by Mikaela Bley
Carola stopped, turned to her, and gave her an unexpected look. ‘Of course they have, and no, they haven’t found anything of interest.’
‘Okay, sorry,’ said Ellen quietly. ‘I’m just trying to turn over every stone.’ They continued walking, and she wondered whether she should ask about Hanna, but decided to bring that up at lunch.
Ellen pulled out her pass card and walked slowly up the stairs to the fourth floor. The first thing she did when she walked into Editorial was look over at Jimmy’s office, which was empty with the lights off.
‘Where’s Jimmy?’ she asked Agatha.
‘Hi there. He’s sick. For the first time since he started working here. Didn’t think that worker ant could be sick. He’s not answering emails or the phone. I’ve been trying to reach him all morning.’ She shook her head, amused, and continued tapping on the keyboard.
Ellen sank down on her chair. Stared at the screen and didn’t know where to start.
After a while, she opened a new document and wrote down everything she knew about Liv Lind and all the loose threads. She dialled the number for Börje, who, for once, answered after just a ring or two. ‘Just one quick question,’ said Ellen. ‘How was it that you were the first person at the crime scene?’
Börje cleared his throat. ‘I was in the vicinity.’
‘Really? That was pretty early in the morning.’
‘Well, I don’t live far from there and couldn’t sleep anyway, so I decided to go to the office to get a stack of paperwork done. On the way in, I received the alert. There was no more to it than that.’
Ellen had to accept that answer; he was too shrewd to give her a more detailed explanation. ‘How did you find her?’
‘That’s not something I want to comment on.’
Of course. ‘Were you at McDonald’s the night before?’
‘What? No. What is this?’
‘Have you seen anything at the McDonald’s in Nyköping that could be related to the murder of Liv Lind?’
‘No, we’ve reviewed everything and there is nothing that indicates that. Why are you asking? Do you know something?’
‘That’s not something I want to comment on,’ said Ellen with a grin.
Börje sighed.
‘Just one last question, what police car was driving around Stentuna the night Liv was murdered? Did you have a hard time sleeping during the night as well?’
‘I don’t need to answer that type of question. If you know something that can facilitate the investigation, then I hope you’ll give us that information. I don’t know where you’re going with this.’
‘No, after all, Liv did get what she deserved, or how did it go again? Do you also think that the baby girl she was expecting got what she deserved?’
‘Listen, watch yourself! How do you know it was a girl, anyway?’
She didn’t reply, and they hung up. Ellen continued typing in question marks, which continued to grow in number.
Next to it, she opened another document. There, she wrote down everything that was bubbling up in her head. Her brain was spitting out the wildest theories, and she just wrote. Didn’t care that there was no logic in it at all. Liv and Elsa by turns.
She plugged her earbuds into her phone, clicked on the link that Internet had sent her, took a deep breath, and pressed play. Stared at herself and Didrik in the water. It all seemed so unreal, almost as if it hadn’t happened. Surreal to look at it from a distance like this. She watched the clip several times, but didn’t understand why she was tormenting herself. She felt dizzy. It was brutal. It hurt. She stared down at her arms, and her vision blurred.
She kept writing. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, and she barely had time to think before there were words and sentences on the screen.
Suddenly, the phone started vibrating, and Reception showed on the screen. She answered almost as if she’d just woken up, and they informed her that her lunch guest was there. Ellen looked at the clock. Time had simply run away.
ELLEN
12.10 P.M.
It wound up being a tray lunch at the Four restaurant. There were three lunch options on offer, and as usual, each looked more unappetising than the last.
‘I think it looks good,’ said Carola when Ellen complained and couldn’t decide.
That was a standard comment from anyone who was a guest in the dining room. In Ellen’s opinion, it was reminiscent of one of the better school cafeterias, and you quickly got tired of the food. Everything tasted the same.
Both ladled the vegetarian option onto their plates, and then sat down at one of the tables right at the back of the restaurant.
‘Listen, sorry,’ Carola said after a while.
‘Forget it,’ said Ellen. ‘Were you able to check out that thing with the car?’
‘No, I haven’t had time yet, sorry.’
‘Anything new about the sperm — how long had it been in the body?’
‘No, unfortunately. I don’t have access to that information.’
‘But it must be of interest to all of you?’
‘Believe me, we will definitely have checked it, it’s just that I don’t have the level of access.’ She sounded irritated. ‘It’s Börje who decides what I get to communicate, and not even I have access to all their files and documents.’
Suddenly, everything fell into place. Again and again, Ellen had tried to dismiss the thought, but hadn’t been able to. But she needed more pieces of the puzzle.
‘How did you know that Liv was expecting a girl?’
‘I guess it’s in the investigation.’
‘Which you’ve read? It wasn’t because someone told you that?’
‘Well …’
‘Börje?’ Ellen stuffed a piece of bread in her mouth and tried to swallow it with a little water.
Carola nodded. ‘And regarding the ring … Patrik told us about it in an interview. This isn’t something you can release, but just between us. He gave all his women the same kind of ring. It wasn’t a cross, but a plus sign. Plus one.’ She shook her head.
So Hanna had had her own ring. ‘But you don’t know where Liv’s ring is?’
‘No. It’s gone.’ She looked down at the plate and pushed the food around with her fork.
Ellen wondered a few times whether she ought to bring up Bea and the kids, but she didn’t want to get into that discussion again, so she put it off.
‘I talked to Sara earlier,’ said Carola. ‘Apparently, several newspapers have contacted her and asked permission to be present at the funeral, and she didn’t know what she ought to say — isn’t that sick?’
Ellen shrugged. She thought about how scared Sara was that Liv would be forgotten, or that people would get the wrong impression about her sister, and wondered how she must be handling everything that had come out the past few days.
‘I feel like I want to paint a dignified picture of Liv.’ Ellen suddenly felt like she was carrying the whole world on her shoulders. ‘It’s awful how hard the media has gone after this whole relationship thing. Everyone should be able to live as they wish.’
‘How come?’ Carola looked up from the plate. ‘You don’t know what she was like. Maybe she wasn’t a good person at all. Who knows, maybe she was mean, manipulative, and didn’t stand up for herself or those around her? You said yourself that you’ve received tips that Liv was violent.’
Ellen raised her eyebrows. Had she and Carola actually talked about that tip email?
‘You don’t need to look so surprised. Reality is usually shittier than you think.’
‘Who told you that Liv Lind was found with her dress pulled up over her face?’
‘Börje. But I imagine it will be in the preliminary investigation, too.’
‘Did you see a picture of her?’
‘Yes, I’ve seen the pictures from the crim
e scene.’
‘Who took that picture?’
‘The technicians, I presume. That’s usually how it works.’
Someone is lying, Ellen thought, but she needed the final pieces to put the whole puzzle together. ‘Börje is lying. He was first on the scene, and the police who came after him confirm that Liv Lind was found with her dress pulled down.’
‘Strange,’ she said, taking a gulp of water.
Ellen was thinking out loud and lining one piece up next to another. The Christmas gnome at the petrol station who’d seen a police car that night, and the neighbour who had also seen a police car before Liv was found. And then the girl at McDonald’s who’d seen a police officer being interviewed.
‘Do you know which interview?’
Ellen shook her head; she’d try to reach the girl again after lunch. ‘Was it Börje who checked the McDonald’s, too?’
‘What are you actually trying to insinuate?’
Ellen shrugged. ‘I don’t know, but don’t you think these coincidences are a little strange?’
‘What?’ Carola laughed. ‘You think it was Börje? You journalists are too funny. What are you basing that on, his shoptalk and the police cars? Or have you read a few too many mysteries or seen too many TV series where the policeman turns out to be the bad guy? Really, I thought more of you than that. It’s crazy — why does everyone persist in defaming policemen, when we sacrifice our lives to protect people like you?’
Ellen was embarrassed and suddenly couldn’t think of anything to say in her defence. But there were enough puzzle pieces that she couldn’t let it drop. ‘How do you explain, then, that a lot of the information you’ve received hasn’t been entirely accurate? Don’t you think it’s strange? Do you think it feels like he’s doing his job?’
‘Maybe they’re desperate because they’re stuck. If they don’t find a suspect soon, they’re going to be in trouble.’
ELLEN
1.05 P.M.
After lunch, Ellen went back up to Editorial. She stole a glance at Jimmy’s office. It was still empty, and the lights were turned off.
According to Agatha, Jimmy had completely gone off the grid. Just like she had after Lycke. She wished she could go to his home, though she knew that that wouldn’t work. Because the other woman, Jeanette, would be there. Jimmy had had no right to judge her the way he had, considering that he himself was living a double life. Ellen hadn’t actually done that. But she had hurt him deeply. The revelation was frightening. She couldn’t remember ever having wounded anyone, not like this. No one cared about her enough for her to actually have done that. It was a sad thought.
Focus on a point close to yourself, she thought, and had a powerful longing to talk to Dr Hiralgo.
She googled the number for Sven, who had worked at Örelo as long as she could remember, and called him. When he answered, Ellen asked him why they bought grain from Didrik, but he couldn’t say.
‘But haven’t you ever wondered about it and thought it was strange?’
‘No, not particularly.’
‘But surely we ought to be using our own grain that we grow on the farm.’
‘Yes, but we sell it to Germany.’
‘But why?’
‘Listen, don’t ask me, it’s a bad deal. You’ll have to bring it up with Margareta, I just do as I’m told.’
It must be nice not to have to wonder about the things that went on around you. Ellen wished her life was that simple.
She stared at the open documents on her screen. She was on the trail of something. Was Carola covering up for Börje? She googled the interview with him on Aftonbladet. Couldn’t stop feeling that he must be involved in some way. The information she’d been given was contradictory, and it looked like he was lying.
She paused the video and managed to catch a still of Börje with his mouth open. She smiled, because it looked pretty funny.
‘Ellen, you’re ringing,’ said Agatha.
‘What? What is?’
‘The landline.’
‘I have a landline phone?’ She picked up a mass of piles of paper on the desk and found an ancient device beneath them.
‘Hello?’
‘Ellen, you have a visitor,’ the receptionist said.
‘Who is it?’ she asked.
There was some rustling. ‘Wait. Hello and welcome to TV4, who are you looking for? Can you come down?’ the receptionist asked, sounding stressed.
‘Are you talking to me now? Who is it?’ She wasn’t expecting a visitor and was in no mood for surprises. ‘Can you tell them that I’m busy?’
‘Hello, yes, I’ll connect you. You’re welcome. Ellen, can’t you just come down. I have quite a bit to do. I’m afraid I don’t have time to take care of your guests.’
She didn’t like the receptionist’s tone, but figured she had no choice. ‘Okay, I’m coming down,’ she said, as if she had nothing else to do, and as if she wasn’t already talking to a dial tone.
Before she went down, she called the girl at McDonald’s, who answered this time.
Ellen barely had time to introduce herself before the girl started talking.
‘Yeah, well you did say that I could call you if I thought of anything … Maybe this isn’t anything, but when I saw that interview on Aftonbladet I recognised someone …’
‘I’m glad you called,’ said Ellen. ‘Who did you see?’
‘The police officer who was interviewed in the segment was here last Sunday evening, or rather during the night. It was when I was going to clean the restrooms, around midnight. I won’t go into any details, but it reeked, as they say, and there was something about the eyes of that police officer.’
Adrenaline, thought Ellen, straightening up.
‘It wasn’t until I saw that interview that I realised that they’d actually been a police officer.’
‘Plainclothes.’
‘Yes, must have been.’
‘What did he look like?’
Ellen noticed a related video on the screen.
See next clip
Behind the big play button, she saw a picture of Carola.
She clicked on it. Carola was being interviewed about the murder of Liv Lind.
‘Hello?’ the girl called through the speaker.
‘Sorry, I just got distracted here a moment.’ Ellen took a deep breath. ‘Was it, by any chance, a female police officer you saw at the restaurant and in the interview?’
ELLEN
2.00 P.M.
There was no one in reception when Ellen came down. ‘I can see you’re really busy.’ She gave the receptionist a surly look, who responded in kind.
‘She left.’
She.
Ellen ran out into the parking lot and saw Carola just getting into her car. Instead of calling out, Ellen rushed forward.
‘Carola …’ Ellen tried not to sound so out of breath after that short stretch. But the adrenaline surge added to it, and she tried to calm herself down so she could present the whole thing strategically. ‘Were you looking for me?’
‘Yes, or no, it was nothing,’ Carola said, and was about to close the door when Ellen took hold of it.
‘I’m sorry, but I have to get back to the police station.’ She sounded irritated and sweat was running down her temples.
‘Listen, what you told me earlier, about that violent relationship. Was it a woman you were living with?’
‘What does that matter?’ Carola avoided her eyes, and continued to try to close the door.
Ellen still held onto it firmly. ‘Answer me! Was it a woman?’
‘Why do you want to know? What, are you a homophobe?’ Now she sounded tough again.
‘No …’
‘I’m sorry if I misunderstood you earlier at the hotel. I promise it won’t happen again.’ Once a
gain, she tried to close the door. ‘I’m in a hurry and need to leave.’
‘Can I come with you part of the way?’ Equal parts crazy and smart, thought Ellen, but she had to get to the bottom of this. She hurried around the car and pulled at the handle, but the door was locked. She knocked on the window and felt her pulse rising. After a few seconds, Carola unlocked it, and Ellen got into the passenger seat in the boiling-hot car.
Carola stepped on the pedal, and Ellen barely had time to close the door before Carola recklessly backed up and drove out of the parking lot. ‘Take it easy,’ Ellen said, gripping the handle on the ceiling.
‘Where shall I let you off?’ Carola asked, her voice sounding gruff. She was sweating copiously, and her face was chalk-white.
‘Are you okay?’ Ellen asked as they drove onto Tegeluddsvägen. She had no plan for how she was going to pull this off, and was starting to regret being in the car. ‘Maybe you’re too warm in those clothes — must you wear a uniform?’
She still didn’t reply, and Ellen turned the airconditioning down to the coldest setting. Carola didn’t even seem to notice her poking at the instrument panel. ‘Is it because you want to hide the bruises? I thought you weren’t seeing that woman any more?’
Carola shrugged.
‘Really, are you okay?’ Ellen looked closer at Carola, whose sweating wasn’t abating even though it was actually starting to get cooler in the car. ‘Was it Liv?’ she tossed out, feeling her pulse racing.
Carola did not react to the question and drove up Lidingövägen as if Ellen hadn’t spoken.
She stopped at a red light by Stadion, turned her face away, and stared out the window.
The sun was out and blinded Ellen. She pulled down the sun visor, but it didn’t help. Her thoughts were racing as they turned onto Valhallavägen. ‘Can you stop here?’ Ellen asked, pointing at Sophiahemmet hospital. ‘Stop, please,’ she said. ‘Otherwise, I’m calling the police.’