Anders Roslund - Three Seconds

Someone who didn't need an explanation.

He left the form on the counter and turned to leave when he heard Einarsson singing one of Siw Malmkvist's songs somewhere between the rows of seized property.

The tears I cried for you could fill an ocean

The Swedish version of "Everybody's Somebody's Fool." Ewert Grens stopped and shouted in the direction of the cramped storage space.

"Not now."

But you don't care how many tears I cry

"Einarsson!" Ewert bellowed, and Einarsson popped his head round some shelves in surprise.

"Not now, Einarsson. You're disturbing my grief."

He felt lighter when he left-the basement was almost attractive and he shook his head at the elevator and decided instead to take the stairs three floors up. He was about halfway when the mobile phone in the inner pocket of his jacket began to chime.

"Yes?"

`Are you heading the investigation into the murder in Västmannagatan 79?"

Ewert Grens was out of breath. He didn't often take the stairs. "Who's asking?"

"Says who?"

The voice was Danish, but easy to understand, probably from somewhere near Copenhagen, the part of Denmark that Grens had worked with most over the years.

"Was it you or me who phoned?"

"Apologies. Jacob Andersen, crime operations unit Copenhagen, or what you call homicide."

"And what do you want?"

"To know whether you are leading the investigation into the murder in Västmannagatan 79?"

"Who said it was a murder?"

"I did. And it's just possible that I know who the victim is."

Grens stopped on the last step, tried to catch his breath while he waited for the voice that had presented itself as a Danish policeman to continue.

"Do you want me to call you back?"

"Put the phone down."

Grens hurried to his room, found the file he was looking for in the third drawer of his desk. He leafed through it for a moment or two and then left it open in front of him as he dialed the switchboard of Copenhagen police and asked for Jacob Andersen from the crime operations unit.

"Andersen." It was the same voice.

"Put the phone down."

He called the switchboard again and asked to be transferred to Jacob Andersen's mobile phone.

Andersen."

The same voice.

"Open the window."

"What?"

"If you want the question answered, then open the window."

He heard the voice put the phone down on the desk and fiddle for a while with a rusty window hook.

"Okay?"

"What can you see?"

"Hambrogade."

"Anything else?"

"The water if I lean out far enough."

"Half of Copenhagen can see water."

"Langebro."

Grens had looked out of the window from the crime operations unit several times. He knew that it was the water by Langebro that was sparkling in the sun.

"Where does Moelby sit?"

"My boss?"

"Yes."

"In the room opposite. He's not here right now Otherwise-" 'And Christensen?"

"There is no bloody Christensen here."

"Good. Good; Andersen. Now we can continue."

Grens waited, it was the Danish voice that had phoned him, so it was the one that should continue. He went over to his own window. Not much water to be seen in the dreary courtyard of the police headquarters.

"I have reason to believe that the dead person worked for us. I'd like to see a photograph, if possible. Could you fax one to me?"

Ewert Grens reached for a folder that was lying on his desk, checked that Krantz's pictures were still there, the ones that had been taken in the flat, when the face still had skin.

"You'll get a photo in five minutes. I'll wait for the call when you've had a look."

Erik Wilson enjoyed walking in the center of Stockholm.

Mad people, suits, beautiful women, pushers, strollers, running clothes, dogs, bikes, and the odd person who wasn't going anywhere. Half past ten, mid-morning in the city. He had passed them all on the recently repaired pavement in the short distance from the police headquarters to Sankt Eriksplan. It was cooler here, easier to breathe; it had already been too warm in southern Georgia, and in a few weeks it would be unbearable. He had left Newark Liberty International in the afternoon, just after five local time, and landed at Arlanda eight hours later, early in the morning. He must have slept a bit on the plane, fallen asleep despite the two old ladies in the seats in front who chatted incessantly, and the man in the seat beside him who coughed loudly every five minutes. As the taxi approached the city and the police headquarters at Kronoberg, he asked the driver to stop first at Västmannagatan 79, the address he had been given by Paula. Wilson showed his ID to the security guard at the door of the fourth floor flat, with blue-and-white tape criss-crossed over the doorway and a sign that said it was a secured crime scene, and then walked on his own through the abandoned rooms that not even a day earlier had witnessed a man being killed. He started by the large, dark patch on the carpet under the table in the sitting room. A life had seeped away just here. An overturned chair was lying by the edge of the patch, the stain of death. He peered at a hole in the ceiling and another hole in the closed kitchen door, obvious damage from the split bullet. Then he stood for a while by the pins and flags that marked the discoloring on the sitting room wall, and which was interesting in terms of the angle and force of the shot. That was what he had come for, to analyze the blood splashes. That was what he needed for the next meeting, that and Paula's version. Erik Wilson concentrated on the funnel-shaped area that the guys from forensics had marked out with two pieces of string, one end of which had no flags and no blood and no brain tissue. He studied and memorized it until he was certain of exactly where the two people who were important to him had been at the moment the shot was fired: where the person who fired had stood and where the person who hadn't fired must have been standing.

There was a pleasant breeze blowing on Sankt Eriksbron as he looked out over the boats, trains, cars-that was what he liked so much about walking, being able to pause for a while, to look.

He had heard Paula's version of events and the tension last night on his mobile phone, and now that he had had the opportunity to study the flat in peace and quiet, it looked like what he said was true. He knew that Paula was capable and that if the choice had been between life and death, Paula had both the strength and the ability to kill. It could easily have been he who fired the shot, but Wilson was now certain that that was not the case. Paula had sounded more and more harassed and frightened with every phone call. After nine years working together as handler and infiltrator the close contact had developed into trust, and Erik Wilson had learned to hear when he was telling the truth.

He stopped in front of the door to Sankt Eriksplan 17, brittle glass in an old wooden frame, so close to the heavy traffic of the main road. He looked around. A face passed by but didn't notice. He checked again, then went in.

He had left the marks and splashes of blood in .V .stmannagatan, then taken the waiting taxi to Kronoberg and finally to an office in the homicide unit. According to the Duty Management System, a detective had already been assigned to the case. Ewert Grens, assisted by Sven Sundkvist and Mariana Hermansson. Grens and Wilson had worked together in the same unit for a number of years, but he didn't really know the strange detective superintendent. He had tried to make contact for a long time, without any response whatsoever, and had then just given up, decided that he did not need an old man in his life who had once been the best, but now just listened to Siw Malmkvist and was bitter. Erik Wilson stayed in front of the computer. He switched from the DMS to the Crime Reporting system and searched for Västmannagatan 79, and found three hits in the past ten years. He called up the most recent entry, dealing in stolen goods, one ton of refined copper that was sold by a man with a Finnish name in one of the flats on the ground floor.