Watching You(102)

‘It was necessary,’ Blom said curtly.

‘I’m trying to understand why,’ Allan said. ‘Because you needed Sam’s help with your own unofficial investigation? Because you realised that you had both begun to suspect that you knew the murderer? From when you were young?’

‘Something like that,’ Blom said. ‘But that might not be the most important thing right now.’

Allan adjusted his glasses again and adopted a stern-uncle expression.

‘I think I’m the one who decides what’s important, young lady. Your futures are the subject of immediate investigation, and at present neither of you are even police officers. That decision rests with the Security Service and the head of the Intelligence Unit, Steen, and you’ll both be called to an official meeting, probably tomorrow, Saturday. So now isn’t the time to get on your high horse.’

‘How are they?’ Berger asked.

‘Sam, Sam, Sam,’ Allan said, still in uncle mode. ‘As you know, I shall be retiring in just a few days’ time. Everything was lined up for you to succeed me. If you hadn’t been so damn stubborn.’

‘Who’s it going to be now?’

‘Rosenkvist, of course,’ Allan Gudmundsson said. ‘Desiré Rosenkvist.’

Berger laughed. ‘Good job I’ve trained Deer so well.’

‘You haven’t trained her at all,’ Allan said bluntly.

‘You’re right,’ Berger finally acknowledged. ‘She’ll be a better boss that I could ever have been.’

‘How are they?’ Blom echoed.

‘I presume you mean the girls,’ Allan said. ‘On the whole, they’re as well as can be expected under the circumstances. But I want some answers to my questions first. So, the reason you both took off like that was because the pair of you had been running separate unofficial, unsanctioned investigations that didn’t comply with the lines taken by either the Security Service or the National Crime Unit?’

‘That’s right,’ Blom said. ‘No one would listen to our apparently vague theories. We had no evidence. We had to find the girls. When I was caught tampering with the recording equipment in the interview room, I realised that the only option was to break Sam Berger out of custody and disappear.’

‘I’m very relieved that I’m not the one who’s going to decide your futures,’ Allan said, tapping the bundle of papers against his knees. ‘There’s no doubt that you’ve conducted a very thorough investigation. The man you shot and killed, whose body was found on waste ground at Edsviken in Sollentuna, has been identified as a civil engineer and unofficial contractor for the Security Service going by the name of Olle Nilsson. But you claim that he was actually a murderer and serial kidnapper whose name was William Larsson. According to your story, he kidnapped seven fifteen-year-old girls over the course of two and a half years, with the intention of eventually killing them?’

‘We believe that the weight of evidence is overwhelming,’ Blom said. ‘But what we really want to know is how the girls are.’

Allan nodded and said, with a degree of reluctance: ‘What is interesting – and of course gratifying – is that there don’t appear to be any signs of torture. I don’t understand how that can fit with the bloodstains and nail marks in the cellar in M?rsta. Or with those infernal clocks.’

‘We don’t understand that either,’ Blom said. ‘But we think William was saving the clock for Sam. Because he was the one he was after, when it came down to it.’

‘He wasn’t a serial killer,’ Berger said. ‘He was just trying to communicate with me. The traitor with a capital T.’

Allan looked at him for a while. Then he leafed through his papers and said: ‘One of the girls has already made a statement about the blood. Let’s see … Yes, the one who was kidnapped last, Ellen Savinger. She thinks she saw the perpetrator take blood from her, in a test tube, but she was drugged at the time.’

‘That sounds promising,’ Blom said. ‘That means the blood could simply have been aimed at us, me and Sam. To put us on the right track. Maybe there never was a clock in the cellar in M?rsta, and the nail marks in the floor were just one of William’s special effects. But their witness statements will obviously clear that up later.’

Allan nodded and consulted his screen. ‘The current state of the girls. Perhaps it would be as well if we did a full debrief. All six girls are still in hospital, but in some cases that’s largely for observation and final detoxification. They’ve all been given a daily dose of a very strong sedative. According to the doctors, the shorter the time the girls have been subjected to that, the easier it should be for them to return to normal life. Victim number two, Nefel Berwari, is suffering from serious muscle wastage, but it should only be a matter of weeks before she’s up on her feet again. Her psychological condition is rather worse, deep depression, but her cognitive and intellectual abilities are unaffected, and her family is ready to take care of her. Victim number three, Julia Almstr?m, has – against all the odds – managed to keep herself in reasonable physical shape, and in spite of having spent a year and a half in captivity, seems almost ready to return to normal life in V?ster?s. Victim number four, the Thai citizen, Sunisa Phetwiset, seems to have suffered least psychological damage from captivity. Apparently she’s claiming that she was looked after better in Larsson’s captivity than before. She’ll be given Swedish citizenship and offered protection to keep her safe from the Albanian mafia. In contrast, Jonna Eriksson, victim number five, is in the worst state. Her body is badly run-down, and she’s having difficulty coming to terms with the death of her boyfriend Simon Lundberg, whose remains were found in a cave outside Kristinehamn at your direction. But Jonna too should make a full recovery, and a highly supportive foster family in the Stockholm area has opened its doors to her. The sixth victim, Emma Brandt, has been reunited with her father and will be able to leave hospital in a couple of days. She’s genuinely astonished that she was stopped from committing suicide by a murderer. They’re going to be moving down to Sk?ne to start a new life. And finally Ellen Savinger has her family around her, and it even looks like she might be able to go back to school in ?stermalm before the end of term. The Forensic Medical Unit is, however, saying that the long-term effects of the sedative are unclear.’