She shook her head.
‘Forget it,’ she said. ‘Just forget it. Maybe she wanted to and tried, but failed. Obviously we ought to check it out, but I bet all the money I’ve got that Jenny’s adopted son isn’t Mio.’
I tried to absorb her very sensible argument. Obviously, I knew she was right. It was impossible to imagine that Jenny could have made Mio her own without Lucifer finding out about it.
‘You’re probably right,’ I said. ‘She wanted to, she tried, and she failed.’
‘And that could be why she didn’t meet Bobby or Eivor when she was in Stockholm?’
‘Exactly.’
We walked further away from the Pleasure Pier. Belle was as present in my thoughts as she would have been if she’d been running along in the sand beside us. Thinking about her made me want to cry, when I thought of how much she would have loved running on the evening-cool sand and paddling in the water.
‘She said that Lucifer was like me,’ I said, forcing myself to think about something other than Belle. ‘What the hell was that supposed to mean?’
Lucy sat down on the sand.
‘A lot of what she said didn’t make much sense,’ she said.
I followed Lucy’s example and sank down beside her.
Her face shone pale against the darkness of the beach.
‘I don’t mean to sound flippant,’ I said. ‘But from what she told us, I have to say that Lucifer’s network sounds like pretty much every other advanced criminal syndicate.’
Lucy stared at me.
‘It’s true,’ I said. ‘Girls being sold as prostitutes have a shit life all over the world. Not just here in Texas. What does seem to differentiate Lucifer’s network is that it’s so sophisticated. And that the links to the local police seem alarmingly extensive.’
‘What she said about it not being the real Lucifer who served a prison sentence,’ Lucy said. ‘Could that be true?’
‘It would explain a lot,’ I said. ‘A fair few police officers must have known they had the wrong guy. That was probably the whole point. That from the outside it would look as though they struck a hard blow against organised crime, while they were actually doing it a favour.’
A vague pain began to throb right at the back of my head. I was too tired to be awake, too worried to sleep. But I knew I needed rest. Otherwise my chances of helping Belle would shrink even further.
‘We should go back to the hotel,’ I said. ‘Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.’
We got to our feet and brushed the sand from our clothes. I found myself thinking of the day I decided Belle would grow up with me rather than with foster parents. And how much I cried then. I blinked several times. My eyes were dry, tears far away. Inside my head, along with the pain, a single mantra throbbed relentlessly.
Keep it together. For God’s sake, keep it together.
‘How would you summarise what we’ve found out so far?’ Lucy said.
She averted her gaze as she asked the question.
‘I think Sara was just as difficult and violent as her sister Marion said. I don’t know how she came into contact with Lucifer’s network, but if we’re to believe Denise, then there’s a branch of it in Sweden. Someone made Sara an offer she couldn’t refuse. But she had to fulfil the requirement of having a normal job, and as a Swedish citizen with no qualifications there wasn’t much she could do except get work as an au pair.’
We started to walk back to the hotel. My headache was slowly working its way forward through my head and I massaged my temples. It didn’t help.
‘Somehow Sara managed to get introduced to Lucifer. How that came about is beyond me, maybe they met by coincidence. I mean, we have no idea who Lucifer is. Presumably he has a proper job as well, to hide the sordid side of his life. Maybe he didn’t even know Sara was one of his girls. Either way, the two became a couple, if we’re to believe Denise. According to Sara’s au pair family, the rumours about her taking drugs are without foundation. I think we can agree with them on that point. Denise says Lucifer’s girls need to be clean, and the same must have applied to Sara as well.’
‘Do you think she was in love with Lucifer, or did she only stay because she was too frightened to leave him?’
‘According to Denise, Sara fell out of love when she realised who her boyfriend was,’ I said. ‘If she really did love him I suppose she would have stayed in the US. But she didn’t. Her biggest problems were presumably the murder of the taxi driver and her pregnancy. It seems incredible that she didn’t opt to have an abortion. By having Lucifer’s child she was creating another link to him, one she’d never be able to escape from.’
‘So she went back to Sweden,’ Lucy said. ‘Lucifer may not have been caught when the police tried to destroy his network, but he was forced to keep a lower profile. It’s hard to imagine a better chance for Sara to make her escape.’
‘Exactly,’ I said.
We had almost reached our hotel. Sand fell from our feet as we walked towards the road we needed to cross. Lucy pointed at the pedestrian crossing and we headed for it. I carried on talking. If I stopped I would become irrational. Nothing scared me more than the idea that worrying about Belle would make me lose my grip. If that happened, she would be lost for good.
‘On paper it looks like Sara kept it together in Sweden,’ I said. ‘She got a job, had her child, found somewhere to live. But another three people died. That’s one hell of a cynical way to get control over someone else’s life.’
I added silently to myself that it was evidently a method worth repeating. Against me. Two murders had been carried out using my car. Four people had been murdered to get at Belle. I had never been given any opportunity to back out. The same applied to Mio. The child without a face.
‘Good evening,’ a voice said behind me and Lucy. ‘Lovely evening, isn’t it?’
We turned round. Sheriff Esteban Stiller was standing less than half a metre from us. I barely recognised him. In his pale blue shirt, sleeves rolled up, his khaki trousers and open sandals he looked like any other holidaymaker. He was smiling so broadly it must have been hurting his face.
Neither Lucy nor I managed to reply. We just stood there as the light turned from red to green, staring at him.
He nodded towards the crossing.
‘Shall we?’
We started walking automatically.
‘Because you are going back to your hotel, aren’t you?’
‘Yes,’ I said.
My pulse-rate went up. How long had he been following us? Had he been in the car park and heard our conversation with Denise?
‘You look worried, Benner,’ Stiller said when we reached the other side of the road and were standing in front of our hotel. ‘Anything I can do to help?’
I forced out a thin smile.
‘I don’t think so, but thanks for the offer.’
Stiller laughed and waved at a small child who was passing on the pavement. The child looked at him, wide-eyed.
‘They’re wonderful at that age, don’t you think?’ Stiller said to me.
I didn’t understand what he was trying to say. The child was roughly the same age as Belle. Had I ever mentioned her to Stiller?
And, even more importantly: did he know what had happened?
‘You look surprised,’ he said, nudging my arm with a force that signalled that his intentions were not merely friendly.
‘I didn’t know you were going to show up here,’ I said, unnecessarily quietly.
‘I can imagine,’ he said. ‘I didn’t actually know myself. I was planning a quiet evening at home with my family, but that didn’t happen. Do you know why?’
I was getting fed up of people with hidden agendas.
‘No, but obviously I’d love to hear about it.’
Sheriff Stiller’s face switched from friendly to angry so quickly that it was impossible to measure the time between them.
‘You need to watch yourself, Benner,’ he said. ‘You’ve been asking a lo
t of questions recently. Way too many, in fact. I’ve had phone calls from colleagues wondering what’s going on. They’re wondering who you are and what you’re up to.’
I kept quiet. As did Lucy.
‘In the end I found myself thinking the same thing myself. I started asking myself if it made sense that someone like you had travelled all the way from Stockholm just to give a dead tart a helping hand. And do you know what I did?’
Keep it together. Keep it together. Don’t go mad, don’t lose your grip.
Stiller came closer.
‘I called a contact of mine at the Stockholm Police. A man I got to know when we worked together to catch Sara Tell. I don’t mind telling you that I was pretty shocked when I realised why you’d left Sweden.’
I began to suspect who Stiller had spoken to and what he’d been told.
‘You’re suspected of two murders, Benner. Didn’t you think I’d find out?’
Cops stick together. I’d learned that much during my brief career with the Houston Police. Evidently the ties of loyalty also applied between police forces in different parts of the world.
‘I haven’t killed anyone,’ I said. ‘And if you and Didrik were decent police officers you’d have realised that.’
Stiller’s eyebrows knitted together.
‘We would, now? Well, seeing as you’re so brilliant, maybe you could help us out? If you’re not the murderer, who is?’
‘Someone who has a reason to silence both Sara Tell’s brother and her friend Jenny Woods. Which I didn’t have. The fact that you can’t see that these two murders are connected to the five others that Sara was accused of is utterly absurd.’
‘It’s possible that I’m both an idiot and going senile,’ Stiller said. ‘But didn’t Sara confess to all those other murders? And seeing as she’s dead, it seems a little unlikely that she’s committed two more.’
‘Quite,’ I said. ‘So perhaps it might be possible to contemplate the possibility that someone else was the perpetrator? Someone who’s still alive and carried out all the murders?’
Except the one in Houston, I thought.
‘And how do you think that theory sounds?’ Stiller said. ‘Most smart ideas lose some of their gloss when you say them out loud.’
‘I think this one stands up,’ I said.
Stiller let out a deep sigh. In profile he looked very similar to an American actor whose name I couldn’t remember.
‘Sara was part of Lucifer’s network,’ I said. ‘How the hell could you miss that?’
Stiller switched to the sort of silent response I’d just been demonstrating.
‘He’s probably the father of her child as well,’ I said. ‘What does that say to you?’
I’d been expecting a violent reaction from Stiller, but it didn’t come. His expression didn’t change.
‘Your investigation stinks,’ I said. ‘Completely fucking incompetent. The question is, how did you get away with it? If I were you, I’d do the whole damn thing again. Go back to square one. Take another look at Sara’s network of contacts. Talk to her au pair family. They can tell you she wasn’t on drugs. Analyse the tattoo she had at the back of her neck and why she was known as Lotus. When you drive home tonight, you can start by turning off the freeway when you see the sign for Preston’s Riding School. Get out of the car and take a look around at the impressive grounds. And ask yourself how someone like Sara could afford to register there.’
My blood was boiling by the time I finished. I prayed to God that I was going to have time to continue the investigation when I got back to Stockholm. If Didrik pulled me in at the airport and held me in custody, it would all be over. Didrik would never manage to find Belle, I was convinced of that.
Stiller cleared his throat.
‘Listen, Benner,’ he said. ‘It’s not that I don’t like you, because I do. But I think you’ve lost your grip on reality. Maybe that’s what happens when you kill two people, I don’t know. Anyway, who gives a damn, I’ve had a nice evening here in Galveston. So I’ll be generous and give you one final warning. Leave. I expect you to be gone first thing tomorrow morning. Please don’t disappoint me. It would be a shame if we parted on bad terms. Because we are going to part. And you’re never going to come back to Texas.’
He came closer and took a firm grip of the back of my neck. He was shorter than me, but I still felt much smaller.
‘You understand? Never, ever. Not as long as I have any say in the matter.’
His grip on my neck tightened, making my eyes water.
‘I understand,’ I said.
‘Sure?’
‘Yes.’
I tried to nod but it hurt too much.
Then he let go and stepped back.
‘Good,’ he said.
He gave Lucy’s hand a brief squeeze.
‘Look after him,’ he said, and looked at me. ‘I shall pray for you next time I’m in church with my wife. Because neither of you is going to get through the time ahead without the help of higher powers.’
45
With Stiller’s curse hanging over us, we flew home the next day. The flight took us from Houston to New York, where we changed planes. From there we flew direct to Stockholm. We slept through the entire journey. It was as if my body couldn’t remember how to relax until it left the ground. It wasn’t just about relaxing. It was more a matter of conscience. If I closed my eyes for more than ten minutes, if I allowed myself to sleep, I felt like I was actively trying to kill Belle. I needed to stay awake and strong. I needed to be ready to pounce at any moment.
Sheriff Stiller’s words echoed through my head as the sound of the engine made me drowsy. What did he know about the difficulties Lucy and I had ahead of us? Not a damn thing. At one point I woke up with a start and sat bolt upright in my seat. Lucy was fast asleep beside me. The sight of her chest rising and falling in time with her breathing soothed me. I wasn’t alone. I had one single person I could cling to. It would take a nuclear strike to prise me away from her.
We landed at three o’clock in the afternoon, Swedish time. Stockholm welcomed us with heavy rain. I thought about Lucy’s sun-creams and realised sadly that she had barely had to use them at all. When this was all over, when we had got our lives back, I’d take her to a beautiful beach at the other end of the world. I whispered that in her ear as we stood and waited for our luggage.
‘I don’t care what it costs. We’ll close the office and go. You, me and Belle. No one else.’
Lucy smiled weakly but said nothing. I was talking like a man who still thought life always kept its promises of a happy ending.
I’m a changed man these days. One who now doubts that.
Our hire car was still in the long-stay car park. It felt almost surreal to get in it and drive back towards the city. I realised I had lost track of the days. How long had we been gone? Three nights. Four? No more. And then the flights on top of that.
‘Where are we going?’ Lucy said as we were approaching the centre of Stockholm.
It took me a few moments to realise what she meant.
‘I thought we could drive back to mine,’ I said. ‘Unless you’d rather go to yours?’
Lucy was exhausted. I had spent days trying to understand what had driven her to follow someone like me all the way to Texas. A man who would fuck anything on two legs, and who was rarely much of a support for her when she was having a rough time. Had I, in spite of all my inadequacies, somehow managed to convey the fact that I loved her? Because I did. Beyond reckoning. If I hadn’t known that before, I did now. And actually, now that I came to think about it, I wasn’t sure I was particularly attracted by the lifestyle that had seemed completely natural just one week before. If I managed to get Belle out of this nightmare in one piece I felt I was going to be a changed man.
Someone who was whole.
‘Let’s go home to yours,’ Lucy said. ‘That’ll be fine.’
She switched our mobile phones on. Soon the messages we had received wh
ile we were in the air began to pour in. Boris had called. Didrik too. Belle’s aunt, my mother.
I called Didrik first.
‘Are you home now?’
‘Yes. Thanks a fucking bunch for being so open with Esteban Stiller.’
‘What the hell did you expect? I have to act professionally even if you and I do happen to know each other. When a colleague phones from the USA and asks questions about you, I can’t just neglect to mention something as significant as the fact that you’re a suspect in two murder cases.’
I tried to divide my attention between driving on the drenched road and listening to what Didrik was saying.
‘So nothing has changed on that score in my absence?’ I said. ‘You still think I ran down Bobby and Jenny?’
‘I refuse to discuss this over the phone,’ Didrik said curtly.
‘Then I suggest we arrange to meet,’ I said. ‘Preferably today. Because even if I suspect that you’re going to ignore what I’m going to say, I want to make sure the information gets fed into the system. In case anything happens to me.’
Didrik answered in a voice that was supposed to sound trustworthy. ‘We can do that. When can you be here?’
‘Lucy and I will be with you within the next hour and a half.’
‘If you can make it by then. If not, I’ll wait for you.’
He didn’t need to. Prioritisation is only a problem for someone with too much time. When every minute counts, it also becomes very obvious what you should be spending your time doing. During the drive home from the airport we worked our way through all the calls that needed to be made. Boris had nothing new to report, not that I had expected anything different. Belle’s aunt was still distraught, and started to sound genuinely hysterical over the phone.
The conversation with Marianne was the hardest. She had read about the fire in the archipelago in the paper but hadn’t realised who had died in it. Nor had she realised that Belle was missing.
‘Oh, Martin,’ was all she said before she started to cry.
Buried Lies Page 30