by Kepler, Lars
‘Jurek never lived in that flat in Södertälje,’ Joona says as he leafs through the folder. ‘There were no personal belongings there, no trace of him … he probably only ever went there to collect the post.’
‘And he didn’t live in the gravel pit either, that was all a lie,’ Nathan goes on. ‘We’ve been in with diggers … the barracks have been demolished, the whole area excavated. There are no more bunkers.’
‘But he did live there as a child, we know that much,’ Joona says thoughtfully.
‘Yes,’ Saga whispers.
‘And while he was recovering, he lived with the churchwarden’s sister,’ Nathan reminds them.
‘Jurek was close to death when Cornelia found him … it’s all in her journals, every detail of the operations,’ Nils points out.
‘Under the name of Andersson … the most common surname in Sweden, just to mess with us,’ Nathan sighs.
‘He’s not messing with us,’ Joona says.
‘But we can’t ask everyone called Andersson for an alibi,’ Nils says.
72
The hours pass, and the work of pulling the vast amount of material into some sort of manageable shape continues in silence.
Joona blows on his coffee and looks at the map of Europe with the locations of where the rejected accomplices were found or murdered.
The lights flicker from a disruption in the electricity supply.
He turns to the map of Norra Djurgården and looks at the pins which mark each individual grave in Lill-Jans Forest and the industrial estate.
‘How was Jurek able to find the graves in the dark?’ Joona asks.
Nathan searches for his reading glasses among the papers on the table, but as usual they’re perched on his forehead.
‘We’ve tried with coordinates and prime numbers, we’ve run it through the best programs we’ve got – geometry, trigonometry, all that sort of thing.’
‘He isn’t a mathematician,’ Joona says, studying the pattern of the graves.
‘There is no fucking system,’ Saga sighs.
‘Hold on,’ Joona says quickly, still staring at the map.
‘Can’t we just admit that?’ she whispers.
‘No.’
‘Being stubborn isn’t enough,’ Saga says. ‘It’s time to rethink this, we need to ask the public for help.’
Joona moves along the wall, looks at the pictures from the gravel pit, Cornelia’s house and the flat in Södertälje.
‘Sometimes I understand his way of thinking,’ he says in a low voice, thinking that it feels like he’s on his way to interpreting the undercurrents, nudging towards the answers.
He goes back to the map of Lill-Jans Forest, follows the old railway line with his finger, looking at the pins that mark each individual grave.
‘Are they randomly placed?’ Nils asks.
‘It’s the twins,’ Joona says, and starts to pull the pins out.
‘What? What do you mean?’
‘Gemini, the constellation,’ Joona says, pulling out more pins. ‘That’s how he can remember where the graves are.’
Joona pulls out the last pin, takes the map down off the wall and holds it up to the light, so that it shines through the small holes in the paper.
‘Do you remember Jurek’s father’s letter about the Medusa Nebula?’ Joona asks.
‘Yes,’ Nathan says.
‘That’s part of the same constellation.’
Joona puts the map down on the table and draws lines between the tiny holes: the image resembles a cave-painting of two people holding hands.
‘The constellation of the Twins,’ Nathan says slowly.
Saga goes and stands behind Nathan as he looks up a photograph of the constellation on his phone and enlarges it. He puts the map over his phone and enlarges the image a bit more. The holes in the map match the stars almost exactly.
‘This is mad,’ Nathan smiles, looking at the others.
‘We took his bishop,’ Saga mutters.
She sinks onto a chair and runs her hand gently across the table.
‘Saga … we’re still deep in the catacombs together,’ Joona says. ‘And it’s your move again. Your move.’
‘Now we know it’s possible to see through him,’ Nathan says hoarsely. ‘He was following a pattern …’
‘An order,’ Saga says quietly.
‘What?’ Nathan asks.
She swallows and closes her eyes to help find the right words.
‘Morals have no meaning to him, we know that, not that it matters,’ she says, looking Joona in the eye. ‘But he does subscribe to a certain sort of order.’
‘What are you thinking?’ Joona asks.
She rubs her forehead hard.
‘I don’t know why I said that,’ she sighs.
‘Back up, go back,’ he says quickly. ‘What were you thinking when you used the word order? That sounds significant. What sort of order did you mean?’
She shakes her head, wraps her arm around her, looks down at the floor and sits in silence for a long while before she finally speaks.
‘When we were in the secure psychiatric unit, Jurek and I used to talk … about what it was like the first time he killed someone,’ she begins, and looks up.
‘He said it was like eating something he didn’t think was edible,’ Joona says.
‘Yes, but the other day, when I met him in the care home, he compared killing with physical labour … He doesn’t kill for fun, we know that, but I asked him if it had ever felt good, killing someone.’
She falls silent again.
‘And it hadn’t,’ Joona says.
Saga meets his gaze.
‘No, but the first time, the very first person he killed in Sweden after his father’s suicide … he said it made him calmer, as if he’d solved a riddle … A riddle about how to restore order, I thought … because that was when he realised that instead of killing the guilty, he was going to take everything away from them.’
‘Do we know who his first victim in Sweden was?’ Nathan asks.
‘No,’ Nils replies. ‘We haven’t found enough bodies.’
‘Could … could the first victim’s name have been Andersson?’ Saga asks, wiping her mouth with her hand.
‘You’re thinking that might be why Jurek told Cornelia that was his name?’ Joona says. ‘That he took his new name from his first victim.’
‘The same way he’d assumed the name Jurek Walter before he returned to Sweden.’
‘Good thinking, Saga,’ Joona says. ‘Very good.’
She nods, with a feverish look in her eyes, and looks on as Nathan starts to search for the name in Jurek’s files.
‘No Andersson, nothing,’ Nathan whispers in front of the computer.
‘Then it’s a victim we don’t know about,’ Joona says.
‘Come on, we need to think,’ Saga says, and pauses to draw a ragged breath. ‘When Jurek returns to Sweden after all those years and finds his dad dead, when he thinks of the loneliness that has almost driven him to suicide … who’s the first person he thinks of then, who does he want to destroy?’
‘The people who took the decision to separate Jurek and his brother from their father, the officials in the old Alien Persons Department,’ Nils Åhlén suggests.
‘It’s none of them, they committed suicide several years later, they’re on the list,’ Joona says.
‘So who does he kill first?’ Nils asks.
‘Maybe the foreman at the pit? That’s what I’d have done. Check him out … the man who took Jurek and his brother,’ Saga says, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand again. ‘I mean, he was the one who started it all. He could just have told their dad to keep his kids under control – that’s what a lot of people would have done, and that would have been the end of it.’
‘Can we find out his name?’ Nathan asks, clicking at the computer.
‘It must be possible,’ Saga says.
Nils starts searching old reports on his own laptop.
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‘I know I’ve got the notes somewhere,’ Joona says, pulling a bundle of notebooks out of a box.
‘Jan Andersson,’ Nils says, and looks up from his computer.
‘That was the foreman’s name?’ Saga asks breathlessly.
‘Yes, but it doesn’t fit,’ Nils says. ‘He wasn’t the first victim …’
‘What?’
‘He’s alive,’ Nils says, and reads on. ‘Jan Andersson and his family are still alive, that’s why the investigation never picked him up.’
‘Would Jurek have ignored the man who reported his family to the police?’ Nathan wonders sceptically.
‘Well, Jan Andersson is retired now, and his daughter lives in Trelleborg,’ Nils goes on. ‘His wife’s dead, but his brother’s still alive. He’s got a large family in Lerum.’
‘I think Jan Andersson has been dead for many years,’ Joona says slowly.
‘What do you mean?’ Nils asks.
‘Jurek hasn’t just taken his name, but his whole identity,’ Joona says. ‘That’s why it looks like he’s still alive.’
‘You mean Jurek is drawing his pension, paying his bills …’
‘Yes.’
‘In that case, he’s probably living in Andersson’s house in Stigtorp,’ Nils says, turning his laptop towards them.
73
Valeria is freezing all the time now, and she’s lost the feeling in her feet. The pressure sores on her back keep waking her up. It’s so dark and silent here beneath the floorboards that she’s lost all track of time.
To eke out the supply of water, she waits until her thirst is almost unbearable before drinking any. That will extend the chances of her being found, but it’s also making her weaker.
She tells herself that by now someone must have realised what happened in her greenhouse, must have seen the blood and the body in the car. Her sons are bound to have contacted the police, and everyone will be looking for her.
Valeria lies still and listens out for any sign of life, but dozes off and is dreaming about a rowing boat full of water when she suddenly wakes up to the sound of a girl’s voice, very close to her.
‘Daddy? Daddy?’
Valeria drinks some water to get her voice back.
‘Daddy? Saga?’
‘Hello?’ Valeria says, and clears her throat cautiously. ‘Can you hear me?’
The girl falls silent abruptly.
‘My name is Valeria, I’m locked up too … right next to you.’
‘I’m freezing,’ the girl says.
‘Me too, I’m freezing as well, but we’re going to get out of here … What’s your name?’
‘Pellerina Bauer.’
‘You were calling for Saga – do you know Saga Bauer?’
‘Saga’s my sister,’ the girl says. ‘She’s going to rescue me, because she’s a police officer.’
‘Who was it who took you, Pellerina – do you know?’
‘No.’
‘Did you see him?’
‘He’s old, but really, really quick … Sabrina was looking after me when he arrived, I was hiding in the bath and I kept as quiet as a mouse, but he still found me.’
‘What happened?’
‘I don’t know, I woke up and it was completely dark … I’m twelve years old, but I’m still a bit scared of the dark.’
‘I was scared of the dark when I was twelve, but you don’t have to be scared now, because I’m here the whole time, and you can talk to me as much as you like.’
Valeria has worked out that the man and woman who gave her the water are dangerous. Jurek must have lied to them, frightened them. They think they’re safe as long as they do what he tells them, as long as they hold her captive and keep her in a coffin. But Pellerina is only a child. It’s hard to imagine what Jurek might have said to them to make them treat her like this.
Time passes in the darkness beneath the house. The long hours merge together. Valeria is feverish and her head aches. Pellerina is freezing, and very thirsty.
All they can do is try to hold on until they’re rescued.
At first Valeria talked about her greenhouses to help calm Pellerina down, she described the different plants, the fruit trees and raspberry canes. Now she’s making up a long story about a girl called Daisy and her puppy.
The puppy has fallen in a hole and Daisy is looking everywhere for it. Pellerina keeps talking to the dog, trying to comfort it and tell it that the little girl is going to find him soon.
Valeria has figured out that Pellerina was in some sort of secure accommodation when Jurek came for her. That means that her own disappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed. The police know what’s happened, and presumably are conducting an intensive search for the girl. Time’s starting to run out. Valeria can feel her general condition deteriorating fairly rapidly now, and a child won’t last long without water.
She describes how Daisy keeps looking in different places, and keeps finding different clues: the dog’s favourite toy, a bone, his collar.
Valeria falls asleep in the middle of the story, but wakes up when someone walks across the floor of the room above them.
There’s a scraping sound as the floorboards are lifted off.
‘Be ready, I’m about to open it,’ the woman says sharply.
‘I’m ready,’ the man says.
‘Shoot if she tries to get out.’
Valeria’s mind is racing as she hears them loosen the straps around the other coffin. They’re afraid of Pellerina too. What on earth has Jurek told them?
‘OK, open up,’ the man says.
They nudge the lid open.
‘Hold her down,’ the woman yells.
‘I’m trying, I’m trying!’ the daughter replies.
‘Let me out!’ Pellerina sobs.
‘Hit her!’ the mother cries. ‘Hit her in the face!’
There’s a loud slap and Pellerina starts to whimper in pain.
‘Lie still!’ the man roars.
‘Hello?’ Valeria calls out. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Give her the bottle of water.’
More thuds, and Pellerina starts crying even louder.
‘Calm down, Anna-Lena,’ the man says.
‘For Christ’s sake, she was the one who burned him, she was the one who—’
‘I don’t want to be here,’ Pellerina sobs.
‘Just drink,’ the woman snarls.
‘I don’t want to! I don’t want to!’ Pellerina cries. ‘I want to go home to—’
Pellerina gasps as someone slaps her again, then starts to cough.
‘She’s bleeding,’ the daughter whispers.
‘Can you hear me?’ Valeria calls. ‘Why are you hurting a child?’
‘And you can shut up!’ the woman yells.
‘Can you tell me why you’re keeping a little girl down here?’ Valeria asks. ‘Her name is Pellerina, and—’
‘Don’t listen to her,’ the woman interrupts.
Valeria weighs up the possible consequences before she speaks, but there’s no time to think things through and she decides to risk it anyway.
‘Pellerina has nothing to do with this, her dad took an overdose and she’s only staying with me until he gets out of rehab.’
‘We know everything,’ the man says.
‘Good, because I’m not going to make any excuses,’ Valeria says. ‘I’m a junkie … and I was so fucking desperate when it happened.’
‘What’s she saying?’ the daughter asks.
‘I’m so sorry for what I did, I swear—’
‘Shut up!’ the woman shouts.
They close the lid of Pellerina’s coffin again and Valeria hears them tighten the straps.
‘The man you’ve met, his name is Jurek … he just wants his money, I don’t know what he’s going to do with me, but that’s my own fault, I borrowed loads of money for smack and then took off … I get that you want to punish me, but if you let Pellerina die, you’re no fucking better than I am.’
‘He said we weren’t to listen to them,’ the teenage girl whispers.
‘When the withdrawal kicks in you start to panic, it’s like something takes you over, you’ll do anything for half a gram … I burned him to get money, and his phone … Pellerina doesn’t know anything about this.’
‘He said it was her, the abortion who burned those letters into Axel’s face,’ the teenage girl says.
‘No, it was me, she can’t even write … I branded him with those letters so he’d get money from the cashpoint.’
‘Shoot her, shoot her through the lid,’ the woman sobs.
‘Calm down,’ the man says. ‘We can’t, you know what we have to do.’
‘Give me the rifle,’ the woman says. ‘I’m going to shoot her.’
‘That’s enough!’ the man roars.
The woman goes on crying, and walks away across the floor.
‘It’s cold down here and we’re freezing,’ Valeria says. ‘I don’t think Jurek wants me to die, because then I won’t be able to pay back the money I owe him.’
‘What the hell are we supposed to do?’ the man asks in a more subdued voice.
She hears them start to put the floorboards back over the hole again.
‘Pellerina’s only a child, her parents are addicts,’ Valeria goes on in a stronger voice. ‘I don’t know why you’re being unkind to her … if you won’t let her out, then at least give her some warm clothes and food.’
She starts to cry as the footsteps fade away across the floor and everything goes quiet again.
‘Drink some water even if they were horrid to you,’ she says into the darkness.
Pellerina doesn’t answer.
‘Did they hit you with the stick? Pellerina? Were they mean to you? Can you hear me? You know I was lying to them when I said I burned that boy? They thought you’d done it, but I knew that wasn’t true. It isn’t good to tell lies, you’re not supposed to, but I did it so they’d let you out. Sometimes you have to say silly things. But I promise you, I’ve never hurt anyone like that … have you?’
‘No,’ the girl whispers.
‘But they think we have, that’s why they’re not letting us go.’
74
After a quick briefing the National Response Unit teams set out from their base in Solna.