The Preacher (42 page)

‘Solveig rang early this morning.’

‘I thought that you’d … had a falling-out?’ Martin enquired cautiously.

‘Yes, you might call it that. But family is family, I suppose, and when the chips are down then …’ Gabriel let the words die out. ‘Linda is at the hospital. She and Stefan were closer than anyone imagined, it turns out.’ Gabriel gave an odd, bitter little laugh.

‘Have you heard anything more?’ asked Laine.

Gösta shook his head. ‘No, the last we heard was that his condition was unchanged. But Patrik Hedström is on his way to Uddevalla right now, so we’ll see what he says. If anything happens, one way or the other, you’ll hear about it as soon as we do. Linda will probably ring you direct, I mean.’

Martin stood up. ‘Well, I think we have all the information we need.’

‘Do you think the person who tried to kill Stefan was the same one who murdered that German girl?’ Marita’s lower lip quivered slightly. She didn’t need to explain what she was really asking.

‘There’s no reason to believe that,’ said Martin gently. ‘I’m sure that we’ll soon find out what happened. I mean, Stefan and Robert have moved a good deal in rather dubious circles, so it’s more likely we’ll find the assailant there.’

‘What are you doing now to search for Jacob?’ Marita continued stubbornly. ‘Are you sending out search parties in the area, or what?’

‘No, we probably won’t start with that. I honestly think that he’s sitting somewhere and thinking over the … situation. He’ll probably show up at home at any moment. So the best thing you can do is to stay home, and then ring us directly and let us know when he comes home. Okay?’

No one said a word. Martin and Gösta took that to mean that they agreed. There was really not much the police could do as yet. But Martin had to admit that he didn’t feel as confident as he had let on to Jacob’s family. It was an odd coincidence that Jacob would vanish the same evening that his cousin, brother, or whatever they should call Stefan, was attacked.

In the car on the way back to the station Martin told his colleague Gösta what he was thinking. Gösta nodded in agreement. He also had a gut feeling that not everything was as it should be. Strange coincidences happened very rarely in real life; they were not something that a policeman could rely on. They hoped that Patrik could find out something more.

11
SUMMER 2003

She woke up with a pounding headache and a cloying feeling in her mouth. Jenny didn’t know where she was. The last thing she remembered was sitting in a car that had stopped to offer her a lift, and now she had suddenly been flung into some sort of strange, dark reality. At first she wasn’t afraid at all. It felt like a dream, and at any moment she expected to wake up and discover that she was back in her family’s caravan.

After a while the realization slowly sank in that this was not a dream she was going to wake up from. In panic she began to fumble about in the dark. At the far wall she felt wooden boards under her fingers. A staircase. She crawled up the stairs, feeling for each step. With a bang she hit her head. A ceiling stopped her from climbing more than a few steps. Her feeling of claustrophobia became acute. She estimated that she could stand up on the floor, although just barely because the ceiling was very low. Nor had it taken long to feel her way around the walls. The space couldn’t be more than two metres across. Panicking, she knelt at the top of the steps and pressed upwards, feeling the boards give a little. But they were not about to budge. She heard a metallic rattling and guessed that there was probably a padlock on the other side.

After trying a couple more times to push up the hatch, she climbed back down in despair and sat on the earthen floor with her arms wrapped about her knees. The sound of footsteps above her head made her instinctively move as far away as possible.

When the man came down the stairs she pictured his face, although there was no light in the room. She had seen him when he picked her up in the car, and that fact scared her. Jenny could identify him, and she knew what sort of car he drove. That meant he would never let her out of here alive.

She started to scream, but he gently put his hand over her mouth and spoke soothingly. When he was convinced that she wouldn’t scream any more, he took his hand from her mouth and carefully began to undress her. He stroked her limbs with pleasure, almost with love. She heard his breathing grow heavier. She closed her eyes to shut out the thought of what was to come.

Afterwards he apologized. Then the pain began.

alt

The summer traffic was murderous. Patrik’s irritation had grown as the kilometres piled up on the odometer, and when he turned into the car park at Uddevalla Hospital he forced himself to take a few deep breaths to calm down. He didn’t normally get so worked up about caravans taking up the whole road or tourists driving slowly and pointing to everything they saw without caring about the queue of cars forming behind them. But his disappointment over the results of the blood analysis had contributed considerably to lowering his tolerance level.

He had hardly believed his ears. None of the samples matched the DNA in the semen taken from Tanja’s body. He had been so convinced that they would know the identity of the murderer when the results were in that he still hadn’t recovered from the shock. Someone related to Johannes Hult had murdered Tanja, that fact was inescapable. But it wasn’t any of his known relatives.

Impatiently he dialled the number of the station. Annika had started work a little later than usual and he’d been waiting for her to arrive.

‘Hi, it’s Patrik. Pardon me for sounding stressed, but could you see if you can dig up some information ASAP on whether there are any other relatives of the Hult family in the area? I’m wondering mostly if there are any children of Johannes Hult born out of wedlock.’

He heard her writing it down and kept his fingers crossed. It was the last straw he could grasp, and he sincerely hoped that she would find something. If not, all he could do was sit here and scratch his head.

He had to admit that he liked the theory that popped into his head during the drive to Uddevalla. The idea that Johannes might have a son in the area that they didn’t know about. With what they had learned about him, it didn’t seem impossible. In fact it was quite likely, the more he thought about it. It might even be a motive for why Johannes was murdered, thought Patrik without really knowing how he was going to tie up all the loose ends. Jealousy was a superb motive for murder, and the way he’d been killed also fit in well with the theory. An impulsive, unpremeditated murder. An attack of rage and jealousy that ended up with Johannes dead.

But what did that have to do with the murders of Siv and Mona? That was the piece of the puzzle that he couldn’t place yet, but maybe Annika’s findings would help them in that respect too.

He slammed the car door and went towards the front entrance. After a little searching and help from friendly county council employees, he finally found the right department. In the waiting room he found the three people he was looking for. Like birds on a telephone line they were sitting next to each other, without speaking and looking straight ahead. But he saw a glint ignite in Solveig’s eye when she caught sight of him. Slowly she got up and waddled over to meet him. She looked as if she hadn’t slept a wink all night. Her clothes were wrinkled and rank with sweat. Her greasy hair was tangled, and there were dark circles under her eyes. Robert looked equally tired. Only Linda looked alert, with a clear gaze and neat appearance. She was still unaware that her family was breaking apart.

‘Have you caught him?’ Solveig pulled lightly on Patrik’s sleeve.

‘Unfortunately we don’t have any new information. Have you heard anything from the doctors yet?’

Robert shook his head. ‘No, but they’re still in the operating room. There was something about pressure on the brain. I think they’re opening up his whole skull. I’d be surprised if they actually find a brain in there.’

‘Robert!’ Solveig turned angrily and glowered at her son, but Patrik understood what he was trying to do. He wanted to conceal his worry and relieve the pressure by joking about it. It was a method that usually worked for him too.

Patrik sat down in one of the empty chairs. Solveig also sat down.

‘Who would do this to my little boy?’ She rocked back and forth in her chair. ‘I saw how he looked when they carried him out. He looked like a stranger. There was nothing but blood everywhere.’

Linda winced and grimaced. Robert didn’t react. When Patrik looked more closely at his black jeans and sweatshirt, he could see big splotches of Stefan’s blood still on them.

‘You didn’t hear anything last night, or see anything either?’

‘No,’ said Robert, annoyed. ‘We already told that to the other officers. How many times do we have to repeat it?’

‘I beg your pardon, but I have to ask these questions. Bear with me for a moment, please.’

The sympathy in his voice was genuine. It was a hard job to be a cop sometimes, especially on occasions like this when he had to delve into the lives of people who had much more important things to think about. But he received unexpected help from Solveig.

‘Robert, please co-operate. We should do everything we can to help them catch whoever did this to our Stefan, you know that.’ She turned to Patrik.

‘I thought I heard a sound, and a minute later Robert called for me. But we didn’t see anyone, either before or after we found him.’

Patrik nodded. Then he said to Linda, ‘Did you happen to see your brother Jacob last night?’

‘No,’ said Linda in surprise. ‘I was staying over at the manor house. He was at home at Västergården, wasn’t he? Why do you ask?’

‘It seems he never came home last night, so I just thought you might have seen him.’

‘No, as I said, I didn’t. But check with Mamma and Pappa.’

‘We’ve done that. They haven’t seen him, either. Do you happen to know of somewhere else he might be?’

Now Linda was beginning to look nervous. ‘No, where would that be?’ Then an idea seemed to occur to her. ‘Could he have driven to the farm at Bullaren and slept there? Of course he’s never done that before, but …’

Patrik hit his thigh with his fist. It was crazy that they hadn’t thought of Bullaren. He excused himself and went to ring Martin. He would have to drive out there immediately and check it out.

When he returned to the waiting room the mood had changed. While he was talking to Martin, Linda had called home on her mobile. Now she was looking at him with all the defiance of a teenager.

‘What’s going on, anyway? Pappa said that Marita called you and reported Jacob missing, and that those other two cops were out there asking a bunch of questions. Pappa sounded worried as hell.’ She was standing in front of Patrik with her hands on her hips.

‘There’s no reason to worry yet,’ he said, repeating the same mantra that Gösta and Martin had used at the manor. ‘Your brother has probably gone off to be alone for a while, but we have to take all such reports seriously.’

Linda gave him a suspicious look, but seemed to be satisfied. Then she said in a low voice, ‘Pappa also told us about Johannes. When were you planning to tell them about it?’

She tossed her head in the direction of Robert and Solveig. Patrik couldn’t help watching in fascination the arc that her long blonde hair made in the air. Then he reminded himself of her age. He was shocked at the thought that all the upheaval involved in starting a family may have triggered a tendency to lechery in him.

He replied in the same low voice, ‘We’re waiting a bit on that. Now doesn’t seem like a good time, considering Stefan’s situation.’

‘You’re wrong about that,’ said Linda calmly. ‘Right now they could use some positive news. And believe me, I know Stefan well enough to say that the discovery that Johannes didn’t take his own life would be welcome news in this family. So if you’re not going to tell them, I will.’

What a cheeky person. But Patrik was inclined to admit that she was right. He may have already waited too long. They had a right to be told.

He nodded affirmatively to Linda and cleared his throat as he sat down.

‘Solveig, Robert, I know that you had some objections to the fact that we opened Johannes’s grave.’

Robert jumped up like a rocket from his chair. ‘What the hell, are you crazy? Are you going to bring that up now? Don’t we have enough to worry about right now?’

‘Sit down, Robert,’ Linda snapped. ‘I know what he’s going to say and believe me, you’ll want to hear it.’

Shocked that his skinny cousin was giving him orders, Robert sat down and shut up. Patrik continued, as Solveig and Robert glared at him, reminded of the humiliation of seeing Johannes’s coffin raised from the ground.

‘We had a pathologist examine … uh … the body and he found something interesting.’

‘Interesting,’ Solveig snorted. ‘Well, that’s a nice choice of words.’

‘Yes, you’ll have to excuse me, but there’s no good way to say this. Johannes did not take his own life. He was murdered.’

Solveig gasped for breath. Robert sat as if frozen to the spot, unable to move.

‘What did you say?’ Solveig grabbed for Robert’s hand and he let her take it.

‘You heard what I said. Johannes was murdered. He did not take his own life.’

Tears began running from Solveig’s already red-rimmed eyes. Then her entire huge body began to shake, and Linda gave Patrik a triumphant look. They were tears of joy.

‘I knew it,’ Solveig said. ‘I knew that he would never have done anything like that. And all those people who said that he committed suicide because he killed those girls. Now they’ll have to eat their words. The same person who killed the girls must have murdered my Johannes. They’ll have to crawl on their bare knees and beg us for forgiveness. All these years that we’ve – ’

‘Mamma, that’s enough,’ Robert interrupted her, sounding annoyed. It looked as though he hadn’t really grasped what Patrik said. He probably needed the words to sink in.

‘What are you going to do now to catch the person who murdered Johannes?’ Solveig asked eagerly.