Mari Jungstedt - The Dead Of Summer

While he waited to hear back from the Germans, he summoned to his office everyone from the investigative team who was available. He told them the facts that Karin Jacobsson had managed to tell him before their conversation was cut off.

‘So it’s the father who’s supposedly the murderer?’ said Kihlgård, sounding dubious. ‘After such a long time? Why now?’

‘Yes, that’s the big question,’ said Wittberg. ‘Something must have triggered the whole chain of events.’

‘I remember that case,’ interjected Prosecutor Smittenberg. ‘The girl went missing, and at first a search party was organized; a lot of officers from here helped look for her. Then her body was found in the water off the coast of Gotska Sandön; she’d been raped and murdered. A terrible story. There was something about some young men who had come ashore from a boat and later disappeared. They were never caught.’

‘I can’t understand why Karin hasn’t reported in again,’ said Knutas, annoyed. ‘She was supposed to ring me as soon as she was on board.’

‘Why don’t you try the boat?’ suggested Wittberg. ‘Ask them to call her on the loudspeakers.’

‘Oh, right. Good idea.’

Knutas looked a bit embarrassed, but he got the police switchboard on the line, and was connected to the M/S Gotska Sandön . A man’s deep voice could be heard over a crackling sound.

‘ M/S Gotska Sandön . Captain Stefan Norrström speaking.’

Knutas introduced himself.

‘Would it be possible to contact a specific individual on board, by using the loudspeaker system, for example?’

‘Who do you want to speak to?’

‘A police officer named Karin Jacobsson.’

‘Do you want to wait on the line or ring back in a few minutes?’

‘I’d like to wait.’

‘OK.’

Knutas heard the captain announcing Karin’s name, asking her to come to the wheelhouse immediately. Then he was back on the phone.

‘If she’s on board, she should be here in a minute. This boat isn’t very big.’

‘OK.’

Several minutes passed.

‘Shouldn’t she have responded by now?’

‘Yes. She can’t be on board.’

‘Could you try one more time?’

The captain hesitated.

‘Is that really necessary?’

‘I think it is. Just to be sure.’

Again the captain announced Karin’s name. After another couple of minutes, Knutas gave up.

‘I guess she didn’t make it on board.’

‘I guess not.’

‘Thanks for your help.’

‘Not at all.’

An uneasy feeling had settled in Knutas’s chest during the conversation. Karin had found a link between the murder on Gotska Sandön and the two current homicide cases. And now she was missing. He asked the operator to phone the head ranger on Gotska Sandön. When he was connected, Knutas explained why he was calling.

‘She left on the two-thirty boat. Apparently she was in a real hurry.’

‘Are you sure she made it on board?’

‘Absolutely. I was down at the dock helping with the loading, and I saw her go on board.’

‘Are you a hundred per cent sure? I mean, do you know what Karin Jacobsson looks like? Petite, thin, about forty, although she looks younger, with short dark hair, brown eyes, a big gap between her front teeth, quite attractive…’

He heard the ranger sigh with impatience.

‘Yes, of course I know what she looks like. She interviewed me yesterday about that man named Morgan Larsson who was murdered.’

‘OK. When does the boat arrive at Fårösund?’

‘At four thirty. The crossing takes two hours.’

Knutas had barely put down the phone before the operator rang to say that he had the Germans on the line. Knutas pushed his uneasiness about Jacobsson aside.

The other members of the investigative team listened intently to his stumbling English. Knutas looked at them with an inscrutable expression as he slowly put down the phone.

‘That was our German colleagues. Oleg Petrov can’t be the killer, because he’s dead. Three months after Tanya was found murdered, he committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train.’

Everyone in the room exchanged puzzled looks.

‘What about the mother and sister? What happened to them, and where are they now?’ asked Wittberg.

‘The mother still lives in Hamburg, but wait until you hear this: the sister lives here on Gotland. She’s married to a Gotlander and they live in Kyllaj.’

‘Kyllaj,’ Wittberg repeated, a pensive look coming over him. ‘That woman on the ferry, the first ferry on the morning the murder was committed. She lived in Kyllaj. She was pregnant and married. But she had an alibi – that’s why we didn’t question her further. Her husband provided her with an alibi.’

Knutas leaned forward. ‘That’s right, her husband. She’s married to a man by the name of Stefan Norrström. He’s the captain that I was just talking to!’

Knutas’s brain now went into high gear. The captain had claimed that Karin wasn’t on board his boat. And now she was missing.

IT ALL STARTED that day in early June when she went shopping at the ICA supermarket. It was a lovely, warm day, full of promise for the coming summer. She’d gone to Slite and parked near the ICA, where she usually shopped. She grabbed a cart outside and then went in to buy some food.

They were planning to have a barbecue that evening. Strangely enough, she had a particular craving for strongly spiced meat now that she was pregnant. She picked up a couple of big potatoes which she was going to bake and fill with the special herbed butter that Stefan liked so much. She spent a long time in the fruit and vegetable section, carefully selecting green peppers, tomatoes and fresh mushrooms. They could grill the steaks separately and then make some vegetable skewers. She put some cobs of sweetcorn in her cart. Suddenly she felt a kicking inside of her, then another. She stood still. She loved feeling the child moving around. She rested for a moment, leaning on the shopping cart and running her hand gently over her stomach. She still couldn’t believe she was going to be a mother. It looked as if her life was finally going to work out. So often in the past she’d had her doubts. But every time, Stefan had persuaded her not to give up. Of course they were meant to be together. Surely she understood that. ‘Don’t even think of objecting,’ he’d say. ‘Don’t even think of it.’

And in the end she’d begun to believe him. Really believe him, deep in her heart. To her surprise, she realized that she was actually on her way to feeling safe. From the outside, she appeared to have had a stable upbringing, but the pain and insecurity had never gone away. She’d been marginalized by her parents, constantly compared to her sister. She’d never felt good enough just the way she was. She’d never felt a real sense of security. To be utterly secure, no matter how she looked, what she did, or what happened around her. Stefan loved her like no one ever had before. But she still had wounds she would have to live with to the end of her days. It helped a lot that he knew everything, and had even been present when the very worst had happened to her. He understood her like no one else did.

The kicking stopped for the moment, and she went back to her shopping. She put some beer in her cart for Stefan; she herself drank only mineral water.

There was a long queue at both check-outs. It was Friday afternoon, and everyone was out shopping. She stood at the back of one of the queues and let her eyes slide over the people patiently waiting their turn with baskets and carts full of shopping. Several people were chatting with each other, and every once in a while someone laughed. Most people knew each other here, since Slite wasn’t a big place.