Watching You(71)

‘But no one saw her actually jump?’

‘And no body was found. I think she just floated out to sea. She liked the sea.’

‘No witnesses?’

‘Not to the act itself, no. It was Midsummer’s Day, a bright night, but there was no one about. Anyone left in the city was probably recovering from Midsummer’s Eve. Even so, there are two separate accounts of her walking across the bridge with the bolt cutters in her hand, walking very purposefully. And there’s one surveillance camera.’

‘A surveillance camera?’

‘Down by Hornstull. That’s the direction she came from. The bolt cutters are clearly visible. And her face.’

‘How did she look?’

‘How did she look?’

‘Yes. You said you know all about that night.’

Brandt laughed, an intensely desolate laugh, and shook his head. ‘You might be the least sensitive cop I’ve ever come across.’

‘Possibly the one with the least amount of time.’

‘That doesn’t matter to Emma. Or me.’

‘There’s a good chance it’s more urgent than you think …’

‘Tense. Tense to the point of bursting.’

‘Her face?’

‘Surveillance camera footage isn’t exactly high resolution. But she was pale, and looked very, very tense. My little …’

Brandt tailed off. Blom waited. Felt a lump in her throat.

One night, twenty-two years ago, she herself had been on her way up V?sterbron. And back then there was no fence, just a metre-high railing. She had stopped on the way up the eastern side, looked out across the city and suddenly felt that some sort of meaning might be able to return to the life that William Larsson had taken from her. If not at that precise moment.

‘The anguish,’ Brandt said. ‘The anguish of being impotent.’

‘Impotent in the face of suicide?’

‘We’d been so close. Then she slipped away. It was horrible to watch. Emma’s mum was dead. It was just her and me.’

‘Why did she slip away?’

‘I never really made sense of it. I think there was a lot of crap at school, but she never said anything, just retreated into herself.’

‘It was that impotence you were referring to?’

‘Yes,’ the man said. ‘Against the nightmare of bullying.’

A few minutes later they were heading south. Berger was behind the wheel again.

After driving all the way along Ringv?gen he said: ‘It’s impossible to imagine. Having a daughter who kills herself with such determination.’

‘And is stopped,’ Blom said. ‘Stopped just as she’s about to jump.’

‘You think Emma Brandt was William’s sixth victim?’

‘Late on Midsummer’s Day this year,’ Blom said. ‘Right between Jonna Eriksson and Ellen Savinger. Yes, that’s what I think. Pretty much everyone who jumps from V?sterbron ends up being found, sooner or later. Emma Brandt was the exception, her body just disappeared. It’s four months ago now.’

‘So you think we’ve got our seven victims now?’

‘Yes,’ Molly Blom said, gazing out across the water of ?rstaviken as they crossed Skanstull Bridge. ‘Those are my strongest candidates.’

‘But the idea of William Larsson, a victim of bullying, taking revenge on Emma Brandt, a victim of bullying, seems odd.’

‘And how did he find her? How did he know she was planning to kill herself? I’m not saying I have the answer, I’m just looking for things that seem likely. William seems to have been well informed in the other cases. He snatched Aisha Pachachi the day she finished her last exam, and Ellen Savinger just after she’d left school. He planted a load of false evidence in Sunisa Phetwiset’s case and managed to take Julia Almstr?m from her home in V?ster?s in the middle of the night. Each kidnapping seems to have been preceded by a hell of a lot of research.’

‘And there’s no real evidence,’ Berger said, turning off Nyn?sv?gen, going round the roundabout and setting off along Tyres?v?gen.

‘Where are we going?’ Blom finally asked.

‘Wait and see,’ Berger said.





28




Wednesday 28 October, 15.13

Without really being aware of it, they turned off Tyres?v?gen and onto Gud?broleden in Vendels?. Lupinstigen was a short, diagonal link between Gud?broleden and Vendels? g?rdsv?g, which in turn led down towards the waters of Drevviken. Berger let the van roll down Lupinstigen and parked outside Vendels?g?rden, a home for people with dementia. Blom wrinkled her nose but said nothing. She followed him up to the top floor. He knocked on an unmarked door. Nothing happened.

In the end a carer appeared out of nowhere and said: ‘Are you looking for Alicia?’

Berger looked at her name badge. ‘Hello, Mia. Yes, we’re looking for Alicia Anger. Is she here?’

‘I’d be very surprised if she wasn’t,’ Mia Arvidsson said, unlocking the door. ‘She never goes anywhere else.’

Berger put his hand on the door just before it opened. ‘A quick status report would be useful.’

‘Police?’ the carer said, smiling to herself. ‘Good luck.’