Mons Kallentoft - Autumn Killing

The others look as tired as me, Malin thinks as she looks around at the detectives who have gathered for the first meeting of the week in the preliminary investigation into the murder of Jerry Petersson.

The time is 8.30.

Johan Jakobsson has dark rings under his eyes. Waldemar Ekenberg is ragged from smoking, Lovisa Segerberg looks as if she slept badly in her hotel; they probably have lousy beds in the Hotel du Nord down by the station. Sven Sjoman is the only one who looks alert. Karim Akbar is sitting listlessly at the end of the table, but his shiny grey wool suit is as well pressed as usual, and the pinkish-red tie has been chosen with care.

Silence has descended on the room. The sort of silence that can occur in a room full of detectives searching their minds for a sense of where to go next, waiting for something that is hidden to reveal itself before their eyes.

They’ve been through the Fagelsjos’ lies about their finances, that Fredrik Fagelsjo had lost money on bad investments and had to sell up. And that they had come into an inheritance and tried to buy the estate back, but that Petersson had turned down the offer, in spite of it being a good deal. That Axel Fagelsjo had refused to let Malin and Zeke in, but that Katarina had spoken to them, and that Fredrik had spoken openly and admitted that he had gone out to see Petersson the evening before the murder, but claimed that nothing had happened apart from him confronting Petersson and demanding to be allowed to buy the castle back.

‘If he was there the previous evening, he can’t have killed Petersson then, Karin’s reports says he died in the early hours of the morning and that the blow to the head killed him outright,’ Sven said. ‘From what we know about Petersson’s last twenty-four hours, he doesn’t seem to have met anyone apart from Fredrik Fagelsjo. He only made one call on his mobile, and that turned out to be to his cleaner. A Filipino woman with a solid alibi, and who hadn’t been there for a week.’

‘If Fredrik did kill him,’ Malin said, ‘then he must have gone back the next morning. But his wife has given him an alibi. But we’ve got no way of knowing, that could just be a married couple’s alibi.’

‘And the Filipino cleaner?’ Waldemar asked. ‘Could she have any crazy relatives?’

‘Aronsson’s spoken to her,’ Sven said. ‘She’s clean as a whistle. Anyway, if that were the case, surely he’d have been robbed?’

Then they went through the rest of the case, but there wasn’t much new to report.

‘We’ve checked Petersson’s emails,’ Johan said. ‘And we received the log of telephone calls from Telia late yesterday. Both his mobile and landline. But we haven’t found anything unusual there, apart from the two calls from a phone-box out at Ikea.’

‘Is that so unusual?’ Karim asked.

‘No, but they’re the only calls where we don’t know who made them, and of course pretty much everyone has a mobile these days.’

‘Which phone-box was it?’

‘One out in the car park,’ Johan replied.

‘Is it covered by any of the security cameras?’

‘I’m afraid not, I checked. There’s no camera there. And the calls were made several months ago, so there’s next to no chance of finding any witnesses.’

Karim breaks the silence that has followed the run-through: ‘Any tip-offs from the public?’

‘It’s been remarkably quiet,’ Sven says. ‘I thought we’d get loads of calls about the things Petersson got up to, but maybe he was just the sort who left satisfied customers and people behind.’

‘Do people like that actually exist?’ Zeke asks.

‘No,’ Waldemar says.

‘And we haven’t found the murder weapon,’ Sven says.

‘Where do we go from here?’ Karim asks.

‘Well, the team in Hades will keep digging, trying to find out why the company Jochen Goldman and Petersson ran between them wasn’t more profitable,’ Sven says. ‘Malin and Zeke can try to talk to Axel Fagelsjo. Bring him in for questioning if he makes a fuss. After all, it isn’t that incredible that someone in that family killed Petersson so they could buy back the castle from his estate.’

‘Do you think they could have paid someone to do it?’ Malin asks.

‘Unlikely,’ Sven says. ‘But that did occur to me, even if there’s no evidence to suggest it.’

Malin nods.

‘Petersson’s father stands to inherit everything,’ she goes on. ‘Unless some unknown child or a wife pops up abroad.’

‘People have been killed for less,’ Waldemar says, and in his voice Malin can hear a longing, but she can’t grab hold of the feeling lurking at the back of Waldemar’s wishes.

Just as well, she thinks, looking at his bruise, which has turned orange and yellow around the edges, like an autumn leaf.

Sven picks up the phone on the third ring.

Number unknown on the display, yet the call has come straight through to his phone, bypassing reception.

The open-plan office is noisy now. The morning calm has gone, and the place stinks of coffee.

Police officers in uniform and plain clothes hurrying back and forth, talking into headsets, looking busy, stressed.

‘Sjoman.’

‘Sven Sjoman?’

‘Yes.’

‘Yes, hello. This is Peter Svenungsson from Interpol up in Stockholm.’

‘Hello.’

‘I read on the Net about Jerry Petersson, that he’s been murdered.’

‘That’s right. A couple of men found him in the moat of the castle where he lived when they were about to go hunting.’

‘I’ve got something that might interest you.’

‘Go ahead. We’re grateful for any information.’

‘I’m sure you know that Petersson was Jochen Goldman’s lawyer while he was on the run. We only ever came close to catching Goldman once, we got a tip-off that he was in Verbier in Switzerland. The coffee was pretty much still warm in the pot when the local gendarmes got there, but he managed to get away again.’

‘And?’

‘Petersson gave us the tip-off. He called and told us where Goldman was.’

Sven can feel his heart skip a few beats.

‘Bloody hell.’

‘He didn’t give an explanation, and he was aware he was breaking his oath of confidentiality, but we promised he would stay anonymous.’

‘Thanks,’ Sven says. ‘Great. When did this happen?’

‘Three years ago this autumn. I remember it well. It was just before Goldman’s second book came out. If you want my opinion, I think you should check Jochen Goldman bloody carefully. If anything of that sort’s actually possible with that slippery bastard. He’s probably capable of waiting years for revenge until the right opportunity arises. And of course we all know the rumours about what he’s capable of.’

Sven is sitting on the edge of Zeke’s desk, pushed up against Malin’s.

‘So you think Goldman might have found out that Petersson gave him away, and he wanted revenge?’ Malin says, thinking that Sven seems to want to say something else, but won’t let it out.

‘That could fit,’ Zeke says.

Sven nods.

‘Goldman isn’t the sort to move on stoically and forget a betrayal. Don’t you think?’

Tenerife, Malin thinks. And sees her mum and dad on their balcony. Cardboard cut-outs, figures in an advertising brochure selling a happy retirement.

Sun, heat.

No clouds, no frost, no darkness, rain or hail.

Just light.

Just a beaming, wonderfully carefree life of the righteous. As the evangelical bastards who rented her flat might have put it.

Sven has left Malin and Zeke alone at their desks.

‘We need to have another word with Goldman again,’ Malin says. ‘Confront him. See what he says.’

‘Call him,’ Zeke says.

Malin dials the number. The phone rings ten times, no answer.

She shakes her head.

‘He could have sent someone,’ Zeke says. ‘We need to find out if any known hitmen have been active.’

‘The book,’ Malin says. ‘Didn’t Segerberg say in the meeting that Goldman’s book had sold badly? Worse than expected? And if they were partners in the business, they would have shared the profits.’

‘So you think Petersson wanted to shop Goldman to create a bit of a buzz about the book? So it would sell better?’

‘Maybe. Sven said that Interpol got the tip-off just before the second book was published.’

‘But why would he do that? He was already rolling in money,’ Zeke says.

‘A lot is never enough,’ Malin says. ‘And business is business. You know, the basic principles.’

‘Like Fredrik Fagelsjo,’ Zeke says. ‘He made a profit to start with, then wanted more, then lost it all.’

‘Greed,’ Malin says. ‘That’s killed a lot of people.’

Books, books, books.

Was it greed that killed me?

Don’t ever go into publishing if you want to earn money.

We printed the second book ourselves, published it through a small company because we thought that would sell better than the first, and why give the money to anyone else? We were as naive about the book as parents are about their children.

But the bastard bookshops hardly ordered any copies, and I used my own money to print fifteen thousand copies, and we needed some serious media attention.

So I called that police officer.

Tipped them off.

But Jochen got away. Presumably tipped off in turn, but I was never worried about him finding out. The detective I called was reliable. And I could always deny it, say that one of Jochen’s closest associates must have betrayed him, because there were still a few of us who knew where he was, in spite of everything.

Shoddy, I know.

But there were articles about Jochen, about how close the police had come to catching him, and the book started to sell, only five hundred copies had to be pulped in the end and we made a small profit.

In business I only had one principle: the bottom line. Practically anything was permissible if it helped a deal go well.

Business is business.

If I couldn’t earn money from Jochen Goldman, what would I want with him? Really? There’s nothing more fleeting than friendship.

But I also know what his anger and self-assurance make him capable of, what doors they can open.

This time Axel Fagelsjo lets them in, invites them to sit down in the sitting room while he goes off to the kitchen to get coffee and cake.

The panels on the walls shine as if they’ve just been varnished.

I wonder if he’s ever seen so much as a picture of a plastic skirting board? Malin wonders as the thickset man comes back with a full tray in his hands.

‘I knew you’d be back,’ he says, serving coffee and shop-bought cinnamon buns. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell the whole truth.’

‘Why did you lie to us about the sale of Skogsa, when you didn’t actually want to sell?’ Zeke asks.

‘That’s obvious, isn’t it? It looks fairly compromising for the family, no doubt about that. For Fredrik.’

‘But the fact that you lied doesn’t make it any less compromising,’ Malin says.

Fagelsjo’s goodwill vanishes. Malin sees his face close up, as if the air were going out of his round, pink cheeks.

‘And Fredrik,’ Malin says, ‘why do you think he tried to get away from us? When we only wanted to talk to him.’

‘He was scared he’d end up in prison,’ Axel says. ‘He panicked. No more, no less.’

‘So you don’t think he was out at Skogsa on the morning of that Friday, then? We know he. .’