Emelie Schepp - Marked For Life

Mia helped herself to yet another cinnamon bun, then she held the dish out to Henrik, who shook his head no.

By now they had already spent close to an hour discussing how the boy might be involved in the case. Ola showed a frozen image of the boy from the security camera file. He was slightly turned away, crossing the street.

With the help of the keyboard, Ola showed more, image after image. They appeared one by one at a slow pace. The team followed the boy’s steps until the last thing to disappear was his hood.

Henrik picked up his cell and compared the images on the screen with that of Lasse Johansson’s son, Simon. He remarked that any suspicions against Simon were now dismissed.

“The nephew is shorter, more muscular. The boy on the picture is thinner,” he said.

“Let’s see.” Ola stretched to reach Henrik’s phone and looked at the digital photo.

“And this Simon has reddish hair. I think our guy is darker. That’s what it looks like, anyway,” said Henrik.

“Okay, so we can forget Simon, but that still leaves the question—who is the boy? We must get hold of him,” said Gunnar and moved on to the telephone log. Ola, who usually checked all the technical details, had been fully occupied with the security camera film so, to hurry the process along, Gunnar had chosen to check the lists himself. Now he pushed copies of the log into the middle of the table and let each of them take one.

Henrik took a gulp of coffee and looked at the first page.

“Hans Juhlén’s last call was on Sunday at 18:15 to the Miami pizzeria. Ola?”

Ola got up and noted the call on the time line on the wall.

“The phone call has been confirmed by the pizzeria and they also confirmed that he picked up the pizza at 18:40. You can see the other calls on the next page,” he said.

They all turned to page two.

“There weren’t many,” said Henrik.

“No, there are only a few. Most of them are to or from his wife. There is an outgoing call to a car service, but nothing remarkable about that,” said Gunnar.

“What about texts?” said Mia.

“Nothing strange there either,” said Gunnar.

Mia folded up the pages and threw them onto the table. “So what do we do now?”

“We must find that boy,” said Gunnar.

“Do we know anything about the half brother?” Anneli wondered aloud.

“Not much. Mia and I just interviewed him. He is single, on welfare, he says, with some kind of shared custody of his child. And he is addicted to gambling,” Henrik answered.

“Does he have a criminal record?” said Mia.

“No,” said Gunnar.

“My instinct is that he isn’t involved in the murder,” said Mia.

“What do we think about Hans Juhlén’s wife, then?” said Gunnar.

“I don’t think she did it,” said Mia.

“I’m not convinced either,” said Anneli. “We don’t have any witnesses or any decent technical evidence.”

“Lasse said something interesting when we saw him. He mentioned that Hans claimed to be broke. He suddenly didn’t have enough money to even lend Lasse a few kronor,” said Henrik. “Since we know he had received some threatening letters, we can assume that somebody had a hold on him. Perhaps that’s where the money went.”

“Could Hans have had gambling debts too?” said Mia.

“Possibly, that could also explain why he seemed so stressed, at least to his wife, recently. Maybe it wasn’t just the criticism his department was getting, but the threatening letters too.”

“Right, we’ll use that as a starting point. I want you to check his bank accounts. Ola, that’s the first thing you’ll do tomorrow morning,” said Gunnar.

“What about the computer?” said Ola.

“The bank statements first, then the computer. Right, that’s it,” said Gunnar.

Henrik looked at the clock and swore to himself when he saw it was already half past seven. Overtime again. Emma would have finished dinner and the children would have already gone to sleep. Oh hell!

He sighed and drank the last of the coffee, which was now cold.

* * *

Henrik Levin tried to unlock the front door as silently as he possibly could. He opened it quickly, stepped into the hall and immediately nipped into the bathroom.

When he had finished, he washed his hands, then looked at his face in the mirror. The stubble had grown over the last three days, and it needed trimming more than he had thought. He felt with his right hand on his cheek and around his chin. He didn’t want to shave now. A shower perhaps.

Henrik ran his fingers through his brown hair and noted a gray hair on his forehead. He immediately pulled it out and let it fall into the washbasin.

“Hi.”

Emma poked her head into the bathroom. Her hair was clumsily done up in a bun on the top of her head. She was wearing a red velour jumpsuit and black socks.

“Hi,” said Henrik.

“I hardly heard when you came in,” said Emma.

“I didn’t want to wake the children.”

“How’s your day been?”

“Okay. And yours?”

“Fine. I managed to paint the hall drawers.”

“That’s great.”

“Yeah.”

“White?”

“White.”

“I thought I’d take a shower.”

Emma leaned her head against the doorpost. A strand of hair fell onto her brow and she pulled it back behind her ear.

“What’s the matter?” said Henrik.

“What?”

“It looks as if you want to say something.”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, sure.”

“Okay.”

“There’s a good film on TV, I’m going to watch it in the bedroom.”

“I’ll come soon, just going to shower.”

“And shave?”

“Yes, I’ll shave.”

Emma smiled and closed the door behind her.

Oh well, Henrik thought, and dug out his razor from the drawer. He’d be having a shave after all.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Henrik came into the bedroom with the towel wrapped around his hips. Emma seemed lost in some magnificent drama that had won more than one Oscar. Henrik feared he would be forced to watch the end of the tearful film. Fortunately there was no five-year-old in the bed.

“Felix?” he said.

“Asleep in his room. He has made a ghost drawing for you.”

“Another one?”

“Yes,” Emma answered without taking her eyes off the huge TV on the wall.

Henrik sat down on the edge of the bed and glanced at the couple entwined around each other on the TV. Felix was in his own bed. Now perhaps there might be a chance to...

He put the towel aside, slipped in under the warm duvet and snuggled up close to Emma. He put his hand on her naked tummy, but her eyes stayed glued to the film. He leaned his head against her shoulder and slowly stroked her thighs. He felt her hand on top of his, and they played with each other’s fingers under the duvet.

“Emma,” he said.

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Darling...”

“Yes?”

“There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

Emma didn’t answer. She studied the couple on the screen who were now united in a long, intense kiss.

“I’ve been thinking a little and you know that I’d like to start back at the gym. So I thought...if it’s okay, that I...that I might go twice a week. After work.”

Emma gave a start and for the first time took her eyes off the film. She gave him a disappointed look.

Henrik supported himself on one elbow.

“Please, sweetie?”

Emma raised her eyebrows. Then she demonstratively lifted Henrik’s hand off her tummy.

“No,” she answered briefly and returned to the end of the romantic story.

Henrik was still leaning on his elbow. Then he moved over onto his back with his head on the pillow and cursed himself. He knew better. He should have phrased his request in such a way that she couldn’t say no. He stared up at the ceiling, then he puffed up the pillow and turned his back to Emma. Sighed. No sex today either. And it was his own damned fault.