Jens Lapidus - Never Fuck Up

In a previous memo from October 28 (APAL—2459/07), the Palme Group described the advances in the investigation regarding the murder of Rantzell.

In this memo, certain recent developments are detailed. In summary, the following:

1. A man named Niklas Brogren has been arrested for the murder of Rantzell (further details in the Detention Hearing Memo, Attachment 2). Niklas Brogren is the son of Marie Brogren, who, during the end of the eighties and the beginning of the 1990s, periodically lived with Rantzell. She has informed the investigators that, during this time period, she was assaulted by Rantzell on a number of occasions. Several people connected with Marie Brogren have confirmed that Rantzell abused her during this time (Interrogation Notes, Attachments 3-6). Therefore, there appears to be a motive to kill Rantzell.

2. During a search of Niklas Brogren’s residence, a computer, notebooks, certain surveillance equipment, and a number of knives were found. The computer’s hard drive has been searched by the police’s IT unit. It contains information that suggests that Niklas Brogren may be involved in the murder of two men in Stockholm on the 4th and the 25th of November of this year. A preliminary investigation has been commenced. (Further details: crime reports etc., Attachment 7).

3. Within the framework of the investigation, information has been gathered from a man named John Ballénius, 521203-0135, who was supposedly a close friend of Rantzell’s. John Ballénius is well known to the police as a front man in a number of companies suspected of white-collar crime. During the 1980s and 1990s, he frequently socialized with Claes Rantzell. According to the information that has been gathered, he apparently did not want to be interrogated in connection with the investigation. A certain level of suspicion can therefore be directed at Ballénius, either for involvement in the murder or for harboring knowledge of relevant information (Interrogation, Attachment 8).

4. Rantzell’s apartment has been searched by the police’s technicians (Lokus), and tests have been sent to SKL (the National Laboratory of Forensic Science). The following conclusions can be drawn from SKL’s DNA analysis: the apartment has been visited by persons who are not Rantzell or close relatives of Rantzell. There are traces of DNA from at least three such people. It cannot be ruled out that the persons have been present in the apartment during the time after the murder of Rantzell (SKL’s statement, Attachment 9).

5. The police’s technicians further suspect that an unknown person, who is not Rantzell, has seized objects from a basement storage unit that was very probably used by Rantzell. The seized objects probably consisted of plastic bags with unknown contents.

Suggested measures to be taken

Based on the above, the following measures are suggested:

1. The Palme Group is to be given permission to attend interrogations with Niklas Brogren.

2. The Palme Group orders Fredrik Särholm to investigate all the suspicions directed at Niklas Brogren parallel with the police’s regular investigation.

3. The Palme Group is to be given permission to allocate resources toward the search for John Ballénius.

We request that decisions regarding these questions be reached at a meeting on December 30 of this year.

They were sitting at Thomas’s house, on the ground floor. If Åsa’d been there, she would’ve been watching TV upstairs. Thomas felt as though deep inside, she’d understood him. That made him feel warm. But his fear of the people he was searching for made him colder.

There was an illuminated Christmas star hanging in one of the windows. Even if Åsa’d decorated more than usual this year, they hadn’t gotten a Christmas tree or an Advent candelabra. But when Sander came they were going to decorate so damn much for the holidays that even the window displays at the NK department store would seem un-Christmassy in comparison.

Hägerström was sitting in an armchair that Thomas’d inherited from his dad. The frame was in cherrywood. Worn red seat cushion and backrest. Maybe it wasn’t the most stylish chair in the world, but it meant a lot. If you smelled closely: the old man’s cigarillo smell still clung to it. Thomas thought, I ought to reupholster it. Someday.

On the coffee table and on the floor: papers, documents, files spread out. They’d eliminated a certain amount through their point system. For an outside observer, it would’ve looked like chaos. For the cop duo, it was chronology, order, structure.

The mission: to sift through the material and find information that could lead them to Ballénius. They’d been naïve; thought if only they went to Solvalla, Ballénius would be sitting there, waiting, just like the last time. But the old fox wasn’t dumb: he understood that something was going on. He knew that Rantzell was dead.

The Wisam Jibril trail obviously pointed toward some form of crime. But they weren’t able to complete the puzzle, didn’t see how that part fit in. Jibril’d been some kind of robber king, a professional criminal, but nothing seemed to indicate that he’d had any kind of personal contact with Rantzell. When it came to Adamsson’s death, it probably meant something, but it could be a coincidence, too. Hägerström’d asked around. Thomas’d made the rounds. No one believed the man’d lost his life through foul play. Everything pointed to the car accident being as normal as a car accident can be. What was left were a few members of the Troop, all the documents, the companies, the front men, the transactions, the more or less shady businesses. What was left was Ballénius, who knew something. And what was left was Bolinder’s party that the Yugos were arranging on New Year’s Eve. Thomas hadn’t told Hägerström about that yet.

Through Jasmine, Thomas’d found out some more information about the party at Bolinder’s. They didn’t try to hide what they were up to from Thomas—but this, the fact that they were going to do an event at Bolinder’s right now, wasn’t just crazy. It was insane. He had to tell Hägerström, he might make something of it. Still, he was reluctant. He didn’t want to advertise his side job. Even if Hägerström was smart—he’d already understood that Thomas was involved with something sort of shady—he didn’t know how deep it was. Telling him could wait.

Hägerström’d brought a large bar of chocolate that he’d put on the table. He broke pieces through the foil. “Dark chocolate is still damn good. And healthy, they say.” He grinned. The chocolate was like a brown film over his teeth.

Thomas laughed. “I’m not going to say what it looks like you’re eating.” He got up. Went to the kitchen. Got two beers. Handed one to Hägerström. “Here, have something manly instead.”

They continued to go through the piles of paper. Company by company. Year by year. It all went so much better when Hägerström was there. They’d looked up the addresses where Ballénius’d been registered. Fourteen different street addresses and P.O. boxes over the years. Other people in the companies: he mostly served on boards alone. Sometimes he was an alternate. Often with Claes Rantzell. Sometimes with someone named Lars Ove Nilsson. Sometimes with someone named Eva-Lena Holmstrand. In older documents, he was often on the board with some other guys whom Thomas’d looked up—they’d all passed away. He ordered printouts from the national criminal records: a few convictions for white-collar crime and many for drunk driving. Typical alcoholic front men.

Lars Ove Nilsson and Eva-Lena Holmstrand weren’t impossible to get ahold of. Hägerström’d talked to the man. Thomas’d interrogated the woman. They didn’t know anything. One’d taken early retirement and the other was living on welfare. Both’d applied for debt relief orders. They said they recognized the names—both Claes Rantzell and John Ballénius—but claimed that they’d never met them. That they’d agreed to have their names on the paperwork in exchange for a few grand. Maybe they were lying, maybe it was the truth. Thomas’d still applied quite a bit of pressure. The woman’d cried like a child. Hägerström’d rocked the same tactic—if they knew anything, it would’ve come out.