carted him off.

    It
was like the morbid fascination that affects people driving past the scene of
an accident, but it wasn't only that. She came closer without actually making a
conscious decision to do
so,
her legs moving of their
own volition, taking her round the side of the barn. A group of men and a woman
were crowding round a figure dressed in dark clothing
who
was lying in an odd position on the gravel.

    Her
camera phone was burning a hole in her pocket. Seja forced herself not to look
away. She took a few steps closer. Somewhere behind her she could hear Åke
being told off for having destroyed evidence by picking up a chewing-gum
wrapper. She heard the words murder investigation uttered in a stern female
voice. It didn't concern Seja. Only this body concerned her.

    A
moment of confusion arose when she finally saw the man's face. She ransacked
her memory, her mind racing. He didn't look the way she remembered him. She
felt both relieved and disappointed at the same time.

    She
wouldn't have dared to sneak out her mobile if it hadn't been for the fact that
she was even more afraid to encounter the dead body without some form of
protection. She shot from the hip, and each time she pressed the button she
expected one of the uniformed officers to come rushing over and grab the phone.
But it didn't happen, and as long as the button was clicking between her and
the glassy eyes, half-covered by a milky film, she could cope.

    
Close
his eyes, for fuck's sake.
The words leapt into her mind and the thought
surprised her.

    The
navy-blue Helly Hansen sweater was similar to the one her father had often worn
under his jacket during the winter. The blonde hair was drenched in blood; it
had stiffened and darkened. 'Close his eyes,' she repeated in a whisper, and
she could no longer hold back the tears.

    Tell
reappeared. For a second he met her tear-filled eyes with an intense
questioning expression before waving Åke into a police van parked by the side
of the road. She ran across the grass, feeling that she had been caught out.

    In
the van there was a Thermos flask on a folded-down table, along with a stack of
plastic cups and some broken ginger biscuits in a tin with no lid.

    
'Coffee?'

    Seja
nodded mutely, although her stomach was churning. Christian Tell busied himself
serving the coffee. His hands had a calming effect on her; they were broad, and
in the light from the steamed-up window she could see the fair hairs on the
back of them. He wasn't wearing a wedding ring.

    'So…
you made the call, Åke. Is it OK if I call you Åke?'

    Åke
nodded. He still looked pale.

    'Did
you know the victim? Who he was?
His name?'

    'No,
no idea. Edell, I mean that's what it says on the sign.'

    Tell
turned to Seja. She shook her head.

    'O
K, so your call came in at 07.49, Åke. By that time you had found the body and
driven up to the main road.'

    Seja
couldn't bring herself to look Tell in the eye. She left her steaming cup of
coffee where it was - her hands wouldn't do as they were told, they were
shaking and would have given her away immediately. And yet she couldn't do the
obvious thing and tell him what had really happened, that she hadn't been there
when the body was found. She was painfully aware of the shapeless black heap
just a few metres away.
The corpse.
She carried on
staring down at her red chapped hands.

    Tell
went on: 'I need to know, as accurately as possible, what time it was when you
arrived at the garage and found the body.'

    Åke
cleared his throat.

    'Er…
I, or rather we, left home - we're neighbours, you see - at half past six. I
know that for sure because I saw the six-thirty bus at the stop.'

    Happy
now because he had managed to be helpful, give concrete information. Then he
frowned.

    'I
was driving quite slowly, of course, because as I said there was something
wrong with the car. The exhaust pipe fell off up by the petrol station. It must
have taken me a while to tie it back on. Twenty minutes, maybe. Then I looked
-1 mean we looked for the garage…'

    'So
you did know the place?'

    'No…
well, I knew it must be around here somewhere, if it was still open. I'd only
driven past it before, seen the sign, and that was a few years ago. I usually
go to Christer. Or sometimes I go to Nordén Son in Lerum. I've always-'

    'So
that was all the two of you did: you drove up to the main road and made the
call. So can we make a rough guess that you found the body say ten or fifteen
minutes before you called?'

    Åke
nodded again.

    'Yes,
I think I - I mean we - sat at the bus stop for a while, but it can't have been
long. Just to gather my thoughts. I mean I was in shock, you understand. I
realise I should have stayed here, of course, until you arrived, but… I wasn't
even thinking. I just wanted to get away. It didn't even occur to me that I had
a telephone with me. I haven't had one long, but my wife-'

    'It's
perfectly fine, I realise the first impulse is to get away,' said Tell
reassuringly. Åke seemed to relax slightly. He took a gulp of his coffee and
crossed his legs.

    Tell
leaned forward.

    'I
want you to tell me exactly what happened, as accurately as you can. Did you
see anything in particular? Did you hear anything? Did anything seem odd?
Whatever comes to
mind.
'

    While
Åke Melkersson took his time formulating his reply, Tell spotted Karlberg
chatting to the doctor who had certified the death. The medics were getting
ready to move the body into the ambulance, and Tell considered asking them to
wait. He would have liked to go over the way the man was
lying
one more time before they moved him, but decided to let it go.

    Reluctantly
he turned his attention back to the disparate couple in front of him, just in
time to see Seja cast a pleading look at Åke. She shrugged her shoulders.

    'I
didn't really see anything other than what Åke has already told you.'

    'Can
we just go through it once more,
Åke.
'

    'The
house looked empty but the door of the workshop was open. There was a light on
inside. I went in to have a look, I called out but nobody answered. The radio
was on -
Soothing Favourites.
I usually listen to that myself.'

    'Good.
That's something else. And where were you, Seja, when Åke went off to look for
help?'

    
'In the car.
I stayed in the car, so I didn't see… the dead
man.'
If you're going to lie successfully, say as little as possible.

    Tell
nodded slowly. When she didn't go on he turned back to Åke, who picked up where
he had left off.

    'I
decided to take a walk around and see what was happening. I mean
It
seemed as if somebody was there, or had been there not
long ago.'

    Åke
pointed in the direction of the yard by tapping on the van window.

    'And
then I saw him. He was just lying there. I could see straight «way that he was
dead. I didn't get too close… then I think I… brought up my breakfast. It
happened so suddenly, I mean you don't expect to find someone, not like that…'

    'It's
perfectly understandable, Åke.
Perfectly understandable.'

    Tell
had taken out a notebook and started jotting down some points. The colour had
come back to Åke's cheeks, and he had regained his confidence. He risked a
question.

    'I
was just wondering… He'd been shot, hadn't he? Someone shot him and then ran
over him?'

    Tell
glanced up from his notes and pushed his fringe out of his eyes.

    'It's
up to the pathologist to establish the cause of death. But he's definitely been
shot, so we can assume that's what killed him.'

    He
took a packet of cigarettes from his inside pocket and shook one out with an
apologetic smile. Seja noticed he had a crooked front tooth, which made him
look younger.

    'It's
not acceptable to smoke anywhere these days, but if you don't mind I'm going to
have a couple of drags.'

    He
smiled again, slightly embarrassed, and turned away to exhale the smoke, which
immediately filled the small space. Seja felt her nausea welling up, like a
delayed reaction, and suddenly she was enormously and irrationally irritated
with this ugly, attractive, smug man who clearly thought the world was there
for his convenience, although he did stub out the cigarette after two drags.

    'So,
back to your story… Åke, you said the car broke down and you couldn't drive it
from the bus stop where you made the phone call. So the car you arrived in just
now, that's not the one that broke down?'

    'No.
I had to leave the Opel up there by the road. I didn't have anything else to
secure the exhaust pipe with.'

    'I
understand. But the person who came to help you, I presume that person was
driving the dark blue Hyundai you just arrived in?' He looked out through the
steamed-up window. The Hyundai was in full view a little way off. 'Who does the
car belong to?'

    He's
looking at the registration number.

    'Me,'
said Seja quickly.

    Her
impulse was to stand up and walk out.

    'So
someone borrowed your car to come out and pick you up. Did you drop that person
off somewhere, before you came here?'

    Åke
gasped for breath a little too loudly and nodded.

    
'Exactly.
In Hjällbo.
It was my
wife, Kristina. Her sister lives in Hjällbo, so I dropped her off there. We
dropped her off there.'

    His
face was now quite red, and a vein was throbbing in his temple just below the
edge of his fur hat. Seja was just about to put a stop to the whole charade by
explaining what had really happened, that she was to blame because she was so
insanely curious, that she had wanted to write a crime report or just to see a
dead body, but then Tell closed his notebook.

    'I
noticed that the back seats were folded down.'

    The
comment broke Seja's train of thought.

    'I
had horse fodder in the back.'

    She
knocked over her coffee cup, which contained only the last few dregs. A thin
stream ran towards the edge of the table and dripped on to her knee. Christian
Tell passed her some toilet roll.

    'Where
was Kristina sitting?' he said.

    'Kristina?'
said Seja stupidly.

    Tell
nodded.

    'Where
was Kristina sitting, if you were driving and Åke was sitting next to you and
the back seats were folded down?'

    Seja
wiped her trouser leg with exaggerated care. She sighed when the silence became
too much for her.

    'Nowhere,'
she admitted. 'She wasn't with us. I lied because I didn't want to leave Åke
alone.'

    Tell
nodded tersely.

    'Right,
let's start from the beginning. And let's have the truth this time.'

    1993    

    Once
upon a time there was a workhouse close to a mountain lake; apart from the
house there were only gravel tracks covering the forest landscape like a
spider's web.