Midnight In Malmö: The Fourth Inspector Anita Sundström Mystery (The Malmö Mysteries Book 4) (26 page)

‘I can’t believe where we are,’ he said with obvious excitement, which Anita found difficult to share. ‘Do you know, it’s been very strange since we arrived yesterday, but whenever I see people over… say… eighty, I can’t help thinking that they might have been in the Hitler Youth or Nazi sympathizers, brainwashed into adoring the Fuhrer. A bit weird. It’s probably a British thing.’

‘I noticed the obsession when I lived in England as a youngster.’

‘Exactly. We were brought up with war films and documentaries. My dad remembered the sound of the bombers coming over and the night ablaze with the lights of the anti-aircraft guns and the red flames from buildings in London. His family lived near Brentford in those days. Brentford itself was hit a lot at the time of the Blitz. We weren’t occupied, but it left an indelible mark on the British psyche. We still hate the Germans when we play them at football.’

‘Isn’t that because they keep beating you?’

‘Not in 1966!’

Anita scooped up the crumbs from her cupcake with her finger. It had been delicious; nice and light, which was a surprise because the café was more like a works canteen.

‘Isn’t it time the British moved on?’

‘That’s easy for you to say. Your lot weren’t in the war.’

Anita could feel an argument brewing. She had had this a couple of times during her year seconded to the Met, when colleagues had taken the mickey out of the Swedes for their lack of involvement. She knew her country’s reasons, but they seemed less valid now after what she had just seen and read.

‘The Germans appear to have come to terms with their past. They seem upfront about everything if this is anything to go by.’

Kevin’s mouth was still half-full of cake when he pronounced: ‘I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve seen a bit more of Berlin.’

‘I just hope your daughters’ generation is more forgiving.’

He suddenly laughed. ‘My daughters have no clue about the war. They probably think Hitler’s first name was “Heil”.’

‘Surely not,’ said Anita in all seriousness.

‘Maybe not,’ he conceded. ‘Might be being a bit harsh there. They’re lovely girls, but Abigail and Hazel live in a different world to mine or yours. Like Lasse, I suppose.’

‘I’m sorry, Kevin. I’ve been so absorbed with this Rylander business, I haven’t even asked you about your girls.’

Kevin drained the last of his coffee. ‘They’re good. Abigail’s twenty-first is coming up next month. My ex is generously allowing me to pay for the night out.’

‘But you’re going?’

‘I’ll put in an appearance. Abigail wants to have a few drinks at her mum’s place and then go off with her mates clubbing in Newcastle. I’ll have to meet Leanne’s new bloke. Works in advertising, apparently, so he’s probably a dick. And Abigail’s boyfriend will be there too. Darren isn’t going to become a member of Mensa any day soon, but he’s all right. They met at work in the council offices In South Shields. That’s the other side of the Tyne from—’

‘North Shields.’

Kevin grinned. ‘Of course, that’s where we first… you know.’

‘I think that was one to forget.’

He toyed with his coffee cup, still with an amused look on his face. ‘Anyway, they live in a flat down there. She gave up a hairdressing course when she realized she would never earn enough to go out all the time. As for Hazel, she’s getting on for eighteen now. Doing ‘A’ levels at Newcastle College. Might even be the first one in our family to go to university. Still lives at home, but she’s got a sensible head on her shoulders. She comes over to see me from time to time for the weekend. Likes the countryside and getting out. Her big sister is too like Leanne for comfort. Abigail took one look at Penrith and decided it was the most boring place on earth because it didn’t have the nightlife you get in Newcastle; and she hasn’t been back since.’

‘It must be hard not seeing them that much.’

‘They could be at the other end of the country. Or abroad.’

‘I’m lucky to have Lasse in the same city, even though I don’t see that much of him since he moved in with Jazmin.’

‘Feisty girl. I wouldn’t like to get the wrong side of her.’ Anita nodded in cheerful agreement. ‘Anyway, I hope you’ll meet the girls sometime. I’m sure they’ll like you, if Leanne doesn’t poison their minds first. It’s all right for her to have lots of men but, strangely, she’s not keen on me moving on.’

‘And I think we should be moving on,’ Anita said decisively. She stood up before Kevin launched into a tirade about his ex-wife. ‘You’re the tour guide. Where next?’

‘We’d like you to accompany us to headquarters,’ said Wallen firmly, Hakim standing rigidly at her side.

Markus Asplund stood wavering at the end of the platform. He could see that the two officers weren’t going to budge. His eyes suddenly lost the usual brightness that shone out of the glossy photos of him in the Malasp Travel advertisements. The haunted expression showed Wallen and Hakim that their number-one suspect had been expecting this.

‘Here it is.’

Kevin and Anita stood on the pavement, gazing at a long block of apartments with shops and offices underneath, made up of prefabricated concrete panels, only broken up visually by some low trees and straggling bushes. Even by GDR standards, the blocks were dreary, yet, according to the various information boards dotted all along Wilhelmstrasse, this was where some of Germany’s most historically important buildings once stood: a street of palaces that had gradually morphed into offices of state. The one they were looking at now was the site of the Foreign Ministry. To the left had been the Reich Chancellery and to the right, the Presidential Palace; behind them was the office of Hitler’s Deputy, Rudolph Hess, and the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda run by Joseph Goebbels.

‘To think, nearly a hundred years ago, the people in there,’ said Kevin pointing towards the apartments, ‘were planning to surreptitiously whisk Lenin across Europe and let him loose on Russia and change the world forever. Yet without Oscar Rylander’s intervention, he might never have made it. Think of what might have happened… no Bolshevik takeover. There might not have been the spread of communism. Hitler might never have happened, but if he had, there wouldn’t have been an implacable communist enemy like Stalin to help swing the war, and we might all be part of the thousand-year Reich right now.’

They moved off slowly along the street in the direction of Unter den Linden.

‘More to the point,’ said Anita with some exasperation, ‘what effect did Oscar’s story have on his young son? We know that, in retrospect, Oscar was ashamed of what he did. In the light of that story, it’s given credence to what everybody in Sweden saw as Albin’s anti-communist stance.’

‘But maybe that was all a front. I once saw a TV programme about Kim Philby and Guy Burgess. They were famous communist spies who joined an organization called the Anglo-German Fellowship. It was a pro-Hitler group in Britain before the war, made up of aristocracy, politicians and businessmen. This was a way that the future traitors used to publicly show that they were right-wing and disguise their communist affiliations. It certainly worked for them. What if Rylander was doing the same? He doth protest too much… and all that. He had the opportunity when he worked here between 1972 and 1974.’

They turned off Wilhelmstrasse before they reached the new British Embassy at the top of the street. Outside the embassy the road was cordoned off to traffic to stop bombers driving up and attacking the building. They were now in Behrenstrasse, which housed the American Embassy.

‘But if he
was
working for the Soviets, I don’t understand how that can be so important now.’ Kevin shrugged. ‘It’s all just history.’

‘Well, that’s something I do know about, being Swedish,’ Anita responded. ‘During the Cold War, we were neutral.’ She added, ‘Of course,’ before Kevin had time to say it. ‘It was a delicate situation because we were physically close to the Soviet Union. That’s why we didn’t fight in the Second World War: because of the fear of communism and Russian invasion. After the war, Moscow had to believe that Sweden was credibly neutral. And to the Americans, we had to keep alive the notion that we were a neutral country, but on their side. That’s why we’ve never joined NATO. It was a constant balancing act. In many ways, things still haven’t changed. We’re still pulled between Obama’s America and Putin’s Russia.’

Kevin nodded. ‘So, if a very senior Swedish diplomat was spying for the Soviets in the heart of Washington, that would be incredibly embarrassing for the Swedish government even now. Treasonous, of course, but is it reason enough to kill him in order to keep him quiet? Were his revelations going to expose someone who is still alive?’

They had had to wait an hour for Markus Asplund’s lawyer to turn up. On his arrival, they moved into the interrogation room. While Asplund appeared calm, even relaxed, Wallen was nervous, as she hadn’t conducted such an important interview before, though she had sat in on a few. Usually, these had been carried out by the late Henrik Nordlund or Westermark or Anita Sundström. Part of her tenseness was down to the fact that Hakim was sitting in with her. She knew how close he was to Anita. Would he be judging her against his friend? Would he report back to Anita about how she was doing? Would they end up laughing at her behind her back? But Hakim gave her an encouraging nod, and she started: Asplund gave his name and address for the benefit of the recording.

‘First of all, could you confirm your movements on the evening of Tuesday, the third of June? That was the night that Julia Akerman was murdered in Pildammsparken.’

‘As I’ve already told you, I was in my apartment at Östra Rönneholmsvägen.’

‘And you skyped your wife and son for twenty-three minutes that night?’

‘As I’ve mentioned. I have fully cooperated,’ he said with a nod to his solicitor.

‘Which still leaves you without an alibi. But we’ll leave that for the time being. Now, when we visited you last Thursday, we asked you if you knew the victim, Julia Akerman. You denied all knowledge.’ Wallen was warming to the task.

‘That’s correct,’ he answered confidently.

‘What about Ebba Pozorski?’

For a second, Markus Asplund’s composure was ruffled, and he didn’t answer. The moment soon passed.

‘I believe we had someone of that name briefly working for the company some years ago. I’ve had quite a staff turnover as the business has expanded.’

Wallen turned to Hakim, who spoke next: ‘According to her tax records, Ebba Pozorski was with you for five years. Between 2003 and 2008. She was a sales representative. Do you remember her?’

‘I’ve had lots of them working for me over the years. The name rings a bell, but I don’t keep track of those that leave.’

‘Not even the attractive ones?’ This was Wallen.

‘I think that’s a totally inappropriate comment to make,’ put in Asplund’s solicitor.

‘I only mention it because we have matched your client’s DNA with that of a sample of semen found in the body of the victim. He appears to have had anal sex with Ebba Pozorski shortly before she was stabbed to death. How would your client like to explain that?’

They moved along Behrenstrasse as far as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. To Anita, this was an extraordinarily sombre site, even in the sunshine, as she viewed row after row of concrete blocks laid out linearly over undulating ground.

‘It’s like a faceless cemetery,’ Anita said thoughtfully.

‘Maybe that’s what it’s meant to be. I’m going to have a wander in. Coming?’

Anita shook her head. She had no idea why she didn’t want to enter the labyrinth of concrete, but something held her back. She watched Kevin disappear between the rows of blocks, among which crowds of visitors, particularly parties of school children, were walking and contemplating and playing and shouting. For a weird moment, it felt as though the memorial was being desecrated by all this activity, yet she reflected that maybe that was the point. Possibly the best way of remembering the millions who had died was to fill it with the living: those with futures in a better world than the one experienced by those who had been murdered. Suddenly, she was aware that Kevin, standing a few blocks in, was waving to her to join him. When she showed reluctance, his hand gesture became more frantic. What was the matter? It was probably him just being silly, and there’d be some joke at the end of it. She entered into the grid and found that he wasn’t where she thought he’d been standing. She called out his name and moved further through the memorial, stepping down a gradient. A noisy group of kids appeared to her left, and she let them through.

‘Anita!’ It came in a loud whisper.

This was pathetic. She wasn’t in the mood for games. Then she noticed him up a slope to the right.

‘What the f—’

He shushed her, finger to his lips. He did a double shake of his head to motion her to join him.

She was about to get cross with him when she registered his expression. This wasn’t a game.

‘You were being watched.’

‘What?’

‘I could see from in here that you were being observed.’

‘An admirer?’

‘If it had been, I would have come out and smashed his face in. It’s more serious than that.’

‘You recognized someone?’

‘Yes. It was Benno Källström.’

She looked at him in disbelief. ‘Surely not! Mind you, I wouldn’t have recognized him. Didn’t even see him at the beach house.’

‘I did. So what’s he doing in Berlin?’

‘I would appreciate it if I could have a few words with my client alone.’ Wallen and Hakim glanced at each other and left the room in silence.

Out in the corridor, they saw Brodd coming towards them with Asplund’s mobile phone in his hand.

‘Well?’ asked Wallen.

‘He’s made fifteen calls to Axel Isaksson since the sixth; three days after the murder. And received ten.’

‘What about before?’ asked Hakim.

‘Nothing. No contact; then suddenly, mad activity.’

‘Good,’ said Wallen holding out her hand to take the phone off Brodd. ‘That’ll help us in there. Sounds as though Moberg might be right and that they’re in this together. Go and tell the chief inspector what you’ve found out.’