‘We found signs of water seeping in under the bed, too,’ the assistant with the camera added. ‘It made visible tracks through the dust.’
Fabian wasn’t listening any more. He’d spotted something else entirely, flashing from among the jumble of markers, loose sheets of paper and fuse bead pegboards. Something that brought to mind the CCTV footage from Ica, where something had flashed just like that in the killer’s hand.
He walked over to the table, picked up the object with a handkerchief and studied it. Unlike every dice he’d used as a child, playing Monopoly, Ludo or Yahtzee, this wasn’t made of wood or plastic but rather of brushed metal. ‘Has this been sitting on this table the whole time?’
‘No,’ said the assistant with the camera. ‘I found it under the bed, but I had to move it to take pictures of the water tracks in the dust.’
Chance. Could it be that simple?
Six sides. Six possible outcomes.
25
HE COULDN’T HAVE asked for more perfect weather. Not a cloud in the dark blue sky. Just uncountable stars reflected in the water. But best of all was the wind. In just a few hours, it had shifted 180 degrees and was now coming out of the south-east at a speed of thirteen miles an hour, resulting in a perfect broad reach up through the sound and on towards Gothenburg.
Frank Käpp hadn’t even had to start the engine to leave Humlebæk harbour. He’d just undone the bow mooring lines and pulled the boat out by the anchor rope. Then he’d been able to hoist the mainsail and silently glide out through the inlet.
They were in no hurry, quite the opposite. That was what their around-the-world adventure was all about. Shedding their obligations and letting wind and weather determine the speed of their progress. That’s why he’d set an easterly course towards Glumslöv on the Swedish side. Once they passed Ven, he was going to turn north, ease the genoa and set the autopilot on a straight course through the bottleneck between Helsingborg and Helsingør.
This was exactly what he’d longed for and dreamed of during his final years in the office. Being one with the wind and feeling the salt on his face, surrounded by infinity. It was magical. That was the best word for it. Magical.
Unlike during the day, there were almost no other boats out. Other than a few freight ships, he could only see one green side light, close to the water on the port side. He couldn’t see a masthead light, however, which meant it must be some kind of motorboat less than twenty-three feet in height.
It was hard to make out at this kind of distance, but it was possible they were on a collision course. He reached for his binoculars and was just about to have a look when Vincent came out of the cabin in his pyjamas.
‘Hi, Vincent. Time for bed?’
‘Yes, but Dad… Mum said I should ask you if I can sleep with you tonight.’
It was so like Klara to force him to be the bad guy. They’d talked about this a thousand times. ‘No, Vincent, I don’t think so.’ If they gave in to the nagging now, he’d be sleeping between them for the rest of the journey.
‘But, Dad, please—’
‘Vincent, listen to me. You spent the last two nights in the aft cabin, and it was fine, right?’
‘Yes, but we were docked then. Now we’re at sea.’
‘You might as well get used to it. We’re going to be sailing at night a lot over the coming months.’
‘Yes, but—’
‘Okay, look, you asked, and the answer was no.’ Frank peered into the night, looking for the lantern, but he could no longer see it. No green side light and no white stern light.
‘Frank, do you have to be so rigid?’ Klara popped her head out of the cabin next to Vincent. ‘Is it really such a big deal if he sleeps with us?’
‘I’m not being rigid.’ He raised the binoculars and scanned the port side but saw nothing even close to the green lantern that had been there just minutes before.
‘I think you are. Especially given as how you’re the one who insisted we travel tonight, when we could just as easily have left tomorrow after breakfast.’
‘The whole point was to do a proper night sail before we leave Sweden. Like we agreed. And yet the two of you have refused every time, and this is our last chance. After Gothenburg, we’re off to Oslo.’ He did another sweep with the binoculars. But there was no boat to be seen, on either side of them, and that was odd, to say the least. It couldn’t have disappeared.
‘And what’s so terrible about that? What does it matter if we take things slowly?’
‘Okay, seriously. What’s the problem here?’ Frank turned to Vincent. ‘I can tell you’re exhausted. Just go to bed. I promise, you’re going to be asleep in seconds. And then when you wake up, the sun will be shining and we’ll be in Bohuslän, on our way into Lilla Bommen, from which we can practically walk to Liseberg.’
‘The problem, since you ask, is that you’re forcing him to sleep in the aft cabin,’ Klara said.
‘Okay, Vincent, can you tell me why you don’t want to sleep there?’
‘It’s scary. Last night I had a nightmare about a monster that came in and killed me.’
‘A monster?’
Vincent nodded. ‘It was super scary.’
Frank turned to Klara. ‘If you ask me, that has nothing to do with sleeping in the aft cabin. It’s all those computer games you’re playing. Look around.’ He made a sweeping gesture. ‘There’s water all around us and soon we’ll be out on the open sea. What kind of monster could get you here? I’ve heard of the Loch Ness Monster, but the Kattegat Monster, that’s a first.’
‘Frank, I don’t think this is the time to be glib.’
‘No, I’m sorry, my bad.’ He went over to Vincent and hugged him. ‘I’m sorry, buddy. Look, it’s just that Daddy has put a lot of time and effort into making the aft cabin cosy and nice for you and it actually makes me a bit sad when you don’t want to be in it.’
‘But I think it’s great. I really do. It’s just a bit scary.’
‘How about this?’ Klara suggested. ‘Vincent, I’ll go with you to the aft cabin and I promise I’ll stay with you until you’re sound asleep.’
Vincent pondered that and finally shrugged. ‘Okay. But you have to promise to stay a really long time.’
‘Of course. Come on.’ Klara took Vincent by the hand and led him through the cockpit and then the two of them disappeared into the aft cabin.
Frank turned on the radar, both the old one, whose green light swept round and round in a circle, and the new digital one. But the boat, or whatever it was he’d seen, didn’t show up on either screen.
It could have been a rubber dinghy. They sometimes escaped the radar’s notice. But who would go out in a rubber dinghy in the middle of the night? And with no navigational lights. No, he must have been mistaken. That was the only reasonable explanation. That it had just been some other light reflected in the waves.
Yes, that had to be it.
It had to be.
26
A KILLER WHO for no discernible reason selected victims at random by rolling dice. It sounded absurd; he’d never heard of anything like it. But that could very well have been what he’d been doing every time he stopped and shook his hand back and forth at Ica Maxi in Hyllinge. Maybe the whole thing was dictated by chance.
It was still just a theory, but it would explain a lot. Whether it meant getting one step closer to an arrest, however, was far from a given. Even if it helped explain the past murders, it did nothing to help them predict the future.
Perhaps Molander was mathematically skilled enough to mine the available data and analyse how dice might have been used. He was the last person Fabian wanted anything to do with, but with the help of the previous murders and a pinch of luck, he might be able to narrow down the number of possible alternatives and find a pattern that could be applied to the future.
But despite what Molander’s assistants had told Fabian, the police lab was deserted and dark, and there were no signs he might have just missed him. He’d
tried to call him three times but had had no answer. Nor was he to be found up in the conference room or in Tuvesson’s office. On the whole, the department seemed surprisingly quiet.
At least the lights were on in Lilja’s office, though that, too, was empty. But the computer was on and the printer on the floor was spitting out document after document.
He went over and picked up one of the printouts, which was apparently from Paygoo prepaid MasterCard and consisted of a long column of purchases made in all kinds of places, from a local Helsingborg swimming pool to lockpick.se.
‘Well now, look what the cat dragged in.’
Fabian turned to see Klippan and Lilja enter, carrying two pizza boxes from Planet Pizza & Grill.
‘Fabian, what are you doing here so late?’ Lilja put down a bottle of Coca-Cola and one of sparkling water on her desk. ‘Shouldn’t you be with your family?’
‘Yes,’ Fabian nodded. ‘And I have been. Did Tuvesson tell you?’
‘Molander,’ Lilja replied.
Of course it was Molander. God knows how he’d found out.
‘It must be horrible,’ Klippan said, shaking his head.
‘It is.’
‘If there’s anything we can do, just say the word.’
‘Thank you, but I’m sure it’ll be all right. Right now, Sonja and Matilda are asleep, so there’s not much I can do at home.’ Fabian looked around. ‘But there seems to be a lot to do here.’
‘You can say that again.’ Lilja pulled out the bottom box and opened it. ‘Did you hear that he lives right next door to my new flat?’
Fabian nodded, grateful that the conversation was moving on. ‘Tuvesson told me. Unbelievable.’
‘Right? I mean, what are the odds?’ Lilja picked up a slice of her pizza marinara, folded it over and started eating, while Klippan helped himself to a slice of kebab pizza and went over to the printer.
‘By the way, do either of you know where Molander is?’
‘Yes.’ Lilja took a sip of water. ‘He’s at Kärngränden, processing Ester Landgren’s room. At least I hope he is, because he promised to tackle Milwokh’s lair as soon as he’s done there.’
‘Then I’m going to have to disappoint you.’
‘Why, are you saying he’s not there?’
Fabian shook his head. ‘I just came from there, and according to his assistants, he left this afternoon and hasn’t been back.’
‘Seriously, what the fuck…’ Lilja sighed. ‘I’m getting really sick of this.’ She took one more bite, put the rest down and pulled out her phone.
‘There’s no point. I’ve already tried several times.’
‘He has to pick up some time,’ she said, putting the phone to her ear.
‘While you wait, I can inform you that it looks like we were right,’ said Klippan, who was standing next to the printer, flipping through the printouts.
‘He used the Paygoo card to buy things?’ Lilja asked.
‘He certainly did. He’s been splurging. There’s everything here, absolutely everything.’
‘Hi, this is Irene. Could you call me back, like, right now? And yes, I’m going to keep calling until you pick up or call me back. So just press that little green symbol and put the phone to your ear.’ Lilja ended the call and grabbed another slice of pizza.
‘And what’s that?’ Fabian nodded to the stack of documents next to the printer.
‘Pretty much everything we could find on Pontus Milwokh,’ Lilja replied, trying Molander again.
Klippan held up the stack of papers. ‘We have everything from his tenancy agreement to his latest purchases. For example, he’s in receipt of full asylum support, which is 6,800 kronor a month. In addition, he gets 3,900 in housing benefits. So his total income is 10,700 a month, which is paid into a Swedbank account, which is in turn linked to a Maestro card. He seems to use that for all his regular purchases, like food, clothes, rent and so on. In other words, nothing out of the ordinary there, apart from one purchase that caught our eye. On Friday 23 September last year, he went to Skånska building supplies north of town.’
‘Isn’t that just a regular DIY shop?’ Fabian said.
‘Surprise, it’s me again,’ Lilja said into her phone. ‘And like I said, I’m going to keep at this until you pick up.’
‘It is, but listen to this,’ Klippan replied. ‘I contacted them to see if they could help me figure out what he bought, and they were very helpful. Among other things, there was quite a bit of insulation, plasterboard, timber, paint and filler, as well as a bunch of screws, hinges, fixings and an electric screwdriver, a circular saw and some other tools.’
‘What did he need all that for in his tiny flat?’
‘Exactly what we asked ourselves. There’s nothing to indicate that he owns any other property, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t have access to a small cabin somewhere. The countryside is littered with unused ones. If you ask me, he built some kind of soundproofed box or something like that. Maybe to kidnap someone, what do I know?’ Klippan shrugged.
‘But that’s pure speculation,’ Lilja put in, with her phone still pressed to her ear.
‘True, but I did some calculations on material requirements, and what he bought would easily be enough for a five-by-five-foot box.’
‘Which is pretty cramped, if you ask me. You wouldn’t even be able to stand up. But that wasn’t what we bumped on, it was the price. Wasn’t it?’
‘Right.’ Klippan turned to Fabian. ‘You know what the whole thing cost?’
‘No.’ Fabian shrugged.
‘2,253 kronor.’
‘Okay.’ He realized they’d expected a bigger reaction. He just didn’t know what kind.
‘You’ve never done any DIY, have you! Do you know what the real price would be?’
Fabian shook his head.
‘7,253 kronor. More than three times as much. It turns out he used another card to pay part of it. A so-called Paygoo card from MasterCard, which isn’t only prepaid but also completely anonymous.’
‘So we contacted MasterCard,’ Lilja went on. ‘And apparently the card is linked to an anonymous PayPal account, and guess which one.’
‘Exactly,’ Klippan said, before Fabian had a chance to speak. ‘We’re talking about the same account PetFrame uses. Because that’s his little side hustle where he makes the money he uses for the fun things he wants to buy.’
‘I don’t know about little,’ Lilja said. ‘Over the course of the spring, he averaged forty thousand a month, tax free, which is a lot more than I take home.’
‘But this June, he only made a few thousand. But then, he’s been otherwise engaged,’ Klippan said. ‘Anyway, the Paygoo card has a 5,000-kronor spending limit, which was why he had to use his regular card too. And we’re lucky he did, or we wouldn’t have known he had it.’
‘So what you have there is what he has paid for with his anonymous card.’
‘Right you are.’ Klippan continued scanning the printouts. ‘And from what I can see, most of it’s on here. Like the rental car he picked up from Hertz on Gustav Adolfsgatan on 12 June, the day before the laundry room murder in Bjuv. Or 22 April, when he spent 2,495 kronor at lockpick.se.’
‘And what did he buy?’
‘Given the price, my guess would be a lock pick gun.’ Klippan pulled another printout from the printer. ‘And this is probably the mask he used at Ica Maxi. He bought that last autumn from realfleshmasks.com for 4,867 kronor.’
‘Real Flesh Masks,’ Lilja said, looking appalled. ‘Is that really the name of the shop?’
Klippan nodded. ‘But then, it was very realistic.’
‘And what’s the most recent purchase?’ Fabian asked.
Klippan skimmed the columns. ‘On Wednesday last week, he spent 3,487 kronor at trueswords.com.’
‘True Swords?’ Lilja turned to Klippan. ‘So he bought a sword?’
Klippan looked again and shrugged. ‘Looks that way.’
‘Well, why not?’ L
ilja shook her head. ‘If you can use a washing machine, why not a sword? Especially if you want to sneak around playing at being a ninja. What else do you have?’
‘Well, he has gone to the pool almost every day this past week.’
‘Could that be our next scene?’ Fabian asked.
‘It’s not impossible. Or maybe he’s just doing laps. Yesterday and the day before he also visited Helsingborg Boat Rentals and spent first four thousand, and then three and a half thousand. Probably to avoid exceeding the transaction limit.’
‘Okay, I just want to make sure I have this right,’ Lilja said, calling Molander yet again. ‘So, he has purchased a sword and rented a boat while also going to the pool every day.’
Klippan nodded.
‘Anything else? Maybe a clown suit, or why not a nuclear submarine while we’re at it?’
Klippan looked up from the printouts. ‘No, but speaking of which, we should put the pool under surveillance as soon as they open tomorrow.’
‘Of course.’ Lilja nodded as a voice suddenly reached them from the hallway.
‘Give it a bloody rest, will you?’ Molander exclaimed as he entered. ‘Don’t you have better things to do than harassing me?’
‘Yes, many, many things.’ Lilja turned to Molander. ‘That’s the problem. So instead of pretending like you can’t hear your phone, you might consider picking up.’
‘If I answered my phone every time it rang, I’d never get anything done.’
‘And that’s why I’m calling. You promised you were going to process Milwokh’s flat as soon as you were done with Ester Landgren, and from what I’m told, you haven’t even started yet.’
Molander sighed. ‘What do you want me to say? The Landgren flat took longer than I expected, okay?’ He shrugged. ‘Göran and Fredrik are ambitious and pleasant lads, but no one has ever called them speedy. And you know me.’ He looked each of them in the eyes. ‘I feel the same way you do – this case is too important for me to leave a crime scene and just hope the two of them do a good job on their own.’
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