Lars Kepler - The Nightmare

Dear Mr. Palmcrona

I am writing to inform you that I’ve come into possession of an awkward original photograph. It shows you sitting in a private box and drinking champagne with Raphael Guidi. Since I understand that this photograph could bring trouble to you, I am willing to sell it to you for the sum of one million crowns. As soon as you place the money in transit account 837-9 222701730, the photograph will be sent to your home address and all correspondence will be deleted.

Greetings from a “skunk”

The reply from Carl Palmcrona is dated Wednesday, June 2, at 6:25 p.m.:

I do not know who you are, but I do know you have no idea what you are getting yourself into. You must have absolutely no clue.

I warn you, therefore, that this is a very serious matter and I ask that you send me this photograph before it is too late.

On Thursday, June 3, at 2:02 p.m., clearly not having heard from Bjorn, Palmcrona sends a second reply:

It is already too late. We are both dead men.

Bjorn sends a response to that two hours later:

All right, I’ll do as you ask.

And Bjorn Almskog sends a third e-mail the following day, Friday, June 4, at 7:44 a.m.:

Dear Mr. Palmcrona

I’ve sent the photograph. Forget I even tried to contact you.

Greetings from a “skunk”

After reading through the e-mails twice, Saga looks up at Joona.

“So Bjorn Almskog wants to sell a compromising photograph to Palmcrona. It’s obvious that Palmcrona believes him but also that the photograph is much more dangerous than Bjorn imagined. Palmcrona warns Bjorn that he’s not going to hand over any money and even seems to believe the mere existence of this photograph threatens both their lives.”

“So what do you think happened next?” asks Joona.

“Palmcrona waits for an answer by e-mail or by regular mail,” Saga says. “When there’s no reply, he sends his second message warning that they both will die.”

“And then Palmcrona hangs himself,” says Joona.

“When Bjorn shows up at the Internet cafe and reads Palmcrona’s second e-mail-’It is already too late. We are both dead men’-he gets scared and replies he’ll do just what Palmcrona asked.”

“Without knowing that Palmcrona is already dead.”

“Right,” Saga says. “It is already too late and anything Bjorn can do now will be in vain.”

“He seems to panic after receiving Palmcrona’s second e-mail. He gives up any idea of blackmail and now just wants to get out.”

“But the problem is, the photograph in question is taped to Penelope’s door.”

“So he doesn’t have a chance to get at it until she leaves for the TV studio,” Joona continues. “He waits outside, watches Penelope leave in a taxi, rushes in, sees the little girl on the stairs, gets into the apartment, rips the photo from the glass door, takes the subway, mails the photo to Palmcrona, and then sends Palmcrona an e-mail. Then he goes to his apartment on Pontonjargatan 47, packs for the boat trip, takes the bus to Sodermalm, and hurries to his boat anchored at Langholmen Harbor.”

“So what makes you think that this is bigger than common blackmail?”

“Because Bjorn’s apartment was completely destroyed by a fire barely four hours after he’d left it,” Joona replies.

“I’ve stopped believing in coincidences when it comes to this investigation,” Saga says.

“Me, too,” Joona says with a grin.

They look at the correspondence again and Joona points at Palmcrona’s two e-mails.

“He must have contacted someone between his first and second e-mail,” he says.

“The first is a warning,” Saga says. “The second one says it’s already too late and they’re going to die.”

“I believe that Palmcrona called someone for advice when he received the blackmail letter. He was scared to death, but he was hoping to get help,” Joona says. “Only when he realizes that there’s no help to be had does he write the second e-mail where he tells Bjorn that they will both die.”

“We’ll have to put someone on his telephone lists,” Saga says.

“Erixson’s already on it.”

“What else?”

“Who’s the person mentioned in Bjorn’s first e-mail?” Joona says.

“Raphael Guidi?”

“Do you know about him?”

“He was named after the archangel Raphael,” Saga says. “He’s an Italian businessman who deals in weapons contracts for the Middle East and Africa.”

“Weapons contracts,” Joona repeats.

“Raphael has been in the business for thirty years and he’s built a private empire. There have been rumors, of course, but never anything concrete. Interpol’s looked but never found anything on him.”

“Would it be unusual to find Palmcrona in Raphael’s company?”

“Not at all,” she replies. “It’s part of his job. But toasting something in champagne? I don’t know.”

“But you wouldn’t kill someone, murder someone, because of that,” Joona says.

“No.”

“That photograph must reveal something else, something much more dangerous.”

“If Bjorn mailed it, it must have arrived here, in the apartment,” Saga says.

“I looked through the mail in his in-box but-” Joona cuts himself off mid-sentence. Saga gives him a look.

“So, what is it? What are you thinking?”

“There are only personal letters in the box. No ads. No bills,” he says. “The mail had already been sorted when it arrived here.”

The housekeeper, Edith Schwartz, has no telephone. She lives forty-six kilometers north of Stockholm just outside of Knivsta. Joona is in the passenger seat next to Saga, who’s driving at a reasonable clip down Sveavagen. They leave Stockholm’s central area at Norrtull and get on the highway near Karolinska Hospital.

“Sapo has finished going through the crime scene at Penelope Fernandez’s apartment,” Saga is telling him. “I’ve gone through all the material, and based on that, it’s perfectly clear she has no connection to left-wing groups. On the contrary, she’s distanced herself from them and is an avowed pacifist. She actively argues against their methods. I’ve also gone through what little information we have on Bjorn Almskog. He works at Debaser, which is a club located at Medborgarplatsen. He’s not politically active but was arrested once at a street party organized by Reclaim the City.”

They quickly pass between the flickering black fence posts along North Cemetery and Haga Park’s wall of greenery.

“I’ve also looked through our archives,” Saga continues. “Everything we have on both the left-wing and right-wing extremists in Stockholm. It took me most of the night. Of course, most of this is classified as top secret, but there’s one thing you need to know: Sapo made a mistake here. Neither Penelope nor Bjorn have ever been involved in sabotage or anything remotely resembling sabotage. They’re almost laughably innocent.”

“So you’re dropping that angle?”

“Like you, I’m convinced that we’re investigating something in another league entirely, far above either left- or right-wing local extremists… a league that’s perhaps even beyond Sapo and the National Criminal Investigation Department for that matter. I’m talking about Palmcrona’s death. Connect that with the fire in Bjorn’s apartment and Viola’s murder… this is something else again entirely.”

Saga falls silent. Joona thinks back to the housekeeper’s strange manner as she looked at him and asked if he’d cut Palmcrona down yet.

He’d said to her, “What do you mean by that?”

She’d said, “Excuse me, I’m just a housekeeper and I thought…”

He’d asked her if she’d seen anything unusual.