The Ice Princess (36 page)

The first blow came with no warning. A slap from the right that made her head ring. She held her cheek and looked up at Lucas as if she still hoped that something inside him would relent at the sight of the marks he had left on her. Instead, it aroused a desire in him to do her even more harm. It had taken her the longest time to understand and accept that he actually enjoyed hurting her. For many years she had believed his assurances that hitting her hurt him as much as it did her, but no longer. She had seen the monster in him before; by now it was quite familiar.

She curled up instinctively to protect herself from the blows she knew would come. When they began raining down on her she tried to focus on a point inside herself, a place that Lucas couldn’t reach. It was something she had got better and better at doing. Even though she was aware of the pain, she could distance herself from it most of the time. It was as if she were floating on the ceiling and looking down on herself as she lay curled up on the floor while Lucas vented his wrath on her.

A sound made her quickly return to reality and slip inside her own body again. Emma was standing in the doorway with her thumb in her mouth and her blanket in her arms. Anna had got her to stop sucking her thumb over a year ago, but now she was sucking it hard to comfort herself. Lucas hadn’t noticed her yet as he stood with his back to Emma’s room, but he turned round when he saw that Anna’s eyes were fixed on something behind him.

Swiftly, before Anna could stop him, he went over to his daughter, roughly lifted her up and shook her so hard that Anna could hear her teeth rattling against each other. Anna started to get up from the floor, but everything felt as though it were happening in slow-motion. She knew that she would always be able to play back this scene in her mind’s eye—Lucas shaking Emma who looked with big, uncomprehending eyes at her dear Pappa who had suddenly been transformed into a terrifying stranger.

Anna threw herself forward at Lucas to protect Emma. But before she reached him she watched in terror as Lucas slammed the little child’s body against the wall. Anna heard a terrible crunching noise and knew that her life had now been irretrievably changed. Lucas’s eyes were covered by a shiny film. He seemed almost uncomprehending as he looked at the child in his hands before he carefully and tenderly set her down on the floor. Then he lifted her up in his arms again, like a little baby this time, and looked at Anna with shining, robot-like eyes.

‘She has to go to the hospital. She fell down the stairs and hurt herself. We have to explain that to them. She fell down the stairs.’

He was talking incoherently and heading for the front door without looking to see if Anna was coming along. She was in a state of shock and vaguely followed after him. She seemed to be moving in a dream, but she could wake up from it at any moment.

Lucas kept repeating, ‘She fell down the stairs. They have to believe us, as long as we tell the same story, Anna. Because we’re going to tell the same story, Anna. She fell down the stairs, didn’t she?’

Lucas rambled on, but all Anna could do was nod. She wanted to tear Emma, who was now crying hysterically in pain and confusion, out of Lucas’s arms, but she didn’t dare. At the last second, when they were already in the stairwell, she awoke from her haze and remembered that Adrian was still back in the flat. She hurried inside to get him and rocked him protectively in her arms the whole way to the emergency room, as the knot in her stomach kept growing bigger and bigger.

‘Will you come over and have lunch with me?’

‘Sure, gladly. When should I come?’

‘I can have something ready in an hour or so. Will that work for you?’

‘Yes, that’ll be perfect. Then I’ll have time to clean up a bit. See you in an hour.’ There was a little pause, and then Patrik said hesitantly, ‘Kisses, bye.’

Erica felt herself blush slightly from happiness at this first little but significant endearment used in their relationship. She replied with the same phrase and they hung up.

As she prepared lunch she was a little ashamed at what she had planned. At the same time she felt that she could do nothing else. When the doorbell rang an hour later she took a deep breath and went to open the door. It was Patrik, and he got a passionate reception, which Erica had to interrupt when the egg-timer rang as a signal that the spaghetti was done.

‘What’s for lunch?’ Patrik patted his stomach to show his appetite.

‘Spaghetti bolognese.’

‘Mmmmm, sounds great. You’re every man’s dream woman, did you know that?’

Patrik sneaked up behind Erica, put his arms round her and began nuzzling her neck.

‘You’re sexy, intelligent, fantastic in bed, but above all, most important of all, you’re talented in the kitchen. What more could a man want…?’

The doorbell rang. Patrik gave Erica a questioning look. She avoided his eyes and went to open the door, first wiping her hands on the kitchen towel. Outside stood Dan. He looked harried and the worse for wear. His whole body drooped and his eyes looked dead. Erica was shocked when she saw him but pulled herself together and tried not to show it.

When Dan came into the kitchen, Patrik gave Erica an inquisitive look. She cleared her throat and introduced them to each other.

‘Patrik Hedström—Dan Karlsson. Dan has something he wants to tell you. But let’s sit down first.’

She carried the pot of meat sauce into the dining room. They all sat down to eat but the mood was oppressive. Erica felt heavy-hearted about the situation but knew it was necessary. She had rung Dan that morning and convinced him that he had to tell the police about his relationship with Alex. And she had proposed that he do it at her house, which might make a tough task a bit easier, she hoped.

She ignored Patrik’s puzzled look and started things off.

‘Patrik, Dan is here today because he has something to tell you, in your capacity as a policeman.’

She nodded to Dan, inviting him to begin. Dan was looking down at his plate, and he hadn’t touched his food. After another moment of embarrassed silence, he began to speak.

‘I’m the man Alex was seeing. I’m the father of the child she was expecting.’

There was a clatter as Patrik dropped his fork onto his plate. Erica put her hand on his arm and explained, ‘Dan is one of my oldest and dearest friends, Patrik. I found out that Dan was the man Alex had been seeing here in Fjällbacka. I invited both of you to lunch because I thought it would be easier to talk about it in these surroundings rather than at the police station.’

She could see that Patrik did not appreciate that she had meddled like this, but she would have to deal with that later, Dan was a good friend, and she intended to do everything she could so that the situation didn’t get even worse. When she spoke with him on the phone he had told her that Pernilla had taken the kids and gone to her sister’s in Munkedal. She needed time to think, she’d said. She didn’t know what was going to happen, and she couldn’t promise anything. Dan saw his whole life falling apart around him. In a way it would be a relief to tell the police. The past few weeks had been so difficult. At the same time he’d been forced to grieve for Alex in secret, he had jumped each time the telephone rang or there was a knock on the door, convinced that the police had figured out that he was the man Alex had been meeting. Now that Pernilla knew, Dan was no longer afraid to tell the police. Nothing could be any worse than it already was. He didn’t care what happened to him, just so he didn’t lose his family.

‘Dan has nothing to do with the murder, Patrik. He’ll tell you everything you want to know about himself and Alex, but he swears that he never hurt her in any way, and I believe him. I hope that the police can try to keep this confidential. You know how people talk, and Dan’s family has already suffered enough. Dan too, for that matter. He made a mistake and believe me, he’s paying a very high price for it.’

Patrik still didn’t look particularly pleased, but nodded as a sign that he was listening to what she had to say.

‘I’d like to talk with Dan alone, Erica.’

She didn’t object but got up politely and went out to the kitchen to wash up. From the kitchen she could hear their voices rising and falling. Dan’s dark, deep voice and Patrik’s somewhat lighter one. The discussion occasionally sounded heated, but when they came out to the kitchen after almost half an hour, Dan looked relieved. Patrik still looked stern. Before he left, Dan gave Erica a hug and shook Patrik’s hand.

‘I’ll let you know if we have any more questions,’ said Patrik. ‘You might have to come in and give a written statement as well.’

Dan only nodded mutely and left after a final wave to them both.

The look in Patrik’s eyes did not bode well.

‘Don’t ever, ever do that again, Erica. We’re investigating a murder and we have to do everything the proper way.’

He scrunched up his forehead when he was angry, and she had to check an impulse to kiss away the wrinkles.

‘I know, Patrik. But you had the child’s father high up on the list of suspects. I knew that if Dan came into the station you’d put him in an interrogation room and probably start getting tough with him. Dan wouldn’t be able to stand that right now. His wife has taken the kids and left him, and he doesn’t know if they’re ever coming back. In addition to that, he’s lost someone who meant something to him, no matter how you may look at it. He lost Alex. And he hasn’t been able to show his grief to anyone or talk to anyone about it. That’s why I thought that we could start by talking here, in a neutral environment and without any other police involved. I understand that you have to interrogate him some more, but now the worst is over. Please forgive me for deceiving you, Patrik. Do you think you can ever forgive me?’

She pouted as seductively as she could and snuggled up to him. She took his arms and put them round her waist and then stood on tiptoe so she could reach his lips with hers. She tentatively stuck in the tip of her tongue, and it didn’t take many seconds before she felt a response from him. He pushed her away after a moment and looked steadily into her eyes.

‘You’re forgiven for this time, but don’t ever do it again, do you hear me? Now I think we should heat up the rest of the lunch in the microwave and take care of this rumbling stomach of mine.’

Erica nodded, and arm in arm they went back to the dining room where lunch still lay mostly uneaten on the plates.

When Patrik had to get back to the station and was on his way out the door, Erica remembered what else she had wanted to tell him.

‘You know, I told you that I had a vague memory that there was talk about something in connection with Alex just before her family moved away, and that it had something to do with school. I tried to check up on it, but didn’t find out very much. But I was reminded that there was another connection between Alex and Nils, besides the fact that Karl-Erik worked at the cannery. Nils was a substitute teacher at the middle school for one semester. I never had him as a teacher, but I know that he taught Alex’s class from time to time. I don’t know if this has any significance, but I thought I’d tell you about it anyway.’

‘So-o-o, Alex had Nils as a teacher.’ Patrik stopped to think on the front porch.

‘As you say, maybe it’s of no importance, but right now all connections between Nils Lorentz and Alex are of interest. We don’t have too much else to go on.’ He gave her a serious look. ‘There was one thing Dan said that really stayed with me. He said that towards the end Alex had talked a lot about having to settle up with her past. That it was important to dare take care of things that were difficult, so she could move on. I wonder whether that could have any connection with what you’re saying, Erica.’

He fell silent for a moment but then jerked himself back to the present and said, ‘I can’t rule out Dan as a suspect, I hope you understand that.’

‘Yes, I understand, Patrik. But go easy on him if you can. Are you coming over tonight?’

‘Yes, I just have to go home and get a change of clothes and things. But I’ll be here around seven.’

They kissed good-bye. Patrik went back to his car. Erica stood there on the steps watching him until the car vanished from sight.

Patrik didn’t drive straight back to work. Without actually knowing why, he’d brought along the keys to Anders’s flat as he was leaving the station. He decided to stop there and have a look round in peace and quiet. What he needed now was something, anything, that could give him an opening in the case. It felt as though he was running into blind alleys wherever he turned, and as though they would never find the killer, or killers, whoever it was. Alex’s secret lover, just as Erica had said, had been at the top of the list of suspects, but now Patrik was no longer so sure. He wasn’t prepared to write off Dan completely, but he had to admit that the trail no longer felt as hot.

The mood in Anders’s flat was eerie. In his mind’s eye Patrik still could see the image of Anders slowly swaying back and forth from the rope, even though he had already been cut down by the time Patrik saw him. He didn’t know what he was searching for, but he put on a pair of gloves so as not to disturb any evidence. He stood right underneath the hook in the ceiling where the noose had been fastened and tried to get an impression of how it was done. How had Anders been hoisted up there? It was simply impossible to figure out. The ceiling was high and the noose had been tied directly below the hook. It must have taken considerable strength to raise Anders’s body that high. Of course he had been quite thin, but in view of his height he still must have weighed a good deal. Patrik made a mental note to check Anders’s weight when the autopsy report arrived. The only explanation he could find was that several people had lifted him up there together. But how come there weren’t any marks on Anders’s body? Even if he had been sedated somehow, lifting the body up there should have left some marks. It just didn’t add up.

He went further into the flat and looked closely at everything. Since there wasn’t much furniture besides the mattress in the living room and a table with two chairs in the kitchen, there wasn’t a lot to examine. Patrik noticed that the only things providing storage space were the kitchen cabinets, and he went through them one by one. They had already been gone through once before, but he still wanted to make sure that nothing had been missed.