Samic. The woman. Vennerhag. They hadn't been at the party for Angelika's sake, not in the first place. She was leaving school, but so was Mattias. He'd gone to the same school, but hadn't been in the same class. Winter was certain now.
They'd been there for Mattias' sake.
The woman was Mattias' mother. Benny and Samic knew that Angelika would recognise them from the club.
Ringmar drove, up the hills. Winter directed him through the deserted streets. Somebody was having a midnight barbecue in his garden. Winter could see a flame leaping up.
The crack in his elbow was burning like fire.
'Shouldn't you have that plastered?' Ringmar asked.
Winter didn't reply, merely smoked, gazing out into the night.
'Isn't Fredrik's house up here somewhere?' Ringmar asked.
'On the other side. Over there.'
They drove past it. No lights in any of the windows.
'Down here then turn left,' said Winter. He was rocking backwards and forwards, holding his elbow.
'Calm down now, Erik.'
'Are we going to find Halders or aren't we?'
'Yes, but—'
'Put your foot down, then.' He inhaled deeply, released his safety belt as Ringmar pulled up outside Vennerhag's house. There was a light in each of the windows.
'He'll be at the back,' said Winter. 'I'll find him.'
Ringmar followed and came to the lawn behind the house. A man in swimming trunks was holding a glass. A naked woman glided smoothly up to the edge of the pool.
The man saw who it was approaching and put his glass down on the table under the parasol. The woman had clambered out of the pool and had crossed her arms over her body, which was slick from the water. Ringmar saw how Winter accelerated. The man in the swimming trunks started speaking.
'Erik, it was—'
Winter's skull crashed into Vennerhag at chest height. The woman screamed. Vennerhag emitted a sound like air escaping from a Lilo. He staggered backwards. Winter held his right arm as if it were still in the sling lying on the lawn at the side of Ringmar, who seemed to be screwed down. The woman screamed again. Vennerhag staggered forwards and Winter kicked him in the crotch. Vennerhag spluttered. Winter kicked both his kneecaps. Vennerhag collapsed to the accompaniment of sounds like the cracking of dry twigs, slid backwards and into the water. Winter jumped in after him and forced his head under the surface with his good arm, then pulled it up again. Ringmar registered Vennerhag's gaping eyes, reflecting the lights over the pool.
'WHERE IS HE?' Winter yelled. He forced Vennerhag's head under the water again, pulled it up once more. 'WHERE IS HE, YOU BASTARD? WHERE IS FREDRIK HALDERS?'
Ringmar saw Winter head-butt Vennerhag over the bridge of his nose. Vennerhag gave vent to a rattling sound. He'll kill him, Ringmar thought. I'll have to dive in.
Vennerhag's head was dipped under again, then pulled up. Blood was pouring from his nose. The water hadn't managed to wash it away.
'I'll kill you, Benny, you know I will,' said Winter, aiming a kick at Ringmar, who had dived in. 'Fuck off, Bertil. Keep your distance.'
'Steady on, Erik.'
'STAY WHERE YOU ARE,' Winter yelled. Ringmar did as bidden and wondered what to do next.
Winter pulled Vennerhag's face up to his own. 'This is your last chance before I drown you. Where is he? Where is Halders?'
Another rattling noise from Vennerhag.
'WELL? WELL?'
Winter thrust his head under water again. 'Aaagh' came from Vennerhag. Winter raised his head. Benny's face was disfigured by the blows and the blood and the light that seemed to be drilling its way through his head from underneath.
'WELL, WHAT DO YOU SAY?'
Ringmar saw Vennerhag's lips move, saw Winter lean forward to listen, saw Vennerhag's lips again, saw Winter stand up straight, cast Vennerhag's body aside and wade away with water up to his waist.
Ringmar pulled Vennerhag out of the pool. He looked dead. The woman had her face in her hands, shuddering violently. Ringmar felt Vennerhag's pulse and after a few seconds registered a faint beat. He could hear a voice from inside the house. Winter was calling for an ambulance and for the police.
Winter came back outside.
'God only knows where my mobile is,' he said. 'Let's go.'
Ringmar looked at the woman and at Vennerhag's body. She looked up, then hid her face in her hands again. She was a stranger.
'COME ON, Bertil. You'll have to drive.'
'Where to?' asked Ringmar, but Winter was already on his way.
39
Ringmar drove west, past the funfair. It looked to Winter as if the roundabout was spinning, a circle of false light.
Another light started to appear over the horizon behind them, a new day. Winter could feel the pain like sledgehammers pounding away at the right-hand side of his body, from the top down. He had Vennerhag's blood on his knuckles, and could smell his own wild animal-like scent. He was shivering in his wet clothes as Ringmar accelerated on the motorway and the wind rushed in through the open windows.
Have I gone out of my mind? Is this what being mad is like?
Ringmar was talking over the radio.
'They'll have to wait,' Winter said. 'We can't go storming in with a whole battalion.'
Ringmar carried on talking to Bergenhem and whoever else was there. Winter ran his hands over his shirt.
'There's a sweater on the back seat,' said Ringmar, turning to look at him. 'How many of them are there?'
'I don't know.'
'Didn't he say anything about that?'
'No.'
'What did he say?'
'What we needed to know. Where Fredrik is. Turn right at the next exit,' said Winter, staring straight ahead. 'It'll be quicker.'
He watched an aeroplane climbing into the morning sky, like a dark bird. The flashing lights on its tail sent a message down to earth. Now he could hear the engines, a muffled rumbling.
They crossed the bridge. The sea looked like a field.
It was darker again on the other side. The light was behind them, over the open water. There were no cars on the road, which was narrower when they came to the island.
'This must be it,' said Ringmar. He turned off and it grew even darker in among the trees. Ringmar glanced at Winter, who was making sure his SigSauer had survived the dip in the pool. 'How are you feeling, Erik?'
'Be patient with me,' said Winter.
'We must stay calm when we get there,' said Ringmar.
'We'll see.'
Winter leaned back in his seat and pictured the boy's face.
Cohen had phoned while he was examining the photographs earlier in the day, a day that never seemed to end.
'Mattias wants to say something,' Cohen had said.
'What?' Winter had asked, holding up a photograph that seemed to be mostly filled with brightly coloured balloons.
'I think he wants to tell us the whole story.'
Mattias ignored him when he came into the room. He was sitting quietly on the chair in front of them.
'You wanted to tell us something, Mattias?'
He didn't answer.
'Do you want to tell us something?'
'I might.'
Winter could see the similarities with his father, now that he knew. The eyes were the same, had that same inner darkness.
'What do you want to tell us, Mattias?'
'Where's my mum?'
Winter had expected the boy to look at him, but he continued staring down at the table.
'I want her to come here,' he said.
'What's your mum called, Mattias?'
'Eh?'
'What's she called?'
He said nothing.
Have I made a mistake? Winter wondered.
Mattias looked at Cohen now, then at Winter.
'Where is my mum?'
'We don't know,' said Winter. 'We're looking for her as well.' He leaned forward. 'Why can't we find her, Mattias?'
&nbs
p; 'How should I know?'
'When did you last see her?'
'Dunno.'
'It doesn't seem as if you live together.'
Mattias didn't respond.
'Where does she live?'
He didn't answer.
'Where is she, Mattias?'
'She lives with him. Sarnic.' He looked at Winter. 'It's a long time now. It's been a long time.' He stroked his hand across his mouth. 'They've been living together for a long time.' He rubbed his forehead. 'I've told her I don't like it. I've told her before.' He gave a sudden, short laugh. 'I showed 'em. I showed that bastard! Now it'll never happen again ... never again!'
Winter waited. The boy seemed animated, but only for a few seconds.
'I showed him as well,' Mattias said. 'Just like ... them.'
'Why did you kill the girls, Mattias?'
The boy was in a different world, seeing things only he could see.
'Th ... they shouldn't have been there,' he said.
Winter listened to the sound of air circulating round the room. He could feel the sweat on his back. His arm had started to hurt again, badly.
'Th ... they had no business to be there. I ... I told them.'
He stared at the wall behind Winter where so many had stared while being interrogated.
'It was their own fault,' said Mattias. 'If they hadn't been there, it wouldn't have ... been like that.'
'Why was it their fault?'
'Jeanette.'
'Jeanette? Was she there?'
'Sh ... she went with th ... them once.'
'Was Jeanette at the club?'
Mattias nodded. Winter didn't know what to believe.
'What did she do?'
The boy nodded again. Perhaps he hadn't heard the question.
'What did she do there, Mattias?'
'She was outside.'
Winter could see the house in his mind's eye, the street, the lights, the door, the hall, the stairs, the wall.
'Outside?'
'Sh ... she was only outside but th ... that was enough.'
'Enough? Enough for what?'
'Fo ... for him to follow her. Follow her and d ... do wh ... what he d ... did.'
'Who? Samic?'
Mattias nodded.
'Th ... they won't do it again. Never again.' He looked at Winter now. His body was crumpled up, as if it had no bones. 'He did it.'
'Johan Samic?'
The boy shook his head.
'N ... not that. The other thing.'
'Kurt Bielke?'
The boy nodded. There was a glint in his eye, as if he'd just shared a secret with Winter. There were spots of red in the whites of his eyes and saliva in the corners of his mouth.
'What did Kurt Bielke do?'
'I heard him and Samic talking about it,' said Mattias in a voice that suddenly sounded loud and clear. 'He'd done it and could do it again.' His voice was lower now. 'H ... h ... he ... it was his fault as well. That ... Jeanette.'
'Could do it again? What do you mean?'
'He'd done it once, hadn't he?'
'Why—'
'It could have been him the other times as well, couldn't it?' He interrupted Winter's question.
'But it was you, Mattias.'
'It could have been him.' Mattias raised both hands in the air. 'It could have been him.'
'Do you know who he is? Who Kurt Bielke is?'
'He's a shit.'
'What else is he?'
'They say he's my dad, but I don't believe that.'
'What does your mum say?'
'I haven't got round to asking her,' said Mattias, and he laughed.
She didn't know what her son had done, Winter thought, and when it eventually dawned on her she was scared. She left him in order to get help, but there was no help forthcoming from where she turned to. It was even worse there.
And then we arrived. Halders arrived.
Cohen looked at Winter, who hadn't followed up with another question.
'Where is Angelika's boyfriend?' Cohen asked.
'Who?'
'Angelika had a boyfriend, didn't she?' 'He's gone now,' Mattias said.
'What do you mean, "gone"?'
'He was the same as the rest of 'em.' Mattias looked up, stared past Cohen and Winter. 'And he came to me asking loads of questions. Same as you lot.'
Mattias was full of hatred for everybody and everything that had destroyed his life. Something inside him had snapped, and he had gone somewhere from which he could never return.
Ringmar was in third gear and worried about the headlights shining so far ahead.
'I'll switch the lights off,' he said.
'Watch out for deer,' said Winter.
Ringmar couldn't help smiling. He peered into the faint, uncertain light hovering between day and night over the trees.
'Samic raped Jeanette,' Winter said.
Ringmar didn't respond. He was too busy trying to keep the car on a road that was no more than a black line between the fir trees.
'He'd had a hold on Bielke for all those years, a big hold. He exploited it.'
'How do you know that?'
'Bielke told us during the latest interrogation.' Winter turned to face Ringmar. 'The boy said so as well.'
'There are a lot of villains in this story,' said Ringmar.
'And victims,' said Winter. 'Most of them are victims.'
'Hmm.' 'They're all victims in their different ways,' said Winter. 'That never ends.' He tapped the dashboard. 'Stop a minute.'
Ringmar pulled in to the side of the road and switched off the engine. The silence was more distinct in among the trees and stones and bushes. Winter consulted the map again, as he'd done before they left town, once his pulse rate had fallen a little. He shone the torch down at the floor.
Never End Page 37