Buried Angels (49 page)

Cautiously Laura made her way across the wooden floorboards, which creaked under her weight. She’d begun putting on pounds at a distressing rate over the past few years, and the slender figure in which she’d always taken such pride was now a thing of the past. But why should she make any effort? She was usually alone in her flat, and the bitterness inside her grew with each day that passed.

Rune had not lived up to her expectations. It was true that he’d bought the flat for her, but she regretted not making a better match for her daughter. As beautiful as Inez was, she could have had any man she liked. Rune Elvander was much too tight-fisted, and he made Inez work too hard. She’d become as thin as a rail, and she never had a moment to herself. If she wasn’t cleaning, cooking, or helping Rune deal with the students, she was taking care of his children. The youngest was nice enough, but the two older ones were extremely unpleasant and quite shameless about it.

The steps creaked as Laura crept downstairs. It was a nuisance that her bladder could no longer make it through a whole night. It was especially miserable having to go outside to the privy in this cold. She paused. Someone was moving about on the ground floor of the house. She stopped to listen. The front door opened. Her curiosity was aroused. Who was awake, sneaking about in the night? There was no reason for anyone to go outside unless they were up to no good. Probably one of those spoiled brats involved in some mischief, but she would put a stop to that.

When she heard the door close in the front hall, she hurried down the rest of the stairs and pulled on her boots. She wrapped a warm shawl around her shoulders, opened the front door, and peered outside. It was hard to see anything in the dark, but when she stepped out on the stoop, she saw a shadow disappearing around the side of the house, on the left. This was going to take some subterfuge. She made her way down the steps, moving cautiously in case the frost had made them slippery. At the bottom she turned right instead of left. She would intercept whoever it was by coming from the opposite direction; that way she’d catch them in the act, whatever they were up to.

Slowly she slipped around the corner, keeping close to the wall. At the next corner she paused to see what was happening behind the house. Not a soul in sight. Laura frowned and peered through the darkness, disappointed. Where could they have gone? She tentatively took a few steps forward as she surveyed the property. Down to the beach? It was too risky for her to venture down there, she might stumble and fall. Besides, the doctor had warned her not to do anything strenuous. Her heart was fragile, and she wasn’t supposed to overdo it. Shivering, she pulled the shawl tighter around her shoulders. The cold was starting to seep under her clothes, and her teeth were chattering.

Suddenly a dark figure appeared in front of her, and she jumped. Then she saw who it was.

‘Oh, is that you? What are you doing out here, running around at this hour?’

The cold eyes made her shiver even more. They were as dark as the night. Slowly she began to back away, having realized her mistake. A few more steps. Only a few more and she’d turn the corner and be able to dash for the front of the house and the door. It wasn’t far, but it might as well have been several kilometres. Terrified, she stared into those pitch-black eyes and knew that she would never enter that house again. She was suddenly reminded of Dagmar. The feeling was the same. She was powerless, caught, with no possibility of escape. Inside her chest, she felt something burst.

Patrik glanced at his watch. ‘Where the hell is Gösta? He should have got here first.’ He and Mellberg were waiting in the car, staring at Leon’s house.

At that moment a familiar vehicle pulled up alongside, and Patrik saw to his surprise that Martin was behind the wheel.

‘What are you doing here?’ Patrik said as he got out of the car.

‘Your wife rang and said there was a crisis and you needed my help.’

‘What on earth …?’ Patrik began but then stopped abruptly and pressed his lips together. Damn Erica. Of course she’d managed to dupe Gösta into taking her out to Valö. He was filled with both anger and concern. This was the last thing he needed right now. They had no idea what was happening inside Leon’s house, which was what he needed to focus on at the moment. On the other hand, he was grateful that Martin had turned up. He looked haggard and tired, but in a crisis situation, even an exhausted Martin was better than a Gösta Flygare.

‘So what’s going on here?’ Martin held up a hand to shade his eyes as he studied the house.

‘Gunfire. That’s all we know so far.’

‘Who’s inside?’

‘We don’t know that either.’ Patrik felt his pulse quicken. As a police officer, this was the sort of thing he disliked most. They had too little information to assess the situation properly, and that was when things were most dangerous.

‘Shouldn’t we call for reinforcements?’ said Mellberg from inside the car.

‘No, I don’t think there’s time for that. We’ll go over and ring the bell.’

Mellberg seemed about to protest, but Patrik spoke first.

‘You can stay here, Bertil, and hold down the fort. Martin and I will handle this.’ He turned to Martin, who nodded silently and took his service weapon from its holster.

‘I drove past the station and picked up my gun. I thought I might need it.’

‘Good.’ Patrik took out his gun too, and then they cautiously approached the front door. He pressed the doorbell. The sound echoed inside the house, and then a voice called out:

‘Come in. It’s open.’

Patrik and Martin exchanged a surprised look. Then they went in. When they saw the group assembled in the living room, their surprise was even greater. There sat Leon, Sebastian, Josef, and John, as well as a grey-haired man whom Patrik assumed was Percy von Bahrn. He was holding a gun, and he refused to meet their eyes.

‘What’s going on here?’ Patrik demanded to know. He was holding his service weapon down at his side, and he noticed that Martin was doing the same.

‘Ask Percy,’ said Sebastian.

‘Leon summoned us here to put an end to the whole matter. I thought I’d take him at his word.’ Percy’s voice quavered. When Sebastian shifted position on the sofa, Percy gave a start and pointed the gun at him.

‘Calm down, for Christ’s sake.’ Sebastian held up his hands.

‘Put an end to what?’ asked Patrik.

‘The whole thing. Everything that happened. What should never have happened. What all of us did,’ said Percy. He lowered the gun.

‘What did you do?’

No one answered, so Patrik decided to help them out.

‘During the interviews you all claimed that you’d been out fishing that day. But you can’t catch mackerel at Easter.’

No one spoke. Finally Sebastian said with a snort: ‘Typical city kids, to make a mistake like that.’

‘You didn’t offer any objections back then,’ said Leon. He almost sounded amused.

Sebastian shrugged.

‘Why did your father deposit money in the bank for Ebba while she was growing up?’ Patrik asked Leon. ‘Did you boys call him up on that day? A rich and powerful man with a network of contacts. Did he help you after you murdered the family? What happened? Did Rune go too far? Were you forced to kill the others because they were witnesses?’ Patrik could hear how fierce he sounded, but he wanted to shake them up, get them to talk.

‘Are you satisfied now, Leon?’ jeered Percy. ‘Here’s your chance to put all the cards on the table.’

John Holm jumped to his feet. ‘This is crazy. I refuse to get involved in any of this. I’m leaving.’ He took a step forward, but Percy instantly turned to his right, pointed the gun at John, and pulled the trigger.

‘What are you doing!’ screamed John and sat back down. Patrik and Martin raised their weapons to aim at Percy, but lowered them when he continued to point his pistol at John. It was too risky.

‘Next time you’re the target. That’s one legacy from my father they can’t take away. I used to begrudge the hours he forced me to spend practising my sharp-shooting. But I could shoot off that charming fringe of yours if I wanted to.’ Percy cocked his head to one side and stared at John, whose face had turned ashen.

Only now did it occur to Patrik that the Göteborg police must have gone to John’s house to find him. Most likely they had no idea that he was here.

‘Take it easy, Percy,’ said Martin calmly. ‘We don’t want anyone to get hurt. Nobody’s going anywhere until we’ve settled this.’

‘Was it about Annelie?’ Patrik again turned to Leon. Why was the man hesitating if he really wanted to reveal what happened on that Easter weekend in 1974? Had he suddenly got cold feet? ‘We think that she took her passport and fled abroad after the murders. Because the family were murdered, weren’t they?’

Sebastian started to laugh.

‘What’s so funny?’ asked Martin.

‘Nothing. Absolutely nothing.’

‘Was it your father who helped her disappear? Were you and Annelie sleeping together? Did everything fall apart when Rune found out? How did you get the other boys to help you and then keep quiet all these years?’ Patrik motioned towards the group of middle-aged men. In his mind he saw the pictures of them that were taken after the disappearance. Their defiant expressions. Leon’s natural air of authority. In spite of their greying hair and ageing faces, they were very much the same as back then. And they were still sticking together.

‘Sure, tell them about Annelie.’ Sebastian grinned. ‘Since you’re so keen on telling the truth. Tell them about Annelie.’

Patrik had a sudden flash of insight.

‘I’ve already met Annelie, haven’t I? It’s Ia.’

No one said a word. They all turned to Leon with a mixture of fear and relief on their faces.

Leon slowly stretched his arms as he sat in his wheelchair. Then he turned towards Patrik so that the sun shone on the scarred side of his face, and said:

‘I’ll tell you about Annelie. And about Rune, Inez, Claes, and Johan.’

‘Stop and think about what you’re doing, Leon,’ said John.

‘I’ve already thought it through. It’s time.’

He took a deep breath, but before he could say another word, the front door opened. And there stood Ia. She looked from one to the other, and then her eyes opened wide when she saw the gun in Percy’s hand. For a moment she seemed to hesitate. Then she went over to her husband, put her hand on his shoulder, and said gently:

‘You’re right. It’s impossible to keep running away.’

Leon nodded. Then he began to tell the story.

Anna was more worried about Ebba than about herself. Ebba’s face was pale, and her neck was a fiery red with what looked like the marks from someone’s hands. Tobias’s hands. Anna’s own neck did not feel tender. Had he drugged her? She didn’t know, and that was the most frightening thing of all. She had fallen asleep in his arms, flushed with the feeling of acceptance and closeness, only to wake up here, lying on this cold stone floor.

‘My mother is in there,’ said Ebba, peering inside one of the chests.

‘You can’t be sure of that.’

‘Only one of the skulls has long hair. It has to be my mother.’

‘It could be your sister,’ said Anna. She considered closing the lid, but Ebba had been wondering about her family for so long, and the contents of the chests provided some of the answers.

‘What is this place?’ asked Ebba as she continued to stare at the skeletons.

‘I think it’s some kind of air-raid shelter. And judging by the flag and uniforms, it must have been built during the Second World War.’

‘It’s so strange to think of them lying here all this time. Why didn’t anyone ever find them?’

Ebba was starting to sound more and more preoccupied, and Anna realized that she would have to take charge if they were going to get out of here.

‘We need to find something to prise open the door,’ said Anna, giving Ebba a small shove. ‘Why don’t you have a rummage through the rubbish over there in the corner, and I’ll …’ She hesitated. ‘I’ll search the chests.’

Ebba gave her a horrified stare. ‘But what if … what if they fall apart?’

‘If we don’t get the door open, we’re going to die here,’ said Anna calmly. ‘There might be some tools in one of the chests. Either you have to do it, or I will. Take your pick.’

For a moment Ebba didn’t move as she thought about what Anna had just said. Then she turned away and began rummaging through the rubbish heap. Anna didn’t really think she’d find anything, but it would be good for Ebba to keep busy.

She took a deep breath and stuck her hand inside one of the chests. She felt sick to her stomach as she touched the bones. Dry, brittle hair tickled her skin, and she couldn’t help letting out a shriek.

‘What is it?’ Ebba turned in alarm.

‘Nothing,’ said Anna. Then she steeled herself and continued her search. Her fingers scraped the wooden bottom of the chest, and she leaned forward to see if there was anything else down there. Suddenly she felt something hard, and she grabbed it between her index finger and thumb. It felt too small to be of much use, but she lifted it out all the same, to see what she’d found. A tooth. With a murmur of disgust, she dropped it back inside and wiped her hand on the blanket wrapped around her.