Watching You(35)

Allan straightened up and said with the full force of his baritone: ‘For God’s sake, there is no Charles Lindbergh. She made him up. She’s sitting there having fun. This crime isn’t in the past. She didn’t do it. She’s still doing it. Usually you find yourself interviewing a suspect when the crime has already been committed. Afterwards. Not this time. This is extremely rare. The crime is happening, this very moment. You’re sitting there questioning her while she’s still committing it. Every second she drags things out means another perverse little bit of sexual gratification for that bitch, and more torment for Ellen Savinger, as well as yet another gob of saliva right in our faces.’

‘So now we really do have Sweden’s first serial killer in that interview room?’

‘Call her whatever the hell you want to. Go up on the roof and scream “serial killer” right across Kungsholmen, across the whole city, I don’t care. You were too soft, Sam.’

‘Last time I was too pushy. Now I’m too soft. You’re a hard boss to please, Allan.’

‘I’m going to the toilet,’ Allan said and turned away abruptly.

They watched as he was quickly swallowed by the darkness.

‘He has a point,’ Deer said.

‘I know,’ Berger muttered. ‘Have you got anything else?’

‘We know who she bought the bike from. Syl got hold of a register of serial numbers. Something called Wiborg Supplies Ltd. No idea what that is. Anonymous client, 24 May, three years ago.

‘OK. Hmm,’ Berger said. ‘Sold new?’

‘Yes. No trace of the serial number since then.’

‘That rings some sort of bell. Wiborg?’

‘Isn’t that a town in Denmark?’ Deer said.

Berger felt himself frowning. ‘Go ahead, Samir.’

The recording of the interview began to play.

‘The name Charles comes up almost immediately,’ Samir said, pointing at the screen.

‘A lot of different sides to Charles Lindbergh,’ Berger said, asking Samir to pause. ‘She’s showing off again. Pretentiously showing off, Deer. Facts: first to fly across the Atlantic. His son was kidnapped and murdered. Said to have been a Nazi at the start of the war. A notorious womaniser. The kidnap and murder of his son is presumably the most pertinent.’

‘I don’t think that means a great deal,’ Deer said. ‘Go on.’

Samir started the film again. Something unidentifiable fell from his beard as he scratched it. ‘Childhood. Some peculiar reactions there.’

‘Where exactly?’ Berger asked.

‘There,’ Samir said. ‘“Betrayal.”’

‘That look,’ Deer said. ‘She’s really staring at you, as if she wants to emphasise the betrayal.’

‘Which seemed out of place at the time,’ Berger said. ‘What do you think about her reaction to the bullying hypothesis? There?’

‘Growing disinterest,’ Deer said. ‘It was hot, then it went cold.’

‘Strange,’ Berger said simply.

He could have said much more. Unfortunately he couldn’t put it into words.

‘But there’s one more thing,’ Samir said.

‘The most peculiar,’ Deer said.

The film reached the class photograph, Berger’s comments on the gap around the ten-year-old Nathalie. Then he said: ‘You were ten years old, Nathalie. What had happened to you to make them think you were disgusting?’

And Fredén said very sharply: ‘You know exactly what happened.’

Samir paused.

‘What’s going on here?’ Deer mused.

‘It’s like you were there in Ume? all those years ago,’ Samir said.

‘What do you mean?’ Berger said.

‘It just felt so … personal,’ Samir said.

‘I agree,’ Berger said. ‘And I’ve never even been to sodding Ume?.’

‘It doesn’t make sense,’ Deer said. ‘It means something else.’

‘And it’s driving me mad,’ Berger said.

The trio stared for a while at the dead screen.

Then Berger said: ‘Run that sequence again.’

‘You were ten years old, Nathalie. What had happened to you to make them think you were disgusting?’

And then Fredén’s sharp retort: ‘You know exactly what happened.’

Samir paused again.

‘Bloody hell,’ Berger said, let out a deep sigh. ‘Keep going.’

Now his on-screen self was talking about returning to the world outside after twenty years in the clinic. He moved on to the inheritance, her inheritance from her grandfather. The reaction: ‘But you said I didn’t have a bank account.’

‘If she is playing a role,’ Deer said, ‘then this is where she falls out of character.’

The film kept rolling.

‘Fast-forward,’ Berger said.

Samir clicked ahead until Deer put her hand on his. The film slowed to normal speed and Nathalie Fredén said: ‘I don’t remember. Closer to Stockholm.’

Berger said: ‘Try to remember. It’s important.’

After an unusually long pause Nathalie Fredén said: ‘Sollentuna.’