Unwanted (6 page)

‘Good,’ said Alex.

Fredrika frowned.

‘I’m not sure I think Arvid Melin stands out as the shady one in all this,’ she said. ‘Can we assume it was a coincidence that Sara missed the train in Flemingsberg? What have we got on the woman who delayed her there?’

Alex put his head on one side.

‘What’s your take on it?’ he asked.

‘It depends how we view the girl’s disappearance. If we think it was planned, and depended on the girl being unsupervised in Stockholm so she’d be easier to snatch, we have to see the woman with the dog as a suspect, too,’ Fredrika replied.

‘True,’ said Alex with some hesitation. ‘But then how did the perpetrator know that the adult who was supposed to keep watch on Lilian would be prevented from doing so?’

‘He didn’t, of course,’ said Fredrika. ‘The perpetrator must naturally have realized that Sara Sebastiansson would leap into action when she missed the train, and contact the crew. But maybe it still seemed less of a problem to take her from someone who didn’t know her than from her mother. Whoever took Lilian might have tried to do it even if Henry Lindgren had been there.’

‘So you think the priority was to get Sara off the train, so what happened in Flemingsberg was no coincidence?’ asked Alex.

‘Exactly,’ said Fredrika.

‘Hmm,’ said Alex.

‘Er,’ said Peder.

Alex gave Peder an encouraging nod.

‘Well, I think it seems a bit far-fetched,’ said Peder with a doubtful expression.

‘What’s the alternative?’ asked Fredrika. ‘It was all pure chance?’

‘Opportunity makes a thief,’ said Peder, like a patient teacher.

Fredrika could not believe what she was hearing, and was about to argue when Alex broke in.

‘Let’s finish the run-through of our findings first, then we can continue this discussion,’ he suggested.

He nodded to Peder to go on.

Peder waited demonstratively for a few seconds for Fredrika to start protesting, but to his disappointment, she did not. Ellen’s mobile stated to ring, however, so she left the room. Referring to his rather sloppy notes, Peder passed on to his colleagues what little other information they had. Nobody had seen what happened in Flemingsberg and nobody had seen Lilian leaving the train.

‘The interviews didn’t produce much,’ said Peder, feeling suddenly sheepish.

Alex shook his head as if to say it didn’t matter.

‘At this juncture, it’s impossible to say what’s important and what’s not,’ he sighed. ‘Fredrika, can you give us Sara’s story and what you’ve got on her ex-husband, please?’

Fredrika liked giving lectures. She spoke clearly and concretely, and in all the other places she had worked, her presentations had been praised. But she suspected that in the police she was considered supercilious and far too formal.

Fredrika briefly gave her own impression of Sara and her account of the events in Flemingsberg. She also explained what the files had turned up, and put forward her theory that Sara’s husband was still a big problem for her.

It was Alex who spoke next, of course.

‘Have you talked to her ex-husband?’ he asked.

‘His name’s Gabriel, and technically they’re still married, so he’s not really her “ex-husband” but her husband,’ Fredrika began. ‘And no, I haven’t managed to get hold of him. He’s got a small house tucked away in a nice part of Östermalm. I got through to his mother just before the start of the meeting, and she said her son was on a business trip. She thought he’d be in Uppsala all day. I tried ringing, but his phone’s turned off. He had to be informed of what’s happened to his daughter, anyway, so I left a voicemail message.’

‘What’s his current situation? Does he live alone?’ asked Alex, jotting something down on his pad.

‘I haven’t had a chance to ask Sara or his mother yet. But I shall look into it, of course.’

Alex pondered in silence. A father who had in all probability abused his ex-wife on numerous occasions, and was perhaps still doing so, was a very interesting person in a missing child investigation. The single most interesting person, in fact. Decades of police work supported that fundamental assumption.

‘What were the custody arrangements?’ he asked Fredrika, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head.

‘What Sara herself told me was that it hadn’t been a matter of dispute between them, but on the phone just now, the husband’s mother expressed concern that her son didn’t get to see Lilian more often. I got the impression that she, the grandmother, was well informed about her son’s daily life. She told me, for example, that the time he rang Sara a hundred times on one evening he was, as the grandmother put it, “beside himself with worry for the girl”. She claimed Sara had taken Lilian off on a short trip without telling Gabriel.’

‘So they
had
argued about the girl, in fact, at least earlier on,’ Alex said slowly. ‘Are there any grounds at all for suspecting that Sara Sebastiansson has been lying, and never was abused and harassed by her husband?’

Fredrika gave an emphatic shake of the head.

‘No,’ she said, with some force. ‘I simply don’t see how that could be possible. Not when the injuries are so well documented.’

‘But isn’t there something fishy about this whole set-up?’ asked Peder, glancing at Alex, who nodded.

‘Yes, there’s something fishy all right. But I can’t quite put my finger on it.’

He looked at Fredrika.

‘Have you spoken to Sara Sebastiansson about the abuse aspect?’

‘No, I didn’t see the reports until I got back here. But I’m going to see her later this evening and I’ll bring it up then.’

A rattling sound filled the silence when Fredrika stopped talking. The ancient air conditioning made a lot of noise considering how little cool air it generated.

‘But even so,’ Peder persisted, with another look of entreaty at Alex. ‘The father’s got to be our hottest lead, if he really is such a bastard as Sara claims, that is.’

Alex saw Fredrika’s face harden at Peder’s insinuation that Sara Sebastiansson might be lying to the police.

‘Definitely,’ he said. ‘Regardless of what Sara herself may think, the father is a main lead in this investigation until we have reason to write him off as uninteresting.’

Fredrika felt relieved, and her shoulders relaxed a little. Alex had often thought how attractive she could be when she smiled and relaxed. Shame she didn’t do it more often, that was all.

‘Right,’ said Alex. ‘You said the girl’s mother had a new man. Is he of any interest?’

‘I haven’t got a definite ID on him yet. He’s called Anders Nyström, and Sara’s known him for such a short time that all she could give me was his year of birth and where he lives. He isn’t recorded as living at the address where Sara went to see him, and his mobile number only traces back to an unregistered pay-as-you-go account. He isn’t answering his mobile and the voicemail isn’t working.’

‘What the hell is that girl doing hanging around with creeps like that? Guys who hit her and guys she hardly knows,’ sighed Peder, slumping in his seat.

Fredrika fixed Peder with a stare but said nothing.

Alex indicated she should go on.

‘When Sara rang him from the platform, they arranged for him to come round this evening, after Lilian was in bed, about nine-thirty. I’ve come up with three possible Anders Nyströms born the same year as Sara’s friend, none of them with criminal records. When I see him at Sara’s tonight, I shall be able to get more details.’

‘You’re seeing him tonight . . . ?’ began Alex uncertainly.

He got no further before Fredrika raised a discreet hand from her place at the table.

Alex suppressed a sigh.

‘Yes?’ he said patiently.

‘The woman with the dog,’ replied Fredrika with equal patience.

‘Yes?’ Alex said again.

Fredrika took a deep breath.

‘How does the woman with the dog fit into the scenario if we assume the father took the girl?’

Alex gave a rather tight-lipped smile.

‘If Lilian’s father took her, then can’t the woman with the dog just be a coincidence?’

He gave Fredrika a searching look and said firmly:

‘We haven’t forgotten the woman in Flemingsberg, Fredrika. But for now we’re prioritizing other information. With good reason.’

Alex surveyed the group again and cleared his throat.

‘I’d like to come round to Sara’s with you,’ he said, nodding in Fredrika’s direction.

Her eyebrows shot up. Peder reacted, too, straightening his back.

‘It’s not that I’m questioning your competence,’ Alex said hurriedly, ‘but wouldn’t it be a good idea for you to share the responsibility for these interviews with someone else? Sara’s new boyfriend could turn out to be a nasty piece of work and I’d feel happier if there were two of us.’

Peder beamed at Alex. Alex thought for a minute he was going to slap him on the back. This investigation would be hard going if the team couldn’t work together.

From Fredrika there was not a word. Nor were any needed – her fixed expression betrayed what she was thinking very plainly.

Ellen interrupted proceedings with a loud knock at the door.

‘Just wanted to say that the switchboard is getting calls from the public already,’ was all she said.

‘Great,’ said Alex, ‘that’s great.’

Soon, if the child did not reappear, he would have to consider calling in assistance from the National Crime Squad to go through all the tip-offs. He brought the meeting to a close.

‘In spite of the shocking nature of the event,’ he said on his way out of the room, ‘I have to say I’ve got quite a good feeling about this case. It’s bound to be only a matter of time until the girl’s found.’

O
nce the parcel was ready, the Man put it in an ordinary paper carrier bag and left Jelena alone in the flat.

‘I’ll be back later,’ he said.

Jelena smiled to herself. She wandered restlessly between the kitchen and the living room. She avoided going anywhere near the bathroom.

The television was on. The news that a child had gone missing from a train was covered in a couple of quick sentences. Jelena found that rather annoying.

Just wait, she thought. You’ll all soon realize this isn’t just some ordinary little bit of news.

She ran her hands nervously through her hair. The man would not have liked her doing that; he would have taken it as a sign that she did not have complete trust in his ability to plan and carry through his project. But still. There was so much at stake, so much that had to go right.

Jelena went out into the kitchen and decided to make a sandwich. She was just opening the fridge door when she saw them on the floor, right under the table. The blood went coursing round her body and her pulse rate rose. Her heart was pounding so hard that she thought it would explode in her chest as she bent down to pick up the little pair of panties from the floor.

‘No, no,’ she whispered in panic. ‘No, no, how could I have done this?’

Her brain was working as if it was on autopilot, doing what had to be done. She must get rid of the panties, at once. The Man’s instructions had been entirely clear. All the clothes were to be in the parcel.
All
of them. Jelena felt so terrified she was on the verge of tears as she screwed the panties into a little ball and put them in an old plastic bag from a supermarket.
Just as long as he doesn’t stop on the way and double check everything’s in the parcel
. She moved at the speed of light as she left the flat and raced down to the rubbish storage room in the basement of the block of flats. The door resisted as usual and was heavy to open. Jelena lifted the lid of one of the rubbish containers and threw in the bag. Her heart felt like a bolting horse as she ran back up to her flat, taking two steps at a time.

The door of the flat slammed shut behind her with a bang, and she fumbled with the lock. She had to take several deep breaths to stop her palpitations turning into a full-scale panic attack. Then she tiptoed over to the bathroom and swallowed quite a few times before she opened the door. Her relief when she switched on the ceiling light was indescribable.

At least everything in the bathroom was as it should be. The girl was still lying naked in the bath where they had left her.

P
eder Rydh flicked distractedly through his little notebook. He could scarcely read what he had written in it. He fanned himself with the book in the close heat of the office and let his thoughts roam free. Life could throw up the most unexpected and nasty surprises. Lilian Sebastiansson had experienced that today, first hand. But Peder took the same view as Alex, expecting the team to solve this particular case with relative ease.

The ringing of his mobile intruded into his thoughts. He smiled when he saw it was his brother calling. Jimmy rang him at least once a day.

‘You listening?’ the voice on the phone asked indignantly after a bit of introductory banter.

‘I’m listening, I’m listening,’ Peder put in hurriedly.

He could hear the silent laughter at the other end, almost like a child’s stifled giggles.