Camilla Läckberg: The Stone Cutter

The third book in the Patrik Hedstrom series, 2009

The lobster fishery was not what it once was. Back then hardworking professional lobstermen trapped the black crustaceans. Now summertime visitors spent a week fishing for lobsters purely for their own enjoyment. And they didn't obey the regulations either. He had seen plenty of it over the years. Brushes discreetly used to remove the visible roe from the females to make the lobsters look legal, poaching from other people's pots. Some people even dived into the water and plucked the lobsters right out of the pots. Sometimes he wondered where it would all end and whether there was any honour left among lobstermen. On one occasion there had even been a bottle of cognac in the pot he pulled up, instead of an unknown number of lobsters that had been stolen from it. At least that thief had some honour, or a sense of humour.

Frans Bengtsson sighed deeply as he stood hauling up his lobster-pots, but his face brightened when he saw two marvellous lobsters in the first pot. He had a good eye for where lobsters I ended to congregate, as well as a number of favourite spots where the pots could be placed with the same luck from one year to the next.

Three pots later and he had accumulated a passable heap of I he valuable creatures. He didn't really understand why they commanded such scandalous prices. Not that they were unappetizing in any way, but if he had to choose he'd rather have herring for dinner. They were tastier and a better buy. But the income from the lobster fishery was a more than welcome addition to his pension at this time of the year.

The last pot seemed to be stuck, and he stood with his foot on the rail of the boat for a bit more support as he tried to wrench it loose. He felt the pot slowly begin to give, and he hoped it wasn't damaged. He peered over the rail of his old wooden snipa to see what sort of shape it was in. But it wasn't the pot that came up first. A white hand broke the heaving surface of the water, looking for a moment like it was pointing at the sky.

His first instinct was to release the line and let whatever was floating beneath the surface vanish into the depths again along with the lobster-pot. But then his expertise took over, and he resumed pulling on the line that was attached to the pot. He still had a good deal of strength in his body, and he needed it. He had to haul with all his might to manoeuvre his macabre find over the rail. He didn't lose his composure until the pale, lifeless body fell to the deck with a thud. It was a child he'd pulled up from the sea. A girl, with her long hair plastered round her face, and lips just as blue as her eyes, which now stared unseeing at the sky.

Bengtsson threw himself against the rail and vomited.

Patrik was more exhausted than he'd ever thought possible. All his illusions that babies slept a lot had been thoroughly crushed in the past two months. He ran his hands through his short brown hair but managed only to make it look even more tousled. And if he thought he was tired, he couldn't even imagine how Erica must feel. At least he didn't have to keep getting up at night to nurse. Besides, he was really worried about her. He couldn't recall seeing her laugh since she came home from the maternity ward, and she had dark circles under her eyes. When he saw Erica's look of despair in the morning, it was hard for him to leave her and Maja. And yet he had to admit that he felt a great relief at being able to drive off to his familiar adult world. He loved Maja more than anything, but bringing home a baby was like stepping into a foreign, unfamiliar world, with all sorts of new worries lurking behind every corner. Why won't she sleep? Why is she shrieking? Is she too hot? Too cold? What are those strange spots on her skin?

Grown-up hooligans were at least something he knew about, something he knew how to handle.

He stared vacantly at the papers in front of him and tried to clean the cobwebs out of his brain enough to keep working. When the telephone rang he almost jumped out of his seat, and it rang three times before he collected himself enough to pick up the receiver.

'Patrik Hedström.'

Ten minutes later he grabbed his jacket from a hook by the door, dashed over to Martin Molin's office and said, 'Martin, some old guy out pulling up lobster pots, a Frans Bengtsson, has brought up a body.'

'Whereabouts?' Martin said, looking confused. The dramatic news had broken the listless Monday morning at the Tanumshede police station.

'Outside Fjällbacka. He's moored at the wharf by Ingrid Bergman Square. We have to get moving. The ambulance is on the way'

Martin didn't have to be told twice. He too grabbed his jacket to face the bitter October weather and then followed Patrik out to the car. The trip to Fjällbacka went quickly, and Martin had to hold on anxiously to the handle above the door when the car careened onto the verge around the sharp curves.

'Is it a drowning accident?' Martin asked.

'How the hell should I know?' said Patrik, instantly regretting snapping at Martin. 'Sorry – not enough sleep.'

'That's okay,' said Martin. Thinking about how worn-out Patrik had looked the past few weeks, he was more than willing to forgive him.

'All we know is that she was found about an hour ago. According to the old man, it didn't look like she'd been in the water very long. But we'll see about that soon,' Patrik said as they drove down Galärbacken towards the wharf, where a wooden snipa was moored.

'Did you say "she"?'

'Yes, it's a girl, a kid.'

'Oh, shit,' said Martin, wishing he'd followed his first instinct and stayed in bed with Pia instead of coming in to work this morning.

They parked at Cafe Bryggan and hurried over to the boat. Incredibly enough, no one had yet noticed what had happened, so there was no need to ward off the usual gawkers.

'The girl's lying there in the boat,' said the old man who came to meet them on the wharf. 'I didn't want to touch her more than necessary.'

Patrik had no trouble recognizing the pallor on the old man's face. It was the same on his own face whenever he had to look at a dead body.

'Where was it you pulled her up?' asked Patrik, using the question to postpone having to confront the dead girl for another few seconds. He hadn't even seen her yet, and already his stomach was turning over uneasily.

'Out by Porsholmen. The south side of the island. She got tangled in the line of the fifth pot I pulled up. Otherwise it would have been a long time before we found her. Maybe never, if the currents had swept her out to sea.'

It didn't surprise Patrik that Bengtsson knew how a dead body would react to the effect of the sea. All the old-timers knew that a body first sank, then slowly came up to the surface after it was filled with gases, until finally, after more time passed, it sank back into the deep. In the old days drowning had been a real risk for a fisherman, and Bengtsson had surely been out searching for unfortunate victims before.

As if to confirm this the lobsterman said, 'She couldn't have been down there long. She hadn't begun to float yet.'

Patrik nodded. 'You said that when you called in the report. Well, I suppose we'd better have a look.'

Martin and Patrik walked very slowly out to the end of the wharf where the boat was moored. Not until they were almost there did they have enough of a view over the rail to discern what was lying on the deck. The girl had landed on her back when the old man pulled her into the boat, and her wet, tangled hair covered most of her face.