Man On The Balcony (7 page)

They told Martin Beck how they had stumbled on the girl while playing in the park. They had recognized her at once, as she lived in the same apartment house as they did. Earlier in the day they had seen her in the playground behind the house where they lived. She had been skipping together with two girls of her own age. As one of them was in the same class as the boys, they could tell Martin Beck that her name was Lena Oskarsson, that she was ten years old and lived next door.

The next apartment block looked exactly like the one the boys lived in. He took the swift automatic elevator to the seventh floor and rang the doorbell. After a while the door was opened and then shut again immediately. He had not seen anyone through the crack of the door. He rang the bell a second time. The door was opened at once and he now realized why he had not seen anyone the first time. The boy standing inside looked about three years old and his flaxen-colored head was about a yard below the level of Martin Beck's eyes.

The lad let go the door handle and said in a high-pitched, clear voice:

'Hi, good afternoon."

Then he ran into the apartment and Martin Beck heard him call:

'Mommy! Mommy! Big man come."

About half a minute passed before his mother came to the door. She looked anxiously and questioningly at Martin Beck and he hastened to show his identity disk.

'I'd like a word with your daughter if she's at home," he said. "Does she know what has happened?"

'To Annika? Yes, we heard just now from a neighbor. It's horrible. How can such a thing happen in broad daylight? But come in. I'll get Lena."

Martin Beck followed Mrs. Oskarsson into the living room. Apart from the furniture, it was identical with the room he had just left. The little boy was standing in the middle of the floor, looking at him with expectant curiosity. He was holding a toy guitar.

'Go into your room and play, Bosse," his mother said.

Bosse took no notice, and she didn't seem to expect him to.

She went over and moved some toys off the sofa by the balcony window.

'It's rather untidy here," she said. "Won't you sit down, and I'll get Lena."

She left the room and Martin Beck smiled at the little boy. His own children were twelve and fifteen and he had forgotten how to make conversation with three-year-olds.

'Can you play that guitar?" he asked.

'Not lay," the boy said. "You lay."

'No, I can't play."

'Yes, you lay," the boy persisted.

Mrs. Oskarsson came in, picked up the boy and the guitar and carried him firmly out of the room. He screamed and kicked and his mother said over her shoulder:

'll1 be back in a minute. You can be talking to Lena."

The boys had said that Lena was ten years old. She was tall for her age and rather pretty, despite a slight pout. She was dressed in jeans and a cotton shirt and she bobbed shyly.

'Sit down," Martin Beck said. "We can talk better then."

She sat on the edge of one of the armchairs with her knees pressed together.

'Your name's Lena, isn't it," he said.

'Yes."

'And mine's Martin. You know what has happened?"

'Yes," the girl said, staring at the floor. "I heard… Mom told me."

'I know you must be upset, but I have to ask you one or two things."

'Yes."

'You were together with Annika earlier today, weren't you?"

'Yes, we played together. Ulla and Annika and I."

'Where did you play?"

She nodded towards the window.

'First in the yard down here. Then Ulla had to go home for lunch, so Annika and I came home here. Then Ulla called for us and we went out again."

'Where to?"

'To Tanto Park. I had to take Bosse with me and there are swings there and he likes that."

'Do you know what the tune was then?"

'Oh, half past one, getting on for two maybe. Mom might know."

'So then you went to Tanto Park. Did you see if Annika met anyone there? If a man spoke to her or anything?"

'No, I didn't see her talking to anyone."

'What did you do in Tanto Park?"

The girl stared out of the window for a while. She seemed to be thinking back.

'Let me see… we played. First we were on the swings because Bosse wanted it. Then we did some skipping. Then we went down to the stand and bought an ice cream."

'Were there any other children in the park?"

'Not just where we were. Oh yes, there were some small children in the sandpit. Bosse went and worried them. But they went away after a while with their mother."

'What did you do when you'd bought the ice cream?" Martin Beck asked.

From another room he heard Mrs. Oskarsson's voice and the boy's scream of rage.

'We just walked about. Then Annika got the sulks."

'Got the sulks? Why?"

'Oh, she just did. Ulla and I wanted to play hopscotch, but she didn't. She wanted to play hide-and-seek, but it's no good when Bosse's there. He runs about telling everyone where you've hidden. So she got cross and went off."

'Where to? Did she say where she was going?"

'No, she didn't say. She just went off, and Ulla and I were drawing the squares for the hopscotch so we didn't see when she left."

'You didn't see which way she went?"

'No, we never gave it a thought. We played hopscotch and after a while I noticed that Bosse had disappeared and then we saw that Annika had gone too."

'Did you go and look for Bosse?"

The girl looked down at her hands and it was some moments before she answered.

'No. I thought he was with Annika. He's always running after Annika. She has… she had no small brothers or sisters of her own and was awfully nice to Bosse, always."

'What happened then? Did Bosse come back?"

'Yes, after a while he came back. I suppose he'd been somewhere close by although we didn't see him."

Martin Beck nodded. He wanted to light a cigarette but saw no ashtrays in the room and refrained.

'Where do you think Annika was then? Did Bosse say anything about where he had gone?"

The girl shook her head and a lock of fair hair fell down over her forehead.

'No, we just thought she'd gone home. We didn't ask Bosse and he said nothing. Then he got so naughty that we came home."

'Do you know what the time was when Annika disappeared from the playground?"

'No, I had no watch. But it was three o'clock when we got home. And we didn't play hopscotch for long. Half an hour or so."

'Didn't you see anyone else in the park?"

Lena pushed back her hair and frowned.

'We never thought about it. At any rate I didn't. Yes, there was a lady there with her dog for a while. A dachshund. Bosse wanted to pat it so I had to go and get him."

She looked gravely at Martin Beck.

'He's not to pat dogs, it's dangerous."

'You didn't notice anyone else in the park? Think back now, perhaps you can remember someone?"

She shook her head.

'No. We were playing and I had to keep an eye on Bosse, so I never thought about who was in the park. I suppose some people walked past, but I don't know."

There was silence now in the room next door and Mrs. Oskarsson came back. Martin Beck got up.

'Would you mind giving me Ulla's name and address?" he said to the girl. "Then I'll go, but I may have to talk to you again. If you happen to think of anything that happened or anything you saw in the park, will you ask your mother to call me?"

He turned to Mrs. Oskarsson.

'It might be some detail that seems unimportant," he said. "But I'd be glad if you'd call me in case she remembers anything more."

He gave her his card, and she wrote down the third girl's name, address and telephone number on a slip of paper and handed it to him.

Then he went back to Tanto Park.

The men from the technical division were still working in the hollow below the open-air theater. The sun was low in the sky and cast long shadows across the grass. Martin Beck stayed until the dead girl had been taken away. Then he drove back to police headquarters at Kungsholmsgatan.

'And he took the girl's pants with him this time too," Gunvald Larsson said.

'Yes," Martin Beck said. "White. Size 6."

'The bastard," Larsson said.

Poking at his ear with a pen he said:

'And what did your four-legged friends think of the case?"

Martin Beck looked at him with disapproval.

'What are we to do with this man Eriksson?" Rönn asked.

'Let him go," Martin Beck said.

After a few seconds he added:

'But not too far."

ON THE MORNING of Tuesday the thirteenth of June the situation was reviewed; the results of the investigation so far were anything but hopeful. The same could be said of the short statement released to the press. The areas around the scenes of the two crimes had been photographed from a helicopter; about a thousand tips had been received from the public and were now being followed up; all exhibitionists, Peeping Toms and other sexual deviates known to the police were being checked up on; one person had been detained and questioned about his doings at the time of the first crime; this person had now been set free.

Everyone seemed worn out from lack of sleep and overwork, even the journalists and photographers.

After the review Kollberg said to Martin Beck:

'There are two witnesses."

Martin Beck nodded. They both went into the office where Gunvald Larsson and Melander were working.

'There are two witnesses," Martin Beck said.

Melander didn't even look up from his papers but Larsson said:

'Hell, you don't say. And who would they be?"

'First, the boy in Tanto Park."

'Who is three years old?"

'Exactly."

'The girls in the vice squad have tried to talk to him, you know that as well as I do. He can't even talk. It's just about as clever as when you told me to question the dog."

Martin Beck ignored both the remark and the astonished look that Kollberg gave him.

'And secondly?" Melander asked, still without looking up.

'The mugger."

'He's my department," Gunvald Larsson said.

'Exactly. Get him."

Gunvald Larsson heaved himself back so that the swivel chair creaked. He stared from Martin Beck to Kollberg and said:

'Look here. What do you think I've been doing for three weeks, I and the protection squads of fifth and ninth? Playing Chinese checkers? Are you insinuating that we haven't tried?"

'You've tried all right. Now the position has changed. Now you must get him."

'And how the hell are we to do that? Now?"

'The mugger knows his job," Martin Beck said. "You said so yourself. Has he at any time attacked anyone who didn't have money?"

'No."

'Has he at any time gone for anyone who could defend himself?" Kollberg asked.

'No."

'Have the boys in the protection squad ever been anywhere near?" Martin Beck asked.

'No."

'And what can be the reason?" Kollberg asked again.

Gunvald Larsson did not answer at once. He poked his ear for a long time with the ball-point pen before saying:

'He knows his job."

'That's what you said."

Gunvald Larsson pondered again for a time. Then he asked:

'When you were up here ten days ago you started to say something but changed your mind. Why?"

'Because you interrupted me."

'What were you going to say?"

'That we ought to study the timetable for the robberies," Melander said, still without looking up. "The systematics. We've already done so."

'One more thing," Martin Beck said. "The same as Lennart here implied just now. The mugger is a skilled workman and knows his job, your own conclusion. He's so good at it that he recognizes the men in the protection squads. Perhaps even the cars."

'So what?" Gunvald Larsson said. "Do you mean we should change the whole goddam police force just because of this louse?"

'You could have got in men from outside," Kollberg said. "Policewomen as well. Other cars."

'It's too late now anyway," Larsson said.

'Yes," Martin Beck agreed. "It's too late now. On the other hand it's twice as urgent for us to get him."

'That guy's not even going to look at a park so long as the murderer goes free," Gunvald Larsson said.

'Exactly. At what time was the last robbery -committed?"

'Between nine and a quarter past."

'And the murder?"

'Between seven and eight. Look here, why do you stand there asking about things we all know?"

'Sorry. Perhaps I wanted to convince myself."

'What of?"

'Of the fact that the mugger saw the girl," Kollberg said. "And the man who killed her. The mugger wasn't the sort of guy to act haphazardly. Presumably he had to hang about the park for hours every time before he got his chance. Otherwise he had fantastic luck."

'Such luck doesn't exist," Melander said. "Not nine times in succession. Five perhaps. Or six."

'Get him," Martin Beck said.

'Appeal to his sense of justice, eh? So that he gives himself up?"

'Even that is possible."

'Yes," Melander said, speaking on the phone.

He listened for a moment and said:

'Send a radio patrol."

'Was it anything?" Kollberg asked.

'No," Melander said.

'Sense of justice," Gunvald Larsson said, shaking his head. "Your naive faith in the underworld is really… humph, words fail me."

'Just at the moment I don't give a damn what fails you," Martin Beck said heatedly. "Get that guy."

'Use the stoolies," Kollberg said.

'Do you think I don't…" Gunvald Larsson began, but was himself interrupted for once.

'Wherever he is," Martin Beck said. "Whether he's in the Canary Islands or is lying low in a junkie's pad on the south side. Use the stoolies, and do so much more than before. Use every single contact we have in the underworld, use the newspapers and the radio and the television. Threaten, bribe, coax, promise, do anything at all, but get that guy."

'Do you think I haven't the sense to grasp that myself?"