Buried Lies

by Kristina Ohlsson

  That sort of thing doesn’t pass without leaving its mark.

  People say that the police are always drinking coffee. It’s true. During my short time as a police officer in Texas I had more coffee breaks than at any other time of my life. And from what I’d heard, things were no different in Sweden.

  When I finally managed to get hold of Didrik I was pretty sure he was in the middle of a coffee break. Not that I said as much when he took the call.

  ‘Bloody hell, are you sitting there having a wank at work? I’ve been calling and calling, but you don’t seem to have had a spare hand to answer with.’

  I thought it was very funny. A cop who needed two hands for a wank had to be pretty special.

  Didrik didn’t appear to share my opinion.

  ‘Martin, did you want anything in particular?’

  You could say that.

  I began with the most important point.

  ‘When can I have my car back? I hate hire cars. It feels like I’m cruising round in a Batmobile for pensioners.’

  Didrik muttered something inaudible to someone who was evidently standing nearby.

  ‘I’m afraid I can’t answer that at this moment in time,’ he said.

  Can’t answer that at this moment in time?

  ‘Sorry, all due respect to the forensic examination, but how long is it going to take?’

  ‘I don’t know. Anyway, it’s only been twenty-four hours.’

  He was right there, of course, but I was keen to get my life back to normal again. Ideally as soon as possible.

  The line fell silent.

  ‘Anything else?’ Didrik said. ‘If not, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about.’

  Maybe that should have set my alarm bells ringing. But it didn’t. Unless they were ringing too quietly for me to hear.

  ‘I’ve got more to tell you,’ I said in a slightly louder voice.

  ‘Okay,’ Didrik said.

  His dismissive attitude was unsettling me.

  ‘I’ve been doing some research,’ I said. ‘Amongst other things, I went to see Sara Tell’s mother.’

  I heard Didrik sigh.

  ‘Didn’t I tell you to leave that shit alone?’

  I ignored him. Again.

  ‘The man who came to my office wasn’t Bobby,’ I said. ‘Jeanette showed me a picture of her son. It wasn’t the guy who claimed he wanted to clear his sister’s name.’

  Another silence on the line.

  ‘So who was it, then?’ Didrik said.

  ‘No idea. But I’m pretty pissed off that I didn’t ask the guy to show me some ID.’

  I sighed as I said that. How could I have been so naïve that I didn’t even ask the man calling himself Bobby to show me his driving licence?

  ‘I can imagine,’ Didrik said.

  His dry tone of voice brought me up short. Then, and only then, did I hear the alarm bells.

  ‘I’ve got a phone number, too,’ I said, reading out the fake Bobby’s mobile number. ‘If you’ve got time, it would be great if you could help me check it out. See if it’s cropped up in other cases, that sort of thing.’

  ‘I might be able to do that. Anything else?’

  I hesitated. In the end I decided to tell him the rest of what I’d found out.

  ‘So you met Marion?’ Didrik said. ‘Interesting woman. Good that you seem to have taken in what she told you. You can’t deny that it reinforces the suspicion that Sara was guilty, can you?’

  I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

  ‘Sorry, but did you know Sara used to be in a gang that beat people up? If you did, why wasn’t there anything about that in the preliminary investigation?’

  ‘The information we had was very hard to substantiate,’ Didrik said. ‘And we didn’t need it. As you know, we had plenty of other evidence.’

  I didn’t agree.

  Didrik went on before I had time to say anything.

  ‘It’s a coincidence that you’ve called, because we were about to try to get hold of you,’ he said. ‘We need to talk to you again. Would you mind coming down here?’

  In spite of the polite phrasing, I could detect an order in his tone. That worried me.

  ‘Sure,’ I said slowly. ‘What’s this about?’

  ‘We can talk about that when you get here.’

  ‘Talk about what? Didrik, if . . .’

  ‘Save your questions and get down here. Preferably right away.’

  I felt a familiar stubbornness flare up.

  ‘What happens if I don’t come? I’ve got a few other things to be getting on with.’

  Didrik cleared his throat.

  ‘If you don’t come voluntarily in the next half an hour, I’m afraid I shall send someone to pick you up. Which would you prefer?’

  27

  Good lawyers are a rarity. Those that are good tend to be busy and are therefore difficult to get hold of when you need them. Lucy was both accessible and good. She’s more than good. Brilliant, you could say.

  She reminded me of the most important points on the way to Police Headquarters.

  ‘Don’t answer any questions he doesn’t ask.’

  ‘We don’t even know what he wants.’

  ‘Yes, we do. You’re suspected of committing a crime. Otherwise he wouldn’t have threatened to come and get you.’

  My gut feeling told me she was right, but the thought was so difficult to take in that I chose to avoid it.

  We were marching quickly down Sankt Eriksgatan. At the junction with Fleminggatan we turned left and walked for the second time in a matter of days past those dull buildings. When we reached the crossing with Polhemsgatan we had to wait for the lights.

  ‘Couldn’t he have said what this was about on the phone?’ Lucy said.

  Her dark glasses covered half her face, but I could still see the tension in her features. Sadly I had no consolation to offer. I was far too worried myself.

  ‘Hopefully it’s all a misunderstanding,’ I said. ‘You’ll see, we’ll be out of there as fast as we arrived.’

  A police officer came down and fetched us from reception. We were escorted to a floor I’d never visited before and shown into an interview room. There we had to wait for quarter of an hour before Didrik and one of his colleagues appeared. It was the same man I’d met on Sunday morning. On that occasion we had sat in Didrik’s office. It felt a long time ago.

  We greeted each other politely. As if we were no more than fleeting acquaintances who hadn’t seen each other for a very long time.

  ‘Thank you for coming so promptly,’ Didrik said. ‘I’m sorry to be late getting here. Something came up that I had to deal with.’

  I made a generous gesture with my hands.

  ‘That sort of thing happens to the best of us,’ I said.

  Lucy gave me a long glance, but said nothing. Wise of her.

  Didrik stared intently at some documents he had brought with him. Eventually he lifted his eyes from them.

  ‘Can you tell me what you were doing between one o’clock and three o’clock in the night between Friday and Saturday?’ he said.

  ‘I was at the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital. With Belle.’

  ‘I can vouch for that,’ Lucy said.

  Didrik looked surprised.

  ‘I see, so you slept at the hospital as well?’

  ‘No, I left around nine o’clock.’

  ‘So how do you know where Martin was at two o’clock?’

  Lucy retreated.

  ‘Obviously I don’t know. But Martin was already in bed when I left.’

  It made me sound like a child who had been put to bed in a cot I couldn’t get out of. ‘He was already in bed. With a nice big nappy over his backside.’

  ‘I see,’ Didrik said. ‘But unless you chained him to the bed, I presume we can agree that he could have left when you weren’t there?’

  Lucy blushed and gave a brief nod.

  ‘I could have left, but I didn’t,’ I said firmly.


  I was starting to get fed up of Didrik’s games. The clock was ticking and I could think of a thousand things that were more important than sitting in Police Headquarters fooling around.

  ‘You didn’t leave Belle’s room at all that night?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘And there were just the two of you in the room?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Do you recall if you slept soundly?’

  ‘What do you think? Of course I didn’t. I was shaken up by what had happened. And it was hot in the room, and I wasn’t allowed to open the window.’

  That was when I remembered that I had actually gone outside.

  ‘Hang on,’ I said. ‘Sorry, there’s been so much going on in the past few days. I did go outside.’

  ‘So what are you actually saying?’ Didrik’s colleague said sourly.

  Lucy looked at me in surprise.

  ‘I went outside the hospital briefly to get some fresh air. I couldn’t sleep properly and, like I said, it was too hot.’

  ‘So you walked out of the hospital in just your pyjamas?’

  ‘No, I pulled on a pair of trousers and a top.’

  ‘And when was this?’

  I tried to remember the exact time.

  ‘Sometime around three, maybe. I don’t remember more exactly than that.’

  Didrik thumbed a sheet of paper he had in front of him.

  ‘I thought the hospital was locked at night,’ he said.

  ‘It was,’ I said. ‘When I went back inside I had to ask a guard to open the door for me.’

  Only then did I realise where the interview was going.

  I stifled a deep sigh.

  ‘But of course you already know that,’ I said. ‘You’ve spoken to the guard and you know I went outside the hospital that night.’

  Didrik’s face hardened.

  ‘Correct,’ he said. ‘The guard confirmed what you just said. That he let you in just after three o’clock. What we now need to know is what time you went outside?’

  Time stood still. The room was so quiet that I could hear myself breathe.

  In and out.

  In and out.

  ‘Didrik, I was outside no longer than twenty minutes at the most.’

  ‘Who can confirm that?’

  I ran my hand across the table top.

  ‘No one.’

  ‘You didn’t see a single person when you went out?’

  I thought for several long moments.

  ‘No,’ I eventually said. ‘Sadly not.’

  Didrik looked dejected.

  ‘You have to understand how this looks,’ he said. ‘A young woman was knocked down and killed on a pedestrian crossing. From what we’ve been able to see from the damage to your car, she could have been killed by your Porsche. You yourself can’t provide a firm alibi for the time of the murder. We’ve turned your car inside out. There’s nothing to suggest that anyone has tampered with it. We’ve also taken the liberty of inspecting your garage. According to the owner of the property, it’s been two years since you last had a break-in.’

  I forced myself to stay calm. The conversation had taken a turn that I couldn’t have foreseen even in my wildest fantasies.

  ‘You say Jenny could have been killed by my Porsche,’ I said. ‘Could have been. You’re not certain?’

  ‘How certain do we need to be?’ Didrik said. ‘None of us seriously believes that Jenny came into contact with more than one Porsche-owner during her stay in the city.’

  ‘Now hang on a minute,’ I began.

  Didrik slammed his hand down on the table, making me jump.

  ‘If you have anything to tell us, this is your best opportunity to do so!’

  Lucy squirmed and I ran my hands over my head.

  ‘This is crazy,’ I said.

  ‘At least we agree on that,’ Didrik said.

  I tried to take it from the beginning.

  ‘I was the one who came to you,’ I said. ‘I called and told you that Bobby had been to see me. He contacted me, not the other way round. Same thing with Jenny Woods. I have no idea what’s going on, but you have to agree that it looks like I’ve walked into a pretty elaborate trap?’

  I was out on thin ice and I knew it. I was pleading, and that’s never good. But on the other hand, I had just pointed out something important, and Didrik knew it.

  ‘Sure,’ Didrik said. ‘If it is a trap, it’s astonishingly well planned. I’m the first to admit that was my initial reaction when this whole circus started. But now I have to take this new information into account.’

  He had done a good job. I had to give him that. Even so, my heart was racing in my chest. Because I couldn’t explain how someone could have taken my car without leaving the slightest trace behind them. Not even Lucy had keys to the car and garage.

  ‘You haven’t let the keys out of your sight at all?’ Didrik said.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Never?’

  I reflected.

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Once. You had them. You borrowed the Porsche for a friend’s stag party.’

  An awkward silence filled the room.

  ‘I’d like to go further back in the story,’ Didrik said. ‘You said just now that it was Bobby who came to see you, not the other way round.’

  I nodded, relieved not to have to discuss the Porsche, which seemed to have developed a life of its own.

  ‘But when you called me half an hour or so ago, you said it wasn’t Bobby who came to your office. Which is it?’

  I groaned out loud. This was going badly wrong.

  ‘Excuse me,’ Lucy said. ‘But what does Bobby have to do with this? The fact that he has only just found out that it wasn’t Bobby who came to our office ought to support Martin’s account.’

  Didrik focused his attention on Lucy.

  ‘Have you met him as well?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Spoken to him on the phone?’

  ‘No. Once again – how is this relevant?’

  Didrik pulled a picture from the pile of papers in front of him. He put it on the table. I looked at it. It was the man Jeanette had shown me a photograph of and said it was Bobby.

  ‘I can see that you recognise him,’ Didrik said.

  ‘That looks like the guy in the photograph Jeanette Roos showed me.’

  ‘You mean he looks like Bobby?’

  ‘Yes. If that’s what Bobby looks like.’

  ‘It is,’ Didrik said. ‘And he’s dead.’

  I jerked back involuntarily.

  ‘Dead?’

  ‘He was also run down and killed on Friday night. Without any witnesses, unfortunately, which is why it’s taken longer to ascertain the cause of death. It also took a while to get confirmation of his identity.’

  My mouth was dry as dust.

  ‘Some water?’ Didrik’s colleague said.

  I accepted a glass in silence.

  ‘The pathologist has been able to determine a fairly precise time of death. Sometime between two and three o’clock that night. Need I say that we find this troubling? That someone else you can be linked to was run down and killed on the same night?’

  I put the glass down hard. Once again I forced myself to breathe as slowly as I could. I didn’t succeed terribly well this time. Lucy put a hand on my arm but I pulled away.

  ‘You think I murdered these two people? Are you mad?’

  I shouted the last three words.

  Lucy tried to calm me down while Didrik and his colleague sat impassive on the other side of the table.

  ‘According to Jeanette Roos, Bobby wasn’t even in Stockholm. She said he was in Switzerland,’ I said.

  ‘Then she was lying,’ Didrik said. ‘Or else just badly informed. We’ve been in touch with Bobby’s girlfriend. He does live in Switzerland but he’s been in Stockholm for at least the past three weeks.’

  I didn’t know what to say. All I wanted was to stand up and walk out of there.

  ‘Can you look me
in the eye and tell me you’ve never seen this man?’ Didrik said slowly, holding the picture up.

  I looked into his grey eyes.

  ‘I’ve never met him,’ I said in a firm voice.

  ‘This isn’t the man who came to your office?’

  ‘No.’

  Didrik read the sheet of paper at the top of the pile. He rattled off a phone number and asked if I recognised it. I said I didn’t memorise the contact details of people I knew.

  ‘Whose number is it?’ I said.

  ‘Bobby was carrying a phone with that number,’ Didrik said.

  I shrugged my shoulders.

  ‘Then it makes perfect sense that I don’t recognise it,’ I said.

  Didrik smiled.

  ‘I know we can all suffer from a poor memory, but I thought you might have recognised that particular number.’

  ‘Because?’

  Didrik looked genuinely troubled.

  ‘Because it’s the number you yourself read out to me less than an hour ago and asked me to help trace.’

  PART IV

  ‘Lotus?’

  TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH MARTIN BENNER (MB).

  INTERVIEWER: FREDRIK OHLANDER (FO), freelance journalist.

  LOCATION:

  Room 714, Grand Hôtel, Stockholm.

  FO: Okay, let’s see if I’ve understood this correctly. At this point you still didn’t know who came to see you and got you interested in Sara Texas’s case?

  MB: That’s right.

  FO: But the real Bobby Tell was dead? Like Sara’s friend from Houston, Jenny Woods?

  MB: Correct.

  FO: And the police thought you’d murdered them?

  MB: That was where the evidence was pointing.

  FO: You must have been seriously freaked out.

  MB: Also correct.

  (Silence)

  FO: You haven’t explained why you wanted to meet here at the Grand Hôtel. In this particular room. Something tells me that isn’t just coincidence.

  MB: You’re doing it again. Getting ahead of events.

  FO: So there is a reason why we’re meeting in this particular location?

  MB: There is. But we’re not there yet.

  FO: So what happened with the police? They didn’t remand you in custody?

  MB: The evidence wasn’t strong enough. And they didn’t have a credible motive. Asking for me to be held in custody would only have made things harder for them. But after we left Police Headquarters that day we both assumed we were being watched. Physically and electronically.