Guiltless
Page 29
“Do you know anything about hypothermia?”
Pernilla shook her head.
“That’s what we call it when the body temperature drops dangerously low. In severe cases, the body can no longer return to its normal temperature without help.”
Harriet Ström cleared her throat and looked Pernilla directly in the eye.
“Your husband’s body temperature was very low indeed when he arrived here. His functions were weak, and his heartbeat was difficult to detect. In extreme cold the blood vessels contract and don’t allow blood to pass through; this is known as vascular constriction.” She paused. “Please tell me if there’s anything you don’t understand.”
“OK.”
Pernilla swallowed. When Nora had called to tell her what had happened, she had jumped in a cab right away. From what Nora had said, it sounded like Thomas was going to be all right. Now, though, the doctor’s grave expression suggested that might not be the case.
Harriet Ström took a sip of her coffee. Pernilla thought she could see something else in her eyes; was it sympathy or sorrow?
“The paramedics on the helicopter did everything right. He was given oxygen immediately, and they ran an ECG on board.”
Pernilla began to shiver. She heard the words, but they meant nothing. What was the doctor trying to say?
“The heart muscle showed signs of arrhythmia. Just before the helicopter arrived here he went into ventricular fibrillation, which means a serious disruption to the heart rhythm. This led to cardiac arrest.”
A heavy weight settled on Pernilla’s chest; every breath was agony. She wanted to ask the doctor to stop talking and at the same time she wanted to beg her to hurry up. Not knowing was unbearable, but hearing the news she feared would be even worse.
She kept on repeating Thomas’s name to herself.
Images of Emily’s tiny body in his arms whirled around in her head, the funeral, the tiny white casket, the priest who could say nothing to assuage their grief.
Not again, not Thomas, too.
Forgive me, I should have stayed with you. What will I do if you leave me now?
Dear God, I will do anything you ask, but please don’t take him away from me.
Harriet Ström went on: “The paramedics attempted to use a defibrillator to get his heart going, but this was complicated by the low body temperature.”
Pernilla could hardly breathe. She stared at the doctor.
“Is . . . is he alive?” she finally managed to stammer.
The words seemed to hover in the air.
Harriet Ström reached out and squeezed Pernilla’s hand. Her skin was dry and warm to the touch. Many years of night duty had left their mark on her face, but her voice was gentle and full of warmth.
“They managed to restart his heart, but he’s still unconscious.”
She looked sympathetically at Pernilla.
“I’m afraid we can’t rule out the possibility of brain damage. I’m so sorry.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This is my third book about Sandhamn, and it has been the most exciting to write. My research about the island’s history has been both fascinating and educational, and I have scoured Sweden’s antiquarian bookshops for books about the archipelago in days gone by.
And now the book is finished, and I am already missing Thorwald and Karolina, Nora, Henrik, and Thomas.
The story of Thorwald and Gottfrid is entirely fictional. However, the inspiration comes from Jenny Wickberg’s riveting article in Sandhamns Tidning about her grandfather, Adolf Wickberg, and his life on the island at the beginning of the last century. My imagination started to flow when I read about how he used to get up at one thirty in the morning to lay his nets when his father fell ill, and Adolf had to help provide for the family.
One correction: unfortunately, the winter of 2007 was not as cold as I have described here, and I have also taken a number of other liberties, for example in my account of the customs service and its work. For these changes and for any errors that might have crept in, the responsibility is mine and mine alone.
This book would never have been written if various kind people had not given wise advice and comments.
I am very grateful for the expertise provided by Detective Inspector Sonny Björk at the National Crime Unit and Detective Inspector Rolf Hansson with the Nacka police. Gunilla Pettersson has generously helped out with both the checking of factual details and with information about Sandhamn in the past and in the present.
Family, friends, and colleagues who have been there all the way through are Lisbeth Bergstedt, Tord Bergstedt, Anita Cassmer Bergstedt, Anette Brifalk, Barbro Börjeson Ahlin, Helen Duphorn, and Göran Sällqvist.
My fantastic publisher, Karin Linge Nordh, deserves a huge, heartfelt thank-you, as does my tireless editor Matilda Lund, who has put so much effort into this manuscript. Thanks also to Jenny Stjernströmer Björk and Emma Tibblin at Stilton Literary Agency, who work so hard to promote my books.
As always my daughter, Camilla, has been an invaluable sounding board, patiently discussing many aspects of the story (even when I was shamelessly fishing for compliments!).
My wonderful sons Alexander and Leo have once again put up with a busy mom, totally absorbed in the writing process.
Last but certainly not least, thank you to my darling Lennart; without you this would never work. Above all, neither my writing nor anything else in my life would be much fun without you.
Sandhamn, November 2009
Viveca Sten
ADDITIONAL READING ABOUT LIFE IN THE ARCHIPELAGO IN TIMES GONE BY
Ahlström, Stellan and Algård, Göran: Strindbergs Stockholm och Stockholms skärgård (Gebers förlag 1965)
Aspfors, Johan: Sandhamn: en riksintressant kulturmiljö i Värmdö kommun (Värmdö Kommun 2000)
Bianchini, Lisa: En bok om Sandhamn från förr och nu (C. E. Fritzes Bokförlag 1924)
Bäckström, Inga-Lill: Sandhamn: en etnologisk studie av ett skärgårdssamhälle (Rapport från Stockholms läns landsting, Kulturnämden 1978)
Fallström, Daniel: Stockholm och skärgården (Albert Bonniers förlag 1908)
Jansson, E. Alfred: Skärgårdsliv i forna tider: Fiskeskären, Runmarö, Nämdö (Bonnier 1964)
Jansson, E. Alfred: Skärgårdsliv i forna tider: Sandhamn, Harö, Rysshärjningarna, Möja, Vindö (Bonnier 1965)
Jarnhammar, Lennart: Från ett fönsterbord mot havet (Esshå tryck 1995)
Ljunggren, Hans (red.): Himmelska lador och jordiska tempel (Stockholms distrikt av Svenska Missionsförbundet 1985)
Sjöblom, Karl-Axel: Min barndoms skärgård (Askild & Kärnekull Förlag 1979)
Strindberg, August: Hemsöborna (Albert Bonniers förlag 1887)
Svensson, Roland: Skärgårdsliv i gången tid (Bonnier 1961)
Sörenson, Elisabeth, Wallenberg, Jacob, och Wickberg, Arne, bildreportage av Krister Sandström, Sandhamn (Tidens förlag 1965)
Ullman, Magnus: KSSS, åren 1930-2005: ett segelsällskap i tiden (Bokförlaget Magnus Ullman 2005)
Wallert, Evert: Skärgårdsliv (Smålänningens förlag 1966)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2017 Marlaine Delargy
Swedish writer Viveca Sten has sold almost four million copies of her enormously popular Sandhamn Murders series. In 2014, her seventh novel, the hugely successful I maktens skugga (In the Shadow of Power), was published in Sweden and cemented her place as one of the country’s most popular authors. Her Sandhamn Murders novels continue to top the bestseller charts and have been made into a successful Swedish-language TV miniseries, which has been broadcast around the world to thirty million viewers. Sten lives in Stockholm with her husband and three children, but she prefers to spend her time visiting Sandhamn to write and vacation with her family.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Marlaine Delargy is based in Shropshire in the United Kingdom. She studied Swedish and German at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and taught German in comprehensive schools
for almost twenty years. She has translated novels by authors including Åsa Larsson, Kristina Ohlsson, Helene Tursten, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Therese Bohman, Ninni Holmqvist, and Johan Theorin, with whom she won the Crime Writers’ Association International Dagger for The Darkest Room in 2010.