Blue Blue Eyes: Crime Novel

by Helena Anderson

  ”Are you all related with each-other on this little island, or what?” Nikki closed the doors and smiled.

  ”No believe it or not, but it’s almost the case. For good or for bad. For the good of Cyprus we should really employ people from other countries who with fresh eyes can see how to save our little island. That would probably deal with all the corruption here too, but that’s not the way it works in the democratic world now, is it?”

  ”No, but it doesn’t sound bad to have some fresh blood”, Nikki honestly replied. She stopped by the staircase and curiously looked around.

  ”I think we should split up to be more effective. If I take the upper floor maybe you could do the ground floor?”

  ”Sounds perfect.” Daphne went into the modern kitchen and started looking for clues which would bring them closer to the answer as to whom Sten Arvidsson was and why he had been murdered.

  Expectantly Nikki went up the light marble staircase and was amazed at seeing how wide it was when she got on the last step. A large living room which also had been influenced by Moroccan style was apparent. She stood for a while and looked at the space and light in the room. But most of all she was admiring the view, sea, sea, and once again sea. Systematically she started looking and after 20 minutes she realized there was nothing of interest in the room.

  The right wing had a beautiful and light marble floor which was shining in the sun. Nikki counted three rooms but started with what she supposed was Sten’s bed-room. Nikki wondered if she had seen correctly when her eyes fell on a mobile on one of the bed-side tables. She immediately put it in an evidence bag and hoped that it would reveal some more information about Sten Arvidsson. With renewed energy she continued searching frenetically in the drawers and wardrobes but without any success at all. Before leaving the room she lifted the heavy triple mattress on the large continental bed, but found nothing interesting there either. A photograph made her stop, though.

  Sten Arvidsson was dressed in tuxedo and was holding a beautiful woman with a pleasant smile. She must have been his wife, Nikki thought sadly to herself. She had read in the police report that he had been a widower for a few years and wondered curiously what had happened to his wife while she continued to the next room. Different machines were lined up and by the wall there was a shelf with loose weights. A gym, she thought, and felt the need to exercise stir in her veins. She walked quickly through the room which smelled of gym equipment while looking curiously at a closed door.

  When she pushed the handle of the door she found it was locked. Carefully she started to press the handle while pushing the door, but it didn’t budge even a millimetre. She noticed how solid it was. Purposefully she made a fist and carefully knocked on different parts of the door and quickly realized it was made of steel. OK, Sten. What secrets are hidden in here?

  ”What’s going on?” Daphne was a little out of breath after the short run up the stairs when she had heard Nikki calling.

  ”The door is locked.” Nikki showed by pressing the door handle. ”Check out the lock. A little advanced, don’t you think? Even the door is special, it’s made of steel.”

  Daphne gave a knowing smile and her eyes shone with expectation.

  ”Damn it, we’ll have to call for a lock smith.”

  Nikki could see the wheels spinning behind her colleague’s beautifully multi-coloured eyes when she picked up her bunch of pick-locks again.

  ”Lock smith? When we have these?”

  ”But can you really handle this kind of complicated lock?” Daphne smiled hesitatingly while leaning against the whitewashed wall.

  ”At least let me have a go.”

  Nikki started working the lock, cursed a few times and dropped the pick-locks several times on the hard marble floor. But her drive and curiosity stopped her from giving up.

  ”But I’ll be damned. Come on now.”

  Nikki tried one pick-lock after another but it was impossible to open the door. Finally she remembered a trick that David had taught her. With concentration she tried with three pick-locks at the same time and after many attempts they heard the desired sound. Nikki looked Daphne in the eyes and made a sign that they should cover each-other. Daphne took out her service weapon, un-cocked it and nodded at Nikki that she should follow.

  ”Clear”, Daphne said automatically after she had checked that the room was empty.

  At first glance Nikki couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The office was tastefully decorated and the furniture was neutral in colour. A clever feature on the wall in the shape of a world map lit up the room and little green pins were stuck in different cities and countries. A pretty cloth-painting adorned the blank wall over the white sofa. Nikki clearly recognized the cloth in green and white looking like several women’s faces from Marimekko. She had a similar one at home. Sten Arvidsson’s chair was pushed next to the desk and when she pulled it out it had wheels but no armrest.

  Hesitating she sat down in the chair and let her eyes move over the neat desk. A feeling of unpleasantness settled in the pit of her stomach since she actually didn’t like invading people’s private domains. A few piles of papers were lying in a neat row in the left corner and when she lifted the papers on top Nikki could quickly see they were dealing with gardening. She pulled out the top drawer to the right under the desk and only found some stationary.

  The next drawer contained a few other things, a stack of CDs, different chargers and a small video camera. Nikki turned the camera upside down but unfortunately she could see that the memory card had been removed. The other drawers were empty apart from a small photo album. Carefully she leafed through the pictures and looked into a beautiful woman’s dark eyes. The plastic pockets were filled with photographs of Sten’s wife.

  A sad feeling went through her body and Nikki put the album back in its place and carefully closed the drawer, as if she didn’t want to cause any more harm for the deceased wife. Thoughtfully she clasped her hands behind her neck and rolled around with the chair. Somewhere you are keeping secrets, Sten, but the question is where? She looked around the room once again and rested her eyes on a few paintings of zebras in different positions. The wall next to it was also covered with black frames but with different dog motifs. She couldn’t see any computer which puzzled Nikki. Most households today had a computer in the house?

  ”Think about it, where would you hide something you didn’t want to be found?” Daphne asked while she pulled out file after file in the bookshelf with glass doors.

  ”You don’t find anything either?”

  ”No, nothing interesting. Let’s see if the other bookshelf will yield some results instead.”

  Nikki got up and tried looking at the room with a new look.

  Where would I hide my secrets? Where?

  An hour later Nikki and Daphne were still sitting in the office feeling puzzled and both had a gut feeling that they had missed something important. They felt totally frustrated as they watched specks of dust from the curtains dancing in the bright sunlight.

  ”I can’t believe it. We haven’t found a thing. But I’m sure there’s something in here, otherwise Sten would never have had a steel door into this room.” Nikki sighed and rubbed her fingertips against her temples. ”My gut tells me we’ve missed something. Help me Daphne, think outside the box. What have we missed?”

  ”I actually don’t know Nikki, but I agree with you, there’s something fishy.” Daphne sat down on the sofa, leaned her head against the headrest and fiddled with the fringes on the green cushions while thinking.

  ”Mm, it’s too hot to think and my throat is like a number seven sandpaper. Shall we go and have a couple of ice-cold smoothies maybe?” Nikki sat on the lime-green office chair and put up her legs on the desk so that her feet were dangling outside.

  ”I say we stay. Let’s give it another half hour before leaving, OK?”

  Nikki just hummed
in answer while she changed the lever so that she was reclining in the chair. Then they were completely quiet while their intensive looks and brains were working overtime. Nikki was fiddling with her cuticle so hard it hurt and Daphne was playing with her fish bone tail with a look of concentration. After five minutes Nikki slid up from the chair and put her feet on the floor under the desk. An aluminium coloured basket turned over and the content was emptied out on the star-patterned plastic mat.

  ”Of course.” Nikki reluctantly bent down and started replacing all the crunched-up papers lying spread out here and there. A metallic sound caught her attention when she knocked the bin by mistake with her elbow. Curiously she emptied the rest of its content and among all the rubbish she found a small gold coloured key.

  ”Voilá, if you look you will find.” Nikki grinned and held up the key in front of her.

  ”Why would anybody throw a key in the bin?”

  ”Who knows.” Nikki shrugged and frowned. ”Ah, it’s probably nothing. It might be the key to a lock he’s lost.”

  ”Hang on a minute, I recognize that key.” Daphne ran down to the kitchen and fetched her handbag. When she came back she had exactly the same kind of key in her hand.

  ”This key was found in Sten’s clothes where he was discovered. Does your key have the same letters as mine?”

  Nikki quickly looked at Daphne’s key, compared it to the one she’d found and nodded quickly. ”OK, then, we’ve found two identical keys. What does that mean?”

  Nikki fiddled with the key while ignoring her stomach making a rumbling noise. A funny feeling came over her and she quickly got up. When close to the paintings she looked behind each and every frame. Empty. Her pulse rose as she stubbornly followed her gut feeling and went up to the world map. Her fingers went along the wall paper’s seams but she couldn’t feel anything strange. The large Marimekko painting with the eight women’s faces caught her attention. She lifted down the light chip-wood and put the cloth painting against the wall.

  ”Look, a lock.” Nikki felt her whole body tense as she put in the key. With a keen anticipation she turned it around, first one way and then the other. ”Come on, why is nothing happening?”

  Daphne who had also got up felt cheated just like Nikki.

  ”Damn it. We have a lock and a key that fits, why is nothing happening?” The irritation ran throughout her whole body and Nikki once again sat down in the lime green office chair with obvious disappointment.

  ”But we can’t give up now Nikki. Come on. Let’s continue looking. There must be something else.”

  ”I feel we have looked and looked. But you’re right, we can’t give up.” Nikki sat up straight and rubbed her tired eyes with her wrists.

  Calmly Daphne went around touching the room again. She stopped for a few seconds by the window facing the bay. The waves were intoxicating the soft sea and a sea-gull flew low over the invitingly glittering water. When she turned around her eyes lit up and opened wide.

  ”I have an idea. Help me, we need to move the furniture.”

  First they started with the lightest stuff, the sofa and a white chest. Then they moved the desk together and were really disappointed when they saw the stark white wall behind was empty. But they didn’t give up but concentrated on the heavy book-shelves instead. After considerable effort they managed to move the thing side-ways but were far from finished. They had a break and dried the sweat off their foreheads before getting going again.

  ”I don’t have strength to empty this damn thing so it’s time for proof. Time to show your muscles, Daphne.” Nikki tried until her face was bright red and they managed to push it a few millimetres sideways.

  ”Damn it how heavy this thing is.” Daphne shook her arms to get rid of the cramp and made a face at the same time.

  ”I can’t do it anymore.”

  ”Let’s give it another try, if it doesn’t work we’ll ask for help.”

  They pushed and panted and shouted until their muscles were burning with lactic acid. Finally the book-shelf gave in. Out of breath and with heavy arms they were staring at the lock shining at them on the white stone-wall. Nikki stretched her arms high up in the air.

  ”Yes! Give me your key, this must be it.” Daphne was jumping up and down with excitement.

  ”What?” Nikki asked tiredly.

  ”Give me the key, I’m going to work some magic.”

  First Daphne put the gold coloured key in the cryptic lock behind the book-shelf. Then she took Nikki’s key and turned the lock they’d found behind the painting. The tension was rising in the room and their expectation was high. Nikki bit her cheek and stood all charged waiting for what was about to happen. She looked at Daphne with some doubt and noticed how tense her colleague was. Soon after they heard a sound behind and frightened turned around. Daphne automatically went for her gun and Nikki was prepared.

  ”I’ll be damn.” Daphne’s voice was both high and broken and she looked as though she’d seen a ghost.

  Nikki couldn’t believe her eyes either and looked in surprise as the second book-shelf with glass doors was moving. Daphne who at first had been completely paralyzed drew her service weapon and carefully moved into the darkness. Methodically she felt with her hand along the wall until she found a light-switch.

  ”Hell!” Nikki shouted when the light came on. In shock she stood with her hand on her mouth staring through the open door.

  ”In the deepest water...”, Daphne said looking around.

  Different kinds of automatic rifles were hanging in neat rows on the rough concrete and on the shelves there were smaller weapons of different makes. In addition the room was filled with wooden crates containing a range of rocket guns and ammunition.

  ”This is bloody insane. There are weapons just about everywhere.” Nikki pronounced the words slowly and put both hands on her hips. ”Here is Sten Arvidsson’s secret. He must have been a weapons’ dealer, or what do you think?”

  ”Absolutely, no doubt about it”, Daphne replied. She ran and got the station’s digital camera from her handbag and took pictures of all the weapons very carefully. Then she called and informed Carlos about their macabre findings while asking him to get some technicians to thoroughly go through the house.

  ”Have a look here”, Nikki shouted with pleasure as she lifted up the computer and the mobile she had found on a small corner table far inside the damp room.

  ”Look at that, perfect”, Daphne said in triumph and made a thumbs up. ”Let’s hope more secrets are found so we can figure out what actually caused Sten Arvidsson’s death.”

  As Nikki left the secret room with the weapon’s she remembered that she hadn’t picked up the rubbish that had fallen out when she kicked the bin. Sighing she squatted and went through every bit of paper all mixed up on the green and white mat. An elegant letterhead with an emblem from the Mountain Hills’ Golf club caught her attention. She slowly read through the letter while her eyes grew wider.

  ”Daphne, come here. I think I’ve found something.”

  ”What?” Daphne came out of the secret room and stood next to Nikki. She pushed her fringe to one side and listened attentively.

  ”Sten Arvidsson, considering your behaviour at our latest members’ dinner I hereby demand your immediate resignation from Mountain Hills Golf club. If I see you again on my land it will hurt and if you ever come close to my wife again you can count on a personal revenge. Best regards, Olof Stenvall, chairman of Mountain Hills Golf club.

  ”I’ll be damn.” Daphne sat down on the sofa, thinking. ”So you mean that...”

  ”The letter is dated the 29th of May”, Nikki interrupted. ”Didn’t Sten die the 1st of June?”

  Sunday June 9th

  The picture of the enormous weapons’ arsenal at Sten Arvidsson’s was still in Nikki and Daphne’s eyes. All worked up they stopped by a restaurant in the street and o
rdered a chicken salad each with carrot juice which they took back to the station with them. Nikki was so hungry she drank the juice immediately while having a look at the out-door venues. The large TV-screens were showing a noisy football game as usual, and the English were alternating between shouting and booing. On the way to the police station they drove past a little man with a moustache on his creaking scooter, of course without a helmet and with a cigarette dangling in his mouth. Nikki smiled and thought of her youth with the scooter gang in Tel Aviv.

  ”It’s eight o’clock and I still haven’t found a place to stay.”

  ”Ah yes, but don’t worry. We’ll fix it in no time as soon as we get to a computer.”

  Half an hour later they were happy and satisfied and were calling around for flats. Nikki had chosen different rental sites they’d found on the net.

  ”Great, we’ll be right there. Thanks a lot for your help.” Daphne finished the conversation and smiled at Nikki. ”Time to go for a ride again.”

  ”But is it OK to leave when we have so much to do here?”

  ”We’ll have time for this too. Half an hour more or less doesn’t make any difference. Come on. You must have somewhere to stay, have you forgotten that?” Daphne shook her head and took the car keys from the desk and went out the door.

  When they were approaching the reception Nikki saw a familiar face with long, carrot red hair.

  ”Say Hi to Nikki, Stella”, Daphne said happily. ”Nikki is helping us with the cases with the Swedes.”

  Stella looked up from her computer and checked out Nikki. ”What I’ve heard is that you’ll not be staying for long.”

  ”Get lost. You shouldn’t copy your uncle’s bad qualities, even if I know Carlos is your idol.” Daphne shot her a smile and pushed down the door handle.

  Stella pretended not to hear and turned her attention to the computer screen, continuing: