Camilla Läckberg - The Gallows Bird

‘So Elsa Forsell was the cause of it all,’ said Martin. ‘Yes, that’s how it looks,’ said Patrik. ‘It seems as though her accident set in motion a whole chain of murders. Apparently the killer began with her.’

‘Where are the children now?’ Hanna asked, giving voice to what everyone was thinking.

‘We’re working on that,’ said Gösta. ‘Our colleagues in Uddevalla are trying to get the documents from the social welfare authorities, but that may take some time.’

‘We have to keep working on the investigation based on the information we have,’ Patrik said. ‘But the key to the case is Elsa Forsell, so we’ll focus on her.’

They all trooped out of the break room, but Patrik called Hanna back.

‘Yes?’ she said. When Patrik saw how pale she looked, he was even more determined to have a talk with her.

‘Sit down,’ he said, dropping onto one of the chairs himself. ‘How are you doing?’ he said, studying her intently.

‘So-so, to be honest,’ she said, looking down. ‘I’ve been feeling lousy for several days, and I think I’m getting a fever.’

‘Yes, I noticed that you haven’t been yourself lately. I think you should go home and get some rest. It won’t help anyone if you play the woman of steel and try to keep working when you’re sick. You need to take it easy, so you can come back with renewed strength.’

‘But the investigation…’

Patrik stood up. ‘That’s an order. Go home and rest,’ he said, feigning a gruff tone of voice.

‘Yes, boss,’ said Hanna and smiled as she gave him a mock salute. ‘I just have to finish up a few things first. They can’t wait until later.’

‘Okay, it’s up to you. But then go straight home, inspector!’ Hanna smiled wanly and left. Patrik watched her with concern. She really didn’t look well.

He turned to look out of the window and allowed himself to sit there for a moment. They’d made a lot of progress over the past few days, but if they were going to solve this case they needed to find the children fast. Those children who seemed to have appeared from nowhere. The important thing now was to find out what had happened to them.

‘It’s a perfect fit!’ Anna beamed, and Erica had to agree. The dress needed to be taken in here and there, but once the alterations were done it would fit like a dream. Some of the pregnancy kilos that had hung on so stubbornly had vanished, and Erica felt both slimmer and livelier as a result of the change in her diet.

‘You’re going to look so beautiful!’ said Anna as they drove home from the fitting.

Erica smiled at her sister, who was almost more enthusiastic about Saturday’s wedding than she was. She cast a glance at Maja, who was asleep in her push-chair.

‘I’m worried about Patrik,’ Erica said, and her smile faded. ‘He’s wound up so tight. Do you think he’ll be able to enjoy the wedding?’

Anna looked at her for a moment as she seemed to be weighing whether to say something. Finally she decided. ‘This was supposed to be a surprise,’ she said. ‘But we talked a bit with the guys and agreed to skip the hen party and bachelor party. Instead we booked you a room and made a dinner reservation for you at Stora Hotellet for Friday night. So you can unwind in peace and quiet before Saturday. I hope that’s okay with you.’

‘God, how sweet of you. And it’s a super idea. I don’t think Patrik would have been up for a bachelor party as things stand. It will be great to have a quiet evening on Friday. I don’t think there’ll be much peace and quiet on Saturday.’

‘No, I shouldn’t think so,’ Anna said with a laugh, relieved that her sister approved of her idea.

Erica then changed the subject. ‘Anna, I’ve decided to do a little investigating. About Mamma.’

‘Investigating? How do you mean?’

‘Well… do some genealogical research. Find out where she came from and things like that. Maybe find some answers.

‘Do you think it will do any good?’ said Anna sceptically. ‘Of course, you should do as you see fit, but Mamma wasn’t particularly sentimental by nature. That’s probably why she didn’t save anything from the past or tell us anything about her childhood. You know how uninterested she was in documenting ours.’

Anna’s laughter had a tinge of bitterness that surprised Erica. Her sister had always pretended that she wasn’t bothered for their mother’s coldness.

‘But aren’t you the least bit curious?’ Erica said, giving her sister a sidelong glance.

Anna looked out of the window on the passenger side. ‘No,’ she said after a brief but significant moment of hesitation.

‘I don’t believe you. But anyway, I’m going to start looking into it. If you want to hear what I find out, let me know. But it’s up to you.’

‘What if you don’t find any answers?’ said Anna, turning to look at Erica. ‘What if you find out that she had a normal childhood, an ordinary adolescence. And there’s no other explanation except that she simply wasn’t interested in us. What will you do then?’

‘Live with it,’ said Erica quietly. ‘Just the way I’ve always done.’

They sat in silence the rest of the way home. Both of them were immersed in their own thoughts.

Patrik went over the list a third time as he tried to stop himself from staring at the phone. Each time it rang he hoped it was Uddevalla with more information about the children. But he was disappointed every time.

He was also disappointed with the list of dog owners and their addresses. They were spread all over Sweden, and there were none in the immediate vicinity of Tanumshede. It had always been a long shot, but he had still harboured some hope. Just to be sure, he slowly scanned the list for the fourth time. A hundred and fifty-nine names. A hundred and fifty-nine addresses, but the closest one was outside Trollhättan. Patrik sighed. So much of his job consisted of boring and time-wasting tasks, but after the events of the past few days he had almost managed to forget that. He swivelled round and looked up at the map of Sweden on the wall. The pins seemed to be staring at him, challenging him to see the pattern, break the code they represented. Five pins, five locations, spread over the southern half of the oblong country of Sweden. What was it that made the murderer move from one place to the other? Was it work? Was it pleasure? Was it a tactic designed to confuse? Was the killer’s home base somewhere else? Patrik didn’t believe the last option. Something told him that the answer lay in the geographical pattern, that the murderer for some reason had followed that pattern. He also believed that the killer was still here in the area. It was more of a gut feeling, and it was so strong that he couldn’t help scrutinizing everyone he saw on the street. Was that person the killer? Or that one? Who was hiding behind the guise of an ordinary citizen?

Patrik sighed and looked up when Gösta came in, after knocking discreetly.

‘Well,’ Gösta said, taking a chair. ‘It’s like this: something has been working overtime up here,’ he tapped his temple, ‘since we heard about the children yesterday. It’s probably nothing. Might sound a bit far-fetched.’

He hemmed and hawed and Patrik had to suppress an urge to lean across the desk and shake Gösta to make him stop mumbling.

‘Well, I was thinking about a case that happened in 1967. In Fjällbacka. I was a rookie here back then.’

Patrik looked at him with increasing irritation. Talk about long-winded!

Gösta continued: ‘As I said, I hadn’t been on the job long when we got a call about two kids who had drowned. Twins, three years old. They lived with their mother out on the island of Kalvö. Their father had drowned a couple of months earlier when he fell through the ice, and the mother had apparently started drinking heavily. And on this day, it was in March if I remember rightly, she took their boat to Fjällbacka and then drove her car down to Uddevalla to do some errands. When they took the boat back out to the island, a storm was blowing up. According to the mother, the boat capsized just before they reached the island, and both children drowned. She had swum ashore and called for help on the radio.’