Hidden in Snow (The ?re Murders, #1)(92)
“Soon,” he says, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
“Why doesn’t Mommy have breakfast with us anymore?” Kalle wants to know. He moves his chair, the legs scraping across the floor, then tilts back at a dangerous angle so that the chair almost falls over.
“Don’t do that!” Harald bellows.
Kalle’s face crumples. “Sorry,” he mumbles, on the verge of tears.
“No, I’m sorry,” Harald says. “I didn’t mean to shout—I was afraid you’d fall and hurt yourself.” He puts down his cup and crouches beside his son. “Mommy’s sleeping,” he says in a gentler tone.
“She’s always sleeping,” Mimi points out.
The children are right. Lena hasn’t shown her face for several days. She has abdicated all her duties. Harald feels a spurt of irritation; he can’t carry the family alone.
“You know what—why don’t the two of you go upstairs and wake her?”
Maybe Lena can be persuaded to get up if the twins give her a hug—a reminder that she still has two children who need her?
He waves in the direction of the stairs. “Go and ask Mommy if she’d like some breakfast.”
The twins race out of the kitchen. He hears their footsteps on the stairs, the squeak of the hinge as the bedroom door opens. He finishes off his coffee, starts loading the dishwasher.
Kalle reappears in the doorway. “Mommy won’t wake up.”
Harald pauses with a plate in his hand. “What do you mean?”
“She’s just lying there.”
It is less than an hour since Harald checked on Lena; presumably the sleeping pills are still working. “Try again— give her a little shake,” he tells his son. He doesn’t mention the medication; the children don’t need to know about that.
Kalle heads back upstairs, and Harald carries on cleaning up.
Something makes him stop. A suspicion he doesn’t really want to acknowledge.
He leaves the kitchen, strides up the stairs. Goes into the bedroom, sees Mimi and Kalle standing by the head of the bed, tugging at Lena.
Shaking her lifeless body.
She doesn’t react at all, her muscles are completely limp.
Her face is so pale.
Mimi stares at her father with frightened eyes. “Is Mommy dead too?”
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101
It feels as if it has been snowing and blowing a gale forever.
Daniel longs for a sunny day, a few hours up on ?reskutan, the snow sparkling with life and the mountain landscape spreading in all directions like sugar loaves.
Instead he is sitting in the conference room with the frost clinging to the windowpanes. Twilight has begun to fall; the morning vanished in a fog of interviews and video meetings.
In addition, Birgitta Grip has arranged another press conference this afternoon and is insisting that Daniel take part. She refused to listen to his objections, even though he came close to swearing at her.
The pictures of Amanda’s body on the walls stare accusingly at him.
He rests his head in his hands.
How are they going to find out who killed her? Over five days have passed since she was found dead. It feels as if they are chasing a thousand balls, with no idea which is the right one.
Raffe and Anton have identified a dozen property owners in Ull?dalen who might be of interest. Daniel would like to search each of their cabins, but they can’t get a warrant for any of them without reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed. For that to happen, the investigation must point to a single individual. It’s a catch-22 situation.
They have continued to check out Fredrik Bergfors but haven’t managed to establish a link between him and Ull?dalen. He also has an alibi, because Mira still claims that her husband was lying beside her on the night in question.
Daniel interviewed Amanda’s boyfriend again this morning, but nothing new emerged. This time Viktor had a lawyer with him. Daniel wasn’t surprised.
Anton has looked into Lasse Sandahl’s background. He has no criminal record and doesn’t own a snowmobile. He swears that he never touched Amanda after the incident on Walpurgis Night. They have spoken to the principal, who was taken aback by the information that Sandahl had made a pass at a student. There have never been any complaints about him in the past.
Daniel wishes they had better forensic evidence. He has just emailed the National Forensic Center and asked them to prioritize the examination of the skin particles found under Amanda’s fingernails. It would be much easier to move forward if the DNA analysis were completed.
Hanna walks in with a cup of coffee in her hand. They have been working separately since this morning. Hanna has been trying to get a hold of Ebba, hoping to persuade her to drop her guard and tell them about Amanda’s part-time job, while Daniel has been tied up with interviews and video calls.
“Tough morning?” she says.
“Is it that obvious?”
“You look a little the worse for wear.”
“I’m just frustrated that things are going so slowly. Plus Grip wants me to drive down to ?stersund this afternoon for another press conference.” Daniel sighs. Just saying those two words makes his heart sink. He doesn’t mention the difficulties at home. After all, he and Hanna hardly know each other. He is doing his best to focus on the job.