by Håkan Nesser
By the time Moreno set off on foot for the swimming baths in Birkenweg, the snow had turned into rain. Dusk was beginning to descend over the town, even though it was only three o’clock, and she thought once again about what Reinhart had said about lighting a candle.
But when she saw the body of that unknown woman lying out at Korrim in her mind’s eye, it seemed to her that she preferred the darkness.
It was one of those days, she decided. A day that couldn’t cope with opening up properly. Or a day when she herself couldn’t cope with opening up properly. A day that could be survived best by keeping your senses and consciousness as much in the dark as possible, leaving only narrow cracks through which to communicate with reality.
One of those days. Or perhaps it was the time of year?
The life of an oyster, she thought as she opened the heavy entrance door of the swimming baths. I wonder what her name was. I wonder if she could have been me.
19
‘He’s in here with me,’ said Krause. ‘We’ve just got back.’
‘Who?’ asked Reinhart. ‘From where?’
‘Andreas Wollger,’ said Krause. ‘Her husband. Identification positive.’
Reinhart stared at the telephone. Then he stared at the clock. It was two minutes past eight, it was Monday morning.
‘Have you found the man who did it and not informed me?’
Krause coughed down the line.
‘Not the man who did it. Her husband. He’s here in my office, with Probationer Dobbermann. He’s not feeling very well — we’ve just been to the Forensic Laboratory and had a look at her. There’s no doubt. Her name’s Vera Miller.’
‘Vera Miller?’ said Reinhart. ‘Why are you only ringing now? How can you be certain that he wasn’t the man holding the iron?’
‘The iron?’ wondered Klause.
‘Or whatever the hell it was… How do you know he’s not the one?’
He could hear Krause shifting a piano over his office floor. Or perhaps it was just a sigh.
‘It’s only eight o’clock,’ he said. ‘Wollger turned up at a quarter to seven and we drove straight out to take a look at her. Does the chief inspector intend to come to my office and talk to him, or is he going to continue to interrogate me over the telephone? Besides, I’m pretty sure there was no iron involved.’
He’s getting cheeky, Reinhart thought after he’d hung up. Constable Krause.
The suggestion that Wollger wasn’t feeling very well was a perfectly correct observation on Krause’s part. When Reinhart entered the room he was sitting stiffly erect on a chair with his hands clenched in his lap. Staring straight ahead with a vacant expression on his face, with Probationer Elise Dobbermann standing by his side, looking as if she had no idea what to do next. She was wearing the latest — not especially inspired — uniform issued to women police officers. It occurred to Reinhart that he was glad he wasn’t a woman. At least, not a female police officer at uniform level.
‘Hmm,’ he said. ‘Herr Wollger, I’m Chief Inspector Reinhart.’
He held out his hand. After a few seconds Wollger stood up and shook it. Then he sat down again and resumed staring into the void. Reinhart remained standing, looking at him: this didn’t seem to disturb Wollger. Quite a tall, well-built man, barely forty years old, in Reinhart’s judgement. Jeans, dark blue polo shirt, crumpled grey jacket. Rather a large head, beginning to go bald. Eyes pale behind metal-framed spectacles. Signs of weakness in his mouth and chin.
He didn’t do it, was Reinhart’s first reaction.
But one shouldn’t jump to conclusions, was his second.
‘Are you up to answering a few simple questions?’
‘Questions?’ said Wollger.
‘Would you like something to drink? Tea, coffee?’
Wollger shook his head.
‘Excuse me a moment,’ said Reinhart and took Probationer Dobbermann to one side. Lowered his voice and asked her about the situation in general. She replied in a whisper that Wollger had drunk some juice and half a cup of coffee at the Forensic Laboratory after having seen his wife’s dead body. But she hadn’t got many words out of him. Neither before nor after the identification. Neither her nor Krause. Reinhart nodded and asked her to go and fetch Dr Schenck from his office on the ground floor. Then he turned back to herr Wollger.
‘I’m afraid I need to gather some information. Then a doctor will come and make sure that you can have a good rest. Your name is Andreas Wollger, is that right?’
Wollger nodded.
‘I’d be grateful if you would answer in words.’
‘Yes, I’m Andreas Wollger.’
‘Your wife has been the victim of a terrible accident. You have just identified her as’ — he checked with his notebook — ‘Vera Miller. Is that right?’
‘Yes.’
‘What’s your address?’
‘Milkerweg 18.’
‘Do you have any children?’
‘No.’
‘How long have you been married?’
‘Three years.’
‘What’s your job?’
‘I’m unemployed.’
‘For how long?’
‘Six months.’
‘And before that?’
‘Zinder’s Industries. They closed down.’
Reinhart nodded and fumbled for his pipe and tobacco. Zinder’s used to make components for mobile phones, if he remembered rightly. Forced out of business by the Japanese. Or possibly the Koreans.
‘And your wife?’
‘Her job, do you mean?’
‘Yes.’
‘She’s a nurse.’
‘What were you doing last Saturday evening?’
‘I was having dinner with a good friend.’
‘Where?’
‘At the Mefisto restaurant.’
‘In Lofters Plejn?’
‘Yes.’
‘Was your wife with you?’
‘My wife was attending a course.’
‘What sort of a course?’
‘For nurses. She’s a nurse.’
‘At which hospital?’
‘Gemejnte.’
‘And the course was held in Gemejnte Hospital?’
‘No. It was in Aarlach.’
‘Aarlach?’ said Reinhart, making a note. ‘That’s a long way from here.’
Wollger said nothing.
‘So it was a course for nurses in Aarlach. When did she go there?’
‘On Saturday morning.’
‘When was she due back?’
‘On Sunday afternoon. As usual.’
‘As usual? What do you mean by that?’
Wollger took a deep breath.
‘She’s been attending that course for several Saturdays. It’s some kind of further education.’
‘Always in Aarlach?’
‘Always in Aarlach,’ said Wollger. ‘But she didn’t come home.’
‘I understand,’ said Reinhart. ‘And when she didn’t come home, you reported that to the police?’
‘She’s dead,’ said Wollger. ‘For Christ’s sake, Vera’s dead!’
His voice rose half an octave at the end of the sentence, and Reinhart realized that Wollger was close to breaking point.
‘How did she get there?’ he asked. ‘To Aarlach, I mean.’
‘By train,’ said Wollger. ‘She took the train, of course. For Christ’s sake, she’s dead: why are you sitting here asking me how she got to Aarlach?’
Reinhart waited for a few seconds.
‘Your wife has been murdered,’ he said. ‘Somebody killed her during the night between Saturday and Sunday. Have you any explanation for why her body was found here just outside Maardam when she was supposed to be a couple of hundred kilometres away from here?’
Wollger had no explanation. Instead, he slumped down on his chair, sunk his face into his hands and started sobbing, swaying backwards and forwards. There was a discreet knock on the door, and Dr Schenck’s curly grey locks ca
me into view.
‘How’s it going?’
Reinhart sighed, and moved out of earshot of the man who had just become a widower.
‘As you might expect. I think you’d better take over. I don’t know who his next of kin is, but we’d better get somebody here PDQ. We need to talk to him, of course, the sooner the better. But that’s not possible the way things are at the moment.’
‘Okay,’ said Schenck. ‘I can see how things stand. Let’s see what I can do.’
‘Thank you,’ said Reinhart, leaving the room.
When he arrived at the Forensic Laboratory it was more or less lunchtime, so he suggested that they should nip over the road to Fix. Meusse had nothing against that: he took off his soiled white coat and exchanged it for the jacket he’d tossed onto his desk.
Fix bar was just over the street. It was quite full when they entered, but with the aid of a touch of diplomacy Reinhart managed to find a fairly secluded table. He asked Meusse if he would like something to eat, but the pathologist merely shook his bald head. That was not exactly unexpected. If you could believe the gossip it was years since any solid food had crossed his lips. Reinhart ordered two dark beers, sat down opposite him and waited.
‘Well?’ he said. ‘I gather you’ve come up with something.’
Meusse took a deep swig, and dried his lips carefully with his serviette.
‘It’s a circumstance.’
‘A circumstance?’ said Reinhart.
‘Precisely,’ said Meusse. ‘You are obviously paying attention.’
Reinhart let that pass.
‘It’s a decidedly uncertain observation. But I’d like you to bear it in mind.’
‘I see,’ said Reinhart.
‘It’s about those blows.’
‘Blows?’
‘The blows to the side and back of the head,’ said Meusse. ‘There is a concordance with The Chief Inspector ’s boy.’
It was a couple of moments before Reinhart realized that this expression referred to Erich Van Veeteren.
‘Hell’s bells!’ he said.
‘You can say that again,’ said Meusse, taking another drink of beer. ‘Don’t forget that it’s only a superficial observation.’
‘Of course not,’ said Reinhart. ‘I’ve got quite a good memory. Are you suggesting that it could be the same person?’
‘Hmm,’ said Meusse.
‘That the same person killed both Erich Van Veeteren and this woman. Is that what you’re saying?’
‘I’m not excluding the possibility,’ said Meusse after a pause for thought. ‘ That’s what I’m saying. If you listen carefully, I’ll explain… What we are dealing with is a somewhat unusual blow. There’s nothing to suggest that it couldn’t be the same weapon used in both cases, either. A length of iron pipe, for instance. Pretty heavy. I’ve got no comment to make about the blows to the side of the head, apart from the fact that the killer was right-handed. I’m basing the concordance on the blow to the back of the head. Broke the cervical spine in both cases. Hit more or less exactly the same place. Causing instant death. It could be a coincidence, of course, but I thought you ought to know.’
‘Thank you,’ said Reinhart.
He sat quietly for a while, trying to clarify the reasoning for himself by drawing a column of vertebrae in the notebook on the table in front of him. It wasn’t all that successful.
‘But there were several blows to the side of the head this time?’
Meusse nodded.
‘Three. Quite unnecessary. The blow to the back of the head would have been sufficient, but that assumes that the victim was the right way up… as it were.’
‘Would you say it was professional?’ Reinhart asked.
Meusse hesitated before answering.
‘Whoever delivered the blow must have known what to aim at, and what the result would be,’ he said. ‘Is that what you mean by professionalism?’
Reinhart shrugged.
‘There could well be two different killers,’ said Meusse. ‘Or there could well be just the one. I just wanted to keep you informed. Thanks for the beer.’
He emptied his glass and wiped his mouth again.
‘Hang on a minute,’ said Reinhart. ‘I want a judgement as well. Nobody could be better placed than you to give it. Are we in fact looking for the same killer? There’s no bloody point in summoning me here and then just offering me an either-or.’
Meusse contemplated his empty glass with a furrowed brow. Reinhart beckoned a waiter and ordered two more beers. When they had been delivered the little pathologist stroked the palm of his hand over his bald head and gazed out of the window for a while. He must have dreamt about becoming an actor, Reinhart thought. When he was young… Two or three hundred years or so ago.
‘I don’t want to pass a definite judgement,’ said Meusse eventually. ‘But I wouldn’t be sitting here telling you this if I didn’t have certain suspicions… Provided there’s nothing to prove that it’s not the case, of course.’
‘So highly probable?’ said Reinhart. ‘Is that your opinion?’
‘I just wanted to do my bit,’ said Meusse.
They sat for a while in silence, drinking their beer. Reinhart lit his pipe.
‘There are no connections between Vera Miller and Erich Van Veeteren. Not as far as we know, at least — but we haven’t been looking for any, of course.’
‘You only need one,’ said Meusse. ‘But that’s not my job.’
‘Absolutely right,’ said Reinhart. ‘Anyway, thanks for this, we’ll see what we can make of it.’
‘Let’s do that,’ said Meusse, standing up. ‘Thanks for the beers.’
20
‘There is no course in Aarlach,’ said Moreno, sitting down opposite Reinhart. ‘At least, not at the weekend for nurses, every week. How is he?’
‘Fragile,’ said Reinhart. ‘I’d put money on that Aarlach business being a bluff. He doesn’t want to go home, Wollger. He’s lying downstairs in Schenck’s office: a good friend has been to see him, but Schenck had already tranquillized him. Poor sod. The parents are coming this evening — two seventy-five-year-olds coming by car from Frigge. His parents, that is. We haven’t been in touch with hers yet. We’ll have to see how it goes, but no matter what happens we have to get him on his feet so that we can talk to him. Tranquillized or not.’
‘So she was being unfaithful to him, was she?’ said Moreno. ‘Are we to take that for granted?’
‘I’d have thought so,’ said Reinhart. ‘Why else would she lie to him and disappear every Saturday?’
‘There could be other explanations.’
‘Really? Give me one.’
Moreno thought for a moment, then put off answering.
‘What’s he like?’ she said instead. ‘Naive?’
Reinhart stroked his chin and looked thoughtful.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Naive’s probably the right word. Van Berle, that good friend of his, didn’t have much he could tell us about his wife, in any case. She’d evidently entered his life quite recently. She used to live in Groenstadt. Van Berle and Wollger are childhood friends, or so he maintains. He was the one Wollger used to go to the pub with while his wife was out getting screwed by somebody else. If that was what she was doing.’
‘Hmm,’ said Moreno. ‘Perhaps there’s another side to the coin as well. But what the hell does this have to do with Erich Van Veeteren? I don’t get it.’
‘Nor do I,’ said Reinhart. ‘But you know what one of Meusse’s guesses is usually worth.’
Moreno nodded.
‘What do we do now?’
Reinhart stood up.
‘We do this,’ he said. ‘Jung and Rooth talk to her workmates and friends. And relatives, if we can find any. You and I will have another try with Wollger. I think we might as well go down and see him now. There’s no point in waiting for his mum and dad to come — or what do you think?’
‘I don’t think anything at all at the moment,’ said Moreno,
following Reinhart to the lift. ‘Are you going to tell him about the course in Aarlach, or shall I do it?’
‘You,’ said Reinhart. ‘I bow to your feminine cunning and empathy. Maybe it doesn’t matter all that much now that she’s been murdered. Maybe he’ll take it like a man.’
‘Of course he will,’ said Moreno. ‘I’m looking forward to meeting him.’
Jung had arranged to meet Liljana Milovic in a cafeteria at Gemejnte Hospital. She had no idea why he wanted to talk to her, and he had the less than uplifting task of informing her that her friend and colleague had unfortunately been murdered, and that was why she hadn’t turned up for work this gloomy Monday.
Liljana Milovic was beyond doubt a beautiful woman, and in different circumstances he would have had nothing against holding her in his arms and trying to control her fit of sobbing. Come to think of it, he had nothing against it even in these circumstances — and in fact he spent most of their meeting doing just that. She slung her arms around him and simply wept, that was all there was to it. Slid her chair next to his and hung onto his neck. He stroked her slightly awkwardly over her back and her long, black hair which smelt of honeysuckle, rosewater and God only knew what else.
‘Forgive me,’ she sniffled over and over again. ‘Forgive me, I can’t help it.’
Nor can I, thought Jung, noticing that he had a large lump in his throat as well. Her flow of tears eventually ebbed away and she began to get a grip of herself, but she didn’t break off bodily contact with him. Not completely.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Jung. ‘I thought they’d already told you.’
She shook her head and blew her nose. He noticed that the other cafeteria customers at nearby tables were glancing furtively at them. He wondered what they imagined was going on, and asked her if she’d prefer to move somewhere else.
‘No, no, it’s okay here.’
She had only a slight foreign accent, and he guessed she had emigrated from the Balkans when she was a teenager and her homeland was still called Yugoslavia.
‘Did you know Vera well?’
‘She was my best workmate.’
‘Did you meet outside working hours as well?’
She took a deep breath and looked sad. That made her even more beautiful. Under her high cheekbones were faint suggestions of shadow, something that always made Jung go weak at the knees for some reason. He bit his tongue and tried to become a police officer again.