‘So you pretended that nothing had happened?’ said Patrik.
Ragnar sighed, slumping forward even more. ‘Yes, I pretended that nothing had happened. But I never allowed him to be alone with her again. Never.’
‘Did he try anything else?’ Paula’s face was pale.
‘No, I don’t think so. Somehow he seemed satisfied. Alice stopped crying so much. She mostly just lay still and was not at all demanding.’
‘When did you and your wife notice that something was wrong?’ asked Patrik.
‘It gradually became obvious. She didn’t learn things at the same pace as other kids. When I finally got Iréne to admit to it, and we had Alice examined … well, the doctors concluded that she was suffering from some sort of brain damage, which would most likely keep her at a child’s level, mentally speaking, for the rest of her life.’
‘Did Iréne suspect anything?’ asked Paula.
‘No. The doctor even said that Alice had probably been that way since birth. It just wasn’t noticeable until after she started to develop.’
‘How did things go as the two children grew up?’
‘How much time do you have?’ said Ragnar, smiling. But it was a sad smile. ‘Iréne cared only about Alice. She was the prettiest child I’ve ever seen, and I’m not just saying that because she’s mine. Well, you’ve seen what she looks like.’
Patrik thought about those enormous blue eyes.
‘Iréne has always loved anything beautiful. She herself was very beautiful as a young woman, and I think that she saw Alice as an affirmation of her own beauty. She devoted all her attention to our daughter.’
‘And what about Christian?’ said Patrik.
‘Christian? It was as if he didn’t exist.’
‘That must have been terrible for him,’ said Paula.
‘Yes,’ said Ragnar. ‘But he staged his own little revolt. He loved to eat, and he put on weight very easily. He probably inherited that tendency from his mother. When he noticed that his eating habits annoyed Iréne, he started eating even more and got even fatter, just to spite her. And it worked. The two of them waged a constant battle over food, but for once Christian was able to defeat her.’
‘So Christian was always overweight when he was growing up?’ asked Patrik. He tried to picture the slim, adult Christian that he knew as a plump little boy, but he couldn’t do it.
‘He wasn’t just chubby, he was fat. Really fat.’
‘How did Alice feel about Christian?’ asked Paula.
Ragnar smiled, and this time the smile was also evident in his eyes. ‘Alice loved Christian. She adored him. She was always following him around like a little puppy dog.’
‘And how did Christian react to that?’ Patrik asked.
Ragnar paused to think. ‘I don’t think he really minded. He mostly left her alone. But occasionally he looked a bit surprised by the love she showered on him. As if he didn’t understand why.’
‘Maybe he didn’t,’ said Paula. ‘Then what happened? How did Alice react when he moved away?’
A curtain seemed to fall over Ragnar’s face. ‘A lot happened all at once. Christian disappeared, and we couldn’t take care of Alice any more – not the way she needed.’
‘Why not? Why couldn’t she live at home any longer?’
‘She was practically grown up, and she needed more support and assistance than we could give her.’
Ragnar Lissander’s mood had suddenly changed, but Patrik didn’t know why.
‘Has she never learned to talk?’ he interjected. Alice hadn’t spoken a word while they were in her room.
‘She can talk, but she doesn’t want to,’ said Ragnar with the same closed expression on his face.
‘Is there any reason why she might hold a grudge against Christian? Would she be capable of harming him? Or anyone else close to him?’ In his mind Patrik again pictured her – the girl with the long dark hair, her hands moving over the white piece of paper, drawing pictures that might have been done by a five-year-old.
‘No, Alice wouldn’t hurt a fly,’ said Ragnar. ‘That’s why I wanted to bring you here, so you could meet her. She could never hurt anybody. And she loves … loved Christian.’
He took out the drawing that she’d given him and placed it on the table in front of them. A big sun at the top, green grass with flowers at the bottom. Two figures: one big and one small, happily holding hands.
‘She loved Christian,’ he repeated.
‘Does she even remember him? It was so many years ago that they last saw each other,’ Paula pointed out.
Ragnar didn’t reply. He just motioned towards the drawing. The two figures. Alice and Christian.
‘Go ahead and ask the staff here if you don’t believe me. But Alice is not the woman you’re looking for. I don’t know who would want to harm Christian. He disappeared out of our lives when he was eighteen. A lot must have happened since then, but Alice was the one who loved him. She still does.’
Patrik looked at the little old man. He knew that he would have to do as Ragnar had suggested. He needed to question the staff here. Yet he was convinced that Alice’s father had spoken the truth. She was not the woman they were looking for. They were back to square one.
‘I have something important to report,’ Mellberg interrupted Patrik just as he was about to present the new information. ‘I’m going to cut back my work hours to part-time for a while. I’ve realized that my leadership has been so successful here at the station that I can now entrust all of you with certain tasks. My knowledge and experience can be put to better use elsewhere.’
Everyone stared at him in surprise.
‘It’s time for me to devote myself to the most important resource in our society: the next generation. The ones who will carry us into the future,’ said Mellberg, hooking his thumbs under his braces.
‘Is he going to be working at the youth centre?’ Martin whispered to Gösta, who merely shrugged in reply.
‘Besides, it’s also important to give the women a chance. As well as the immigrant minorities.’ He glanced at Paula. ‘I know that you and Johanna are having a hard time working out how to juggle the maternity leave you’re both entitled to so you can care for Leo. And the boy needs a strong male role model right from the start. So I’m going to be working here part-time; it’s already been approved by the top brass. The rest of the time I’ll be spending with the boy.’
Mellberg looked around at his colleagues, apparently expecting them to applaud. But an astonished silence had fallen over the room. Most surprised of all was Paula. This was news to her, but the more she thought about the idea, the better she liked it. It meant that Johanna could start working again, while she could combine her work schedule with hours of maternity leave. And she couldn’t deny that Mellberg took good care of Leo. So far he’d proven to be an excellent babysitter, except maybe for the incident with the taped nappy.
After the initial surprise had worn off, Patrik could only agree with the plan. From a practical standpoint, it meant that Mellberg’s hours at the station would be reduced by at least half. And that might not be such a bad thing.
‘I commend your initiative, Mellberg. I wish that more people shared your point of view,’ Patrik said. ‘And now I think we’d better get back to the investigation. A lot has happened today.’
He reported on the second trip to Trollhättan that he and Paula had made, about their conversation with Ragnar Lissander and their visit with Alice.
‘So you have no doubt in your mind that she’s innocent?’ asked Gösta.
‘I’m positive she’s not the one. I talked to the staff, and her mental capabilities are at the level of a child.’
‘I can’t imagine how Christian could live with the knowledge of what he’d done to his sister,’ said Annika.
‘And the fact that she adored him couldn’t have made it any easier,’ added Paula. ‘It must have been a heavy burden for him to bear. Provided that he knew what he’d done.’
‘We also have something to report.’ Gösta cleared his throat and cast a glance at Martin. ‘I thought I recognized the name Lissander, but I couldn’t recall where I’d heard it before. And I wasn’t one hundred per cent positive. The old grey matter isn’t as reliable as it once was,’ he said, pointing at his head.
‘And?’ said Patrik impatiently.
Gösta again glanced at Martin. ‘Well, first we had a talk with Kenneth Bengtsson, but he claims to know nothing. He also says that he never heard of the name Lissander. But I kept wondering why our former colleague Ernst kept popping into my head every time I thought about that name. So we went to see him.’
‘You drove over to Ernst’s house?’ said Patrik. ‘But why?’
‘Just listen to what Gösta has to say,’ Martin said, and Patrik fell silent.
‘Okay, well, I told Ernst about what I’d been thinking. And he worked it out.’
‘What did he work out?’ Patrik leaned forward.
‘He was able to tell me where I’d heard the name Lissander before,’ said Gösta. ‘It was because they lived here in Fjällbacka for a while.’
‘Who?’ Patrik asked in bewilderment.
‘Mr and Mrs Lissander, Iréne and Ragnar. With their children Christian and Alice.’
‘But that’s impossible,’ said Patrik, shaking his head. ‘If that was true, why didn’t anyone ever recognize Christian? Ernst must be mistaken.’
‘No, it’s true,’ said Martin. ‘Evidently Christian took after his biological mother, and he was terribly overweight when he was growing up. Take away one hundred and thirty pounds and add on twenty years and a pair of specs, and it would be hard to believe he was the same person.’
‘How did Ernst happen to know the family? And you too?’ asked Patrik.
‘Ernst was infatuated with Iréne. Apparently they got to know each other at some party, and after that Ernst always wanted to drive past their house as often as we could. So we took a lot of drives past the Lissander home.’
‘Where did they live?’ asked Paula.
‘In one of the houses right near the Coast Guard dock.’
‘You mean near Badholmen?’ asked Patrik.
‘Yes, very close. It was Iréne’s mother who originally owned the house. She was a real bitch, from what I heard. For many years she and her daughter had no contact whatsoever, but when the old lady died, Iréne inherited the place, so the Lissanders moved here from Trollhättan.’
‘Did Ernst know why they moved away from Fjällbacka?’ asked Paula.
‘No, he had no idea. But apparently it was quite sudden.’
‘So it seems that Ragnar didn’t tell us everything,’ said Patrik. He was really getting sick and tired of all the people who apparently had secrets that they refused to divulge. If everyone had been willing to cooperate, they probably would have solved this case long ago.
‘Good work,’ he said, nodding to Gösta and Martin. ‘I’m going to have another talk with Ragnar Lissander. There must be some reason why he never mentioned that they had once lived in Fjällbacka. He ought to have realized that it was just a matter of time before we found out anyway.’
‘But that still doesn’t tell us who the woman is that we’re looking for. It seems she should be someone that Christian knew when he was living in Göteborg. After he moved away from home and before he came back to Fjällbacka with Sanna.’ Martin was thinking out loud.
‘I wonder why he came back here,’ Annika interjected.
‘We need to find out more about the years that Christian spent in Göteborg,’ said Patrik. ‘So far we know of only three women who have figured in Christian’s life: Iréne, Alice, and his biological mother.’
‘Could it be Iréne? She would have a motive for seeking revenge, considering what Christian did to Alice,’ said Martin.
Patrik paused to think for a moment, but then shook his head.
‘I’ve also been thinking about her, and we can’t rule her out. But I don’t think so. According to Ragnar, she never found out what had happened. And even if she did know, why would she also target Magnus and the others?’
In his mind he pictured the disagreeable woman they had encountered at the house in Trollhättan. He heard again her contemptuous remarks about Christian and his mother. And suddenly a thought occurred to him. It was something that had been hovering in the back of his mind ever since they’d met with Ragnar for the second time. It was the one thing that didn’t seem to fit. Patrik picked up his mobile and quickly tapped in a number. Everyone sitting at the table looked at him in surprise, but he held up one finger as a sign that they shouldn’t speak.
‘Hi, this is Patrik Hedström. I actually wanted to talk to Sanna. Okay, I understand. But could you go and ask her a question for me? It’s important. Ask her if the blue dress she found was her size. Yes, I know it’s an odd question. But it would be a big help if you could ask her. Thanks.’
Patrik waited, and after about a minute Sanna’s sister, Agneta, was back on the line.
‘Oh, really? Okay. Good. Thanks a lot. And say hi to Sanna.’ Patrik ended the conversation with a pensive look on his face.
‘The blue dress was Sanna’s size.’
‘And?’ said Martin. He seemed to be speaking for everyone.
‘That’s a little odd, considering that Christian’s mother weighed more than three hundred pounds. So the dress must have belonged to someone else. Christian lied to Sanna when he told her it was his mother’s.’
‘Could it have belonged to Alice?’ said Paula.
‘That’s possible. But I don’t think so. There must have been another woman in Christian’s life.’
Erica glanced at the clock. It was turning out to be a long workday for Patrik. She hadn’t heard from him since he’d left the house that morning, but she hadn’t wanted to bother him by phoning. Christian’s death must have caused utter chaos at the station. Patrik would come home when he could.
She hoped that he wasn’t still mad at her. He’d never been truly angry with her before, and the last thing she wanted was to disappoint or upset him.
Erica ran her hand over her stomach. It seemed to be growing uncontrollably, and sometimes she felt such a dread of what was to come that she could hardly breathe. At the same time she was longing for it. Such ambiguous emotions: joy and concern; panic and anticipation. Everything blissfully mixed up together.
Anna must be feeling the same way. Erica felt guilty that she hadn’t been very receptive to listening to her sister talk about her own pregnancy. She had been so caught up in her personal situation. Yet after everything that had happened with Lucas – Anna’s former husband and the father of her two children – plenty of emotions had probably been stirred up now that she was pregnant. And with a new man in her life. Erica was ashamed by how selfish she’d been, talking only about her own feelings and worries. She would phone Anna tomorrow morning and suggest having coffee together, or maybe taking a walk. Then they’d have time for a proper chat.
Maja came over and crawled on to her lap. She looked tired even though it was only six o’clock, which was two hours before her bedtime.
‘Pappa?’ said Maja, pressing her cheek against Erica’s stomach.
‘Pappa will be home soon,’ said Erica. ‘But you and I are both hungry, so I think we should make ourselves some dinner. What do you say to that, sweetie? Shall we have a girls’ dinner tonight?’
Maja nodded.
‘How about Falu sausage and macaroni? With lots of ketchup.’
Maja nodded again. Her mamma knew just what to serve for a girls’ dinner.
‘So how should we do this?’ said Patrik, pulling up a chair to sit next to Annika.
It was pitch-dark outside, and everybody should have left for home long ago, but no one was even thinking of leaving the station. Except for Mellberg, that is, who had gone out the door about fifteen minutes earlier, whistling to himself.
‘Let’s start with the public records, even though I doubt we’
ll find anything. I went through them before, when I was checking on his background, and I really can’t believe that I missed anything.’ Annika sounded apologetic, and Patrik patted her on the shoulder.
‘I know that you’re a perfectionist when it comes to doing research, but oversights can happen to anyone. If we look through the files together, maybe we’ll see something that you missed the first time. I think that Christian must have lived with a woman when he was in Göteborg – or at least had a relationship with someone. Maybe we can find something that will help us find out who that might have been.’
‘Let’s hope so,’ said Annika, turning the computer screen so that Patrik could see it too. ‘But as I said, he had no previous marriages.’
‘What about children?’
Annika typed something on the keyboard and then pointed at the screen.
‘No, he’s not listed as the father of any children other than Melker and Nils.’
‘Shit,’ said Patrik, running his hand through his hair. ‘Maybe it’s a stupid theory. I don’t know why I have such a strong feeling that we’ve missed something. The answer has to be somewhere in these files.’
He got up and went into his own office. He sat there for a long time, staring at the wall. The ringing of his phone abruptly interrupted his brooding.
‘Patrik Hedström.’ He could hear how discouraged his voice sounded. But when the man on the phone introduced himself and then explained why he was calling, Patrik sat up straighter in his chair. Twenty minutes later he rushed into Annika’s office.
‘Maria Sjöström!’
‘Maria Sjöström?’
‘Christian was living with a woman in Göteborg. Her name is Maria Sjöström.’
‘How did you …?’ said Annika, but Patrik went on without answering her question.
‘There’s also a child. Emil Sjöström. Or rather, there was a child.’
The Drowning Page 38