Watching You(110)

Carpe motherfucking diem.

Sam dug about in his rucksack and pulled out his watch box. He opened the gilded catch and looked at his watches. There were five there now. He took off his Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust and noted that the condensation was gone. He put it back in its place. Now there were six of them. All six watches in their places. He picked up the Patek Philippe 2508 Calatrava and put it on his wrist.

‘I change my watch every Sunday,’ he said. ‘And at this precise moment, one week has passed since we broke into the house in M?rsta.’

‘And what a week it’s been,’ Molly said.

They sat in silence for a while, watching the sparkle of the sun, enjoying the beauty of life, a beauty that always came back, no matter what.

‘Time to look for a new job,’ Molly said after a while, sipping her champagne. ‘It almost feels a bit sad to leave this place. And I hardly think I can go back to life as an actor now that I’m pushing forty. But you can become a philosopher. They always need old men. You can be a professional cultural commentator.’

‘That’s what I meant when I said “two”,’ Sam said. ‘We’ve got two years’ wages to work with. If we want to stay.’

‘Stay? Why the fuck would we want to stay?’

‘I don’t think I’ve heard you swear before.’

Silence spread out around them. At the northern end of Edsviken they could see for the first time the soft yellow facade of Edsberg Castle, with its parkland and its paths edging the water. It was incredibly beautiful.

Sam lay back and stared up at the blue sky. It was a ridiculously long time since the sky had last been blue.

He closed his eyes. ‘I checked with a solicitor today. The legal tussle arose because the boathouse is the only remaining part of the shoreline that can be built on. But the two companies are fed up with the stalemate. They’re prepared to sell quickly for a reasonable offer and split the money. So can I suggest a quick and relatively reasonable offer?’

‘You think you and I should buy the building where a crazy murderer tortured me and where I killed him quarter of a century later?’

‘You took the words right out of my mouth,’ Sam said.

They laughed. At the same time. Neither of them was sure if that had happened before.

‘You and me together?’ Molly said. ‘As freelance cops? With a shared business? A detective agency?’

‘I’d rather call it a … hmm … professional investigative service available for private and public commissions …’

‘That won’t do,’ Molly said. ‘A … hmm … ultramodern investigative service for … oh, activities in the badlands.’

The boat drifted freely across Edsviken. Berger took out his old mobile. The SIM card was back inside. He brought up the pole star, the fixed point, the still point of the turning world. Marcus and Oscar in the ditch full of coltsfoot, eight years old.

It was time to call Paris.

The boat drifted on. Perhaps they fell asleep. Perhaps Sam never heard Molly say: ‘Six girls rescued.’

And perhaps Sam never replied: ‘That’s what it was all about. The rest was bullshit.’

Either way, they were woken by the first raindrops. So far it was just gentle rain, almost mist. They both sat up in the boat as if risen from the dead.

‘From now on, we never talk about this case,’ Sam said.

‘You mean like some sort of oath?’ Molly said. ‘We swear never to talk about this case again?’

‘Yes, why not? An oath is good.’

They exchanged glances, from prow to stern and back again. Neither of them was really sure if they saw the power of genuine conviction in the other’s eyes.

‘We caught William,’ Sam said in the end. ‘It’s just that William wasn’t quite who we thought he was. Sure, he was mad, but he didn’t come here as a madman. He came here as a professional, employed by the Security Service to act as liaison with the Pachachi family, about whom we still don’t really know anything.’

‘Except that there’s a big hole in the Security Service archive for 1991,’ Molly said. ‘That’s the only gap we can’t account for.’

Sam nodded and said: ‘That’s when the Pachachi family arrives in Sweden from war-torn Iraq. Gundersen, who had been fighting in Iraq, says something about the family that gets the Security Service interested. And some sort of link is established between them and the Pachachis.’

‘A link that leads to them taking over the flat in Helenelund from William’s mother.’

‘That link between the Security Service and the Pachachi family is the key to all of this, I swear,’ Sam said. ‘I really hope Syl manages to uncover it.’

At that moment Edsviken was shaken by a powerful explosion. The sky had contracted to a heavy, greyish-black blanket of cloud, and not too far in the distance sparks of lightning shot back and forth across the sky.

They sat still. Waited for the downpour.

Then Sam said: ‘Was that the last thing we’re going to say about this case?’

‘Oath?’ Molly said.

‘Oath,’ Sam nodded, then laughed.

While Sam rowed back as fast as he could, the gently increasing rain seemed to be preparing for more grand deeds.

They threw themselves up the steps and stopped beneath the roof extending over the jetty. They looked out across the water. The yellow facade of Edsberg Castle was starting to disappear into the distance with its parkland and paths.