by Maj Sjowall
The man in the doorway was wearing a dressing gown and slippers, and looking extremely surprised.
'Sorry," he said. "I thought you were my fiancee."
Martin Beck recognized him at once. It was the same man Molin had pointed out to him at the Tankard, the day before his Budapest trip. An open, pleasant face. Calm blue eyes. Quite powerfully built. He had a beard and was of medium height, but this was—as in the case of the Belgian student, Roeder—the only resemblance to Matsson.
'We're from the police. My name is Beck. This is Inspector Kollberg."
The introductions were stiff and courteous.
'Kollberg."
'Gunnarsson."
'May we come in for a minute?" said Martin Beck.
'Of course. What's it about?"
'We would like to talk about Alf Matsson."
'A policeman came yesterday and asked me about the same thing."
'Yes, we know that."
As Martin Beck and Kollberg entered the flat, they underwent a change. It happened to them both at the same time and without either of them being aware of it. All that had been tense, uncertain and vigilant about them vanished and was replaced by a routine calm, a mechanical determination which showed that they knew what was going to happen and that they had been through the same thing before.
They walked through the flat without saying anything. It was light and spacious and furnished with care and consideration, but in some way gave the impression that it had not yet been lived in properly. Much of the furniture was new and still looked as if it were standing in a shop window.
Two of the rooms had windows facing the street and the bedroom and kitchen looked out over the courtyard. The door to the bathroom was open and the light was on inside. Evidently the man had just begun getting washed and dressed when they had rung the bell. In the bedroom there were two wide beds standing close together, and one had recently been slept in. On the bedside table by the unmade bed stood a half-empty bottle of mineral water, a glass, two pillboxes and a framed photograph. There was also a rocking chair in the room, two stools, and a dressing table with drawers and movable mirror. The photo was of a young woman. She had fair hair, clean, healthy features and very light-colored eyes. No makeup, but a silver chain around her neck, a so-called Bismarck chain. Martin Beck recognized the kind. Sixteen years ago he had given his wife an exact replica of it. They went back into the study. The tour was complete.
'Do please sit down," said Gunnarsson.
Martin Beck nodded and sat down in one of the basket chairs by the desk, which was clearly intended for two people. The man in the dressing gown remained standing and glanced at Kollberg, who was still moving round the flat.
Manuscripts, books and papers lay in neat piles on the table. A page already started was inserted into the typewriter, and beside the telephone stood yet another framed photograph. Martin Beck at once recognized the woman with the silver chain and light eyes. But this picture had been taken out-of-doors. Her head was thrown back and she was laughing at the photographer, the wind tugging at her ruffled fair hair.
'What can I do to help you," said the man in the dressing gown, politely.
Martin Beck looked straight at him. His eyes were still blue and calm and steady. It was quiet in the room. Kollberg could be heard doing something in another part of the flat, presumably in the washroom or the kitchen.
'Tell me what happened," said Martin Beck.
'When?"
'The eve of the twenty-second of July, when you and Matsson left the Opera House bar."
'I've already done that. We parted in the street. I took a taxi and came home. He wasn't going in the same direction and waited for the next one."
Martin Beck leaned his forearms on the desk and looked at the woman in the photograph.
'May I look at your passport?" he said.
The man walked around the desk, sat down and pulled out one of the drawers. The basket chair creaked amiably.
'Here you are," he said.
Martin Beck turned over the pages of the passport. It was old and worn and the last stamp was indeed an entry stamp from Arlanda on the tenth of May. On the next page—which was also the last one in the passport—there were a few notes, among others two telephone numbers and a short verse. The inside cover was also full of notes. Most of them seemed to be comments on cars or engines, made long ago and in great haste. The verse was written across on a slant, with a green ball-point pen. He twisted the passport and read:
There was a young man of Dundee Who said "They can't do without me. No house is complete Without me and my seat My initials are W.C."
The man on the other side of the table followed his glance and explained, "It's a limerick."
'So I see."
'It's about Winston Churchill. They say that he wrote it himself. I heard it on the plane from Paris and thought it was so good that I ought to write it down."
Martin Beck said nothing. He stared at the verse. Underneath the writing, the paper was a little lighter and there were several small green dots that should not have been there. They could have been some perforations from a green stamp on the other side of the page, but no such stamp existed. Stenström ought to have noticed that.
'If you had left the plane in Copenhagen and taken the ferry to Sweden, you'd have been saved the trouble," he said.
'I don't understand what you mean."
The telephone rang. Gunnarsson answered. Kollberg came into the room.
'It's for one of you," said the man in the dressing gown.
Kollberg took the receiver, listened and said, "Oh, yes. Get them going then. Yes, wait out there. We'll be there soon."
He put the receiver down.
'That was Stenström. The fire department burned the house down last Monday."
'We have people searching through the remains of that burnt-out house in Hagalund," said Martin Beck.
'Well, what about it?" said Kollberg.
'I still don't know what you mean."
The man's eyes were still just as steady and open. There was a brief silence, and then Martin Beck shrugged his shoulders and said, "Go in and get dressed."
Without a word, Gunnarsson walked toward the bedroom door. Kollberg followed him.
Martin Beck remained where he was, immobile. His eyes rested again on the photograph. Although actually it was unimportant, for some reason he was annoyed that the conversation should end like this. After having seen the passport, he felt utterly certain, but the idea about the fire department's practice site was a guess, which might very well prove to be wrong. In that case, and if the man managed to maintain his attitude, the investigation would be very troublesome. And yet this was not really the main reason for his dissatisfaction.
Gunnarsson came back five minutes later wearing a gray sweater and brown trousers. He looked at his watch and said, "Now we can go. I'll be having a visitor soon, and would be grateful if…"
He smiled and left the sentence unfinished. Martin Beck remained seated.
'We're in no special hurry," he said.
Kollberg came in from the bedroom.
'The trousers and the blue blazer are still hanging in the wardrobe," he said.
Martin Beck nodded. Gunnarsson walked back and forth across the room. He was moving more nervously now, but his expression was as unshakably calm as before.
'Perhaps it's not so bad as it seems," said Kollberg in a friendly way. "You don't have to be so resigned."
Martin Beck glanced at his colleague quickly, then looked at Gunnarsson again. Of course, Kollberg was right. The man had given up. He knew the game was up and he had known it the moment they'd stepped over the threshold. Presumably he was now enveloped in this feeling as if in a cocoon. But still not completely invulnerable. Nevertheless, what had to be done was very unpleasant.
Martin Beck leaned back in the basket chair and waited. Kollberg stood silent and immobile by the bedroom door. Gunnarsson had remained standing in the middle of the floor. He l
ooked at his watch again but said nothing.
A minute went past. Two. Three. The man again looked at his wristwatch. Probably a purely reflex action, and it was clear that it annoyed him. After two minutes more he did it again, but this time tried to mask his maneuver by running the back of his left hand over his face as he glanced down at his wrist. The door of a car slammed somewhere down on the street.
He opened his mouth to say something. Only one word came out.
'If…"
Then he was sorry, took two quick steps toward the telephone and said, "Excuse me, I have to call someone."
Martin Beck nodded and looked stubbornly at the telephone. 018. The area code for Uppsala. Everything fitted in. Six figures. Answer on the third ring.
'Hello. This is Åke. Has Ann-Louise left?"
'Oh. When?"
Martin Beck thought he heard a woman's voice say, "About a quarter of an hour ago."
'Oh, yes. Thanks very much. Good-bye."
Gunnarsson replaced the receiver, looked at his watch and said in a light voice, "Well, shall we go now?"
No one replied. Ten long minutes went by. Then Martin Beck said, "Sit down."
The man obeyed very hesitantly. Although he seemed to be making an effort to sit still, the basket chair did not stop creaking. The next time he looked at his watch, Martin Beck saw that his hands were trembling.
Kollberg yawned, much too studiedly or else from ner vousness. It was hard to determine which. Two minutes later, the man called Gunnarsson said, "What are we waiting for?"
For the first time there was a trace of uncertainty even in his voice.
Martin Beck looked at him. He said nothing. He wondered what would happen if the man on the other side of the desk suddenly realized that the silence was just as much of a strain on them as it was on him. It probably wouldn't be of much help to him. In some way they were all in the same boat now.
Gunnarsson looked at his watch, picked up a pen that was lying on the desk and at once put it down again in exactly the same place.
Martin Beck looked away and at the photograph, then glanced at his watch. Twenty minutes had gone by since the phone call. At worst, they had half an hour at their disposal.
He again looked at Gunnarsson and caught himself thinking about everything they had in common. The giant creaking bed. The view. The boats. The room key. The damp heat from the river.
He looked at his watch quite openly. Something about this seemed to irritate the other man considerably—perhaps the reminder that they did in fact have a common interest.
Martin Beck and Kollberg looked at each other for the first time in practically half an hour. If they were right, the end should be very near.
Disintegration came thirty seconds later. Gunnarsson looked from the one man to the other and said in a clear voice, "O.K. What do you want to know?"
No one answered.
'Yes, you're right, of course. It was me."
'What happened?"
'I don't want to talk about it," said the man thickly.
He was staring stubbornly down at the desk now. Kollberg looked at him with a frown, glanced over at Martin Beck and nodded.
Martin Beck drew a deep breath.
'You must realize that we'll find out everything anyhow," he said. "There are witnesses down there who can identify you. We'll find the taxi driver who drove you here that night. He'll remember whether you were alone or not. Your car and flat will be examined by experts. The burnt-out house in Hagalund as well. If a body has been lying there, there'll be enough left of it. That doesn't matter now. Whatever happened to Alf Matsson and wherever he went, we'll find him. You won't be able to hide very much—nothing important, anyway."
Gunnarsson looked straight at him and said, "In that case, I don't understand the point of all this."
Martin Beck knew that he would remember that remark for years, perhaps for the rest of his life.
It was Kollberg who saved the situation. He said foneless-ly, "It is our duty to tell you that you are suspected of manslaughter, or possibly murder. Naturally you have the right to legal representation during the formal hearing."
'Alf came with me in the taxi. We came here. He knew I had a bottle of whisky at home and insisted that we should finish it off."
'And?"
'We had already drunk a good deal. We quarreled."
He fell silent. Shrugged his shoulders.
'I'd rather not talk about it."
'Why did you quarrel?" said Kollberg.
'He… he made me mad."
'In what way?"
A swift change in those blue eyes. Uncontrolled and anything but harmless.
'He behaved like a… well, he said certain things.
'About my fiancee. Just a moment—I can explain how it started. If you look in the top right-hand drawer… there are some photographs there."
Martin Beck pulled out the drawer and found the photographs. He held them carefully between his fingertips. They had been taken on a beach somewhere, and were just the sort of pictures people in love might take on a beach, provided they were quite undisturbed. He went through them swiftly, almost without looking at them. The bottom one was bent and damaged. The woman with the light-colored eyes smiled at the photographer.
'I had been in the bathroom. When I came back, he was standing there rummaging in my drawers. He'd found… those pictures. He tried to put one in his pocket. I was already angry with him, but then I became… furious."
The man paused briefly and then said apologetically, "Unfortunately I can't remember those particular details very clearly."
Martin Beck nodded.
'I took the photograph away from him, although he resisted. Then he began shouting filthy things about, well, about Ann-Louise. Of course, I knew that every last word was a lie, but I couldn't bear listening to him. He was talking very loudly. Almost yelling. I think I was afraid the neighbors would wake up too."
The man lowered his eyes again. He looked at his hands and said, "Well, that wasn't all that important. But it probably entered in, I don't know. Do I have to try to repeat…"
'Forget the details for the time being," said Kollberg. "What happened?"
Gunnarsson looked stubbornly at his hands. "I strangled him," he said very quietly. Martin Beck waited for ten seconds. Then he ran his forefinger down his nose and said, "And after that?"
'I suddenly turned completely sober, or at least I thought I had. He was lying there on the floor. Dead. It was about two o'clock. Naturally I should have called the police. It didn't seem so simple then." He thought for a moment. "Why, everything would have been ruined." Martin Beck nodded and looked at his watch. This seemed to hurry the other man.
'Well, I sat here probably for a quarter of an hour, roughly, thinking what to do. In this chair. I refused to accept that the situation was hopeless. Everything that had happened was so… startling. It seemed so pointless. I wasn't really able to realize that it was me who had suddenly—oh, well, we can talk about that later."
'You knew that Matsson was going to Budapest," said Kollberg.
'Yes, of course. He had his passports and tickets on him. Had only had to go home and pick up his bag. I think it was his glasses that gave me the idea. They had fallen off and were lying here on the floor. They were rather special ones, changing his appearance in some way. Then I happened to think about that house out there. I had sat on the balcony watching the fire department practicing, how they set it alight and extinguished the fire again. Every Monday. They didn't investigate very carefully before setting fire to it. I knew they'd soon completely burn down the little that was left. It's no doubt cheaper than tearing things down in the ordinary way."
Gunnarsson threw a swift, desperate look at Martin Beck and said hastily:
'Then I took his passport, tickets, car keys and the keys to his flat. Then…"
He shuddered but collected himself at once. "Then I carried him down to the car. That was the hardest part, but I was… well, I was
just about to say I was lucky. I drove out to Hagalund." 'To the old farmhouse?"
'Yes. It was absolutely quiet out there. I carried… Alfie up to the attic. It was difficult because the stairs were half gone. And then I put him behind a loose wall, under a mass of rubbish so that no one would find him. He was dead, after all. It didn't matter all that much. I thought." Martin Beck glanced anxiously at his watch. "Go on," he said.
'It was beginning to get light. I went to Fleminggatan and collected his bag, which was already packed, and put it in Alfie's car. Then I came back here, cleaned up a bit and took the glasses and his coat, which was still hanging in the hall. I came back almost at once. I didn't dare stay and wait. So I took his car, drove to Arlanda and parked it there."
The man threw an appealing look at Martin Beck and said, "Everything went so easily, as if of its own accord. I put on the glasses, but the coat was too small. I carried it over my arm and went through the passport control. I don't remember much about the trip, but everything seemed just as simple."
'How had you planned to get away from there?" "I just knew that it would work out somehow. I thought that the best way would be to take the train to the Austrian border and try to get over illegally. I had my own passport in my pocket and could return home from Vienna on that. I'd been there before, so I knew they didn't stamp the date of exit in your passport. But I was lucky again. I thought." Martin Beck nodded.
'There was a shortage of rooms there and Alfie had been booked into two different hotels, just the first night at the one. I don't remember what ft was called." "The Ifjuság."
'Yes, maybe. Anyhow, I arrived there at the same time as a party of people speaking French. I gathered that they had come earlier the same day. They looked like students—several of the fellows had beards. When I turned in Alfie's—Matsson's passport, the porter was just sorting other passports into the pigeonholes. People who had already regis tered. I stayed on a moment in the vestibule and then when the porter stepped away for a minute, I got the chance to take one of those passports. I only had to look at three of them before I found one I thought was suitable—it was Belgian. The fellow was named Roederer or something like that. Anyway, the name reminded me of some kind of champagne."