Until the minister of justice stood up and provided an alibi for his bodyguard. Hedberg had not budged an inch from the minister’s side during the entire day. That’s how it stood and the whole so-called case had fallen apart like a house of cards. Hedberg hadn’t even been questioned for information, and all the files in the case had been carried up to Berg for forwarding. Wonder just where they went? thought Waltin with delight.
A both interesting and morally instructive story on the importance of not sticking your nose into other people’s business and with a clearly humorous point. It wouldn’t do to remove Hedberg, but as he was the active type that liked to move around, he wasn’t all that easy to have in the office, either. Especially as there was a great deal of talk even internally. To put it briefly, Berg had had a little problem, and as so often before it was Waltin who had solved it for him. You can’t expect gratitude in this world, thought Waltin, while at the same time feeling more exhilarated than in a long time. And because Hedberg clearly was good enough to get a recalcitrant minister of justice (nowadays forgotten and removed from politics) under control, then he certainly was still good enough to get Berg to fall in line.
…
When Hedberg wanted to quit and Berg was about to end up in an acute phase of his chronic control mania, Waltin offered to shift Hedberg over to the external operation in order to see to it, under tranquil and well-controlled conditions, that he was kept in a good mood by using him as a so-called external consultant. Berg not only supported this, he thanked him warmly, and because Waltin, in contrast to his so-called boss, was no ordinary wooden head, he’d naturally seen about documenting his gratitude. It’ll work out, thought Waltin, and at the same moment the doorbell rang on his front door.
Outside stood Berg’s own stable boy-he saw that through the peephole-although just now he appeared more fat than terrifying, thought Waltin as he quickly checked his morning getup in the hall mirror before opening the door.
“The earlier in the day the finer the guests,” said Waltin tranquilly as he let the fat man onto his expensive rug. “What can I help you with, chief inspector?”
“Berg wants to talk with you,” said Persson curtly. Don’t put on airs, you stuck-up devil, he thought.
“What does he want?” said Waltin. Since he’s sending his fat household slave, he thought.
“You can take that up with him,” said Persson. You pompous little bastard, he thought.
“Has he forgotten to pay his phone bill?” asked Waltin innocently.
“Don’t know,” said Persson. “Why do you ask that?”
“Because he’s sending you, chief inspector,” said Waltin conciliatorily. “At this early hour.”
“Shall we go?” said Persson. Or should I drag you out, although I probably won’t have such good luck, he thought.
“Tell him that I’ll see him in his office in an hour,” said Waltin, holding the front door in a way that even someone like that ought to understand.
He evidently had too, for he only grunted something before he turned on his heel and left. And Waltin himself whistled under his breath while he stood in the shower and pondered how he would set the whole thing up. High time that he did something about little Jeanette too, he thought. He’d actually been neglecting her lately.
“You chose a preventive effort, you say,” said Berg, looking at the dandy sitting on the other side of his good-sized desk, pinching his eternal trouser creases.
“Not the hint of suspicion of a crime, products that can be purchased freely on the open market and that even the Russians might need… So at that point I chose to inform the corporate executives and recommended a number of preventive measures to them,” Waltin summarized. Instead of injuring our exports, he thought.
“These crime-prevention measures,” said Berg. “What did they consist of?” He seems completely unmoved, Berg thought as he heard the alarm bells in his head start to ring. Faintly, to be sure, but nonetheless clearly enough.
“That it was probably best they move their employee, for his own sake if nothing else, and then I arranged it so they had contact with one of our external consultants, who helped them with an analysis and a security program-forward-directed preventive measures, quite simply. I don’t recall the details, but I’m assuming it was managed and invoiced in the customary way, and I definitely know that from the company’s side they were very satisfied with our efforts.” You should have seen the check they gave me, he thought.
“An external consultant?” asked Berg, although he ought to have listened to the alarm bells, for they were ringing louder now.
“You surely remember Hedberg, whom you asked me to take over a number of years ago,” said Waltin, smiling cordially. “An extraordinary person, as it turned out, even if at the time I no doubt felt a certain hesitation regarding your decision. Yes, considering his earlier difficulties, I mean,” said Waltin with the right worried smile. “So I was wrong, you were right,” said Waltin, allowing his well-manicured fingers to illustrate how wrong he’d been and how right his boss had been.
Hedberg, thought Berg, and now the alarm bells were booming in his head.
“Hedberg.” Waltin savored the name as though it were a fine wine. “I owe you a great debt of gratitude there, considering everything that man has helped us with over the years.” Not least with the Krassner case, he thought. He almost started to giggle out loud when he saw Berg’s face. I’ll wait to mention the Krassner case, he decided.
That’s enough now, thought Berg. That’s more than enough.
“There’s been a lot of talk, as you understand,” said Berg, exerting himself not to sound compliant.
“Yes, I can imagine that,” said Waltin empathetically, “and considering that Hedberg must have been completely innocent, I recall that you told me that the minister of justice at the time personally vouched for him, so it’s really rather frightful.” And let them talk, he thought, for the money I got neither you nor anyone else is going to find.
“I hope you weren’t offended,” said Berg. Does the trap feel like this when it closes? he thought. A week, at the most fourteen days until he had to inform Waltin that his operation would be shut down. Waltin, who certainly would not hesitate for a second to strike back and use Hedberg and his story against him.
“Certainly not,” said Waltin with conviction, smiling with his white teeth. “I think your questions were completely legitimate, and considering that it’s your old protégé Hedberg who has helped us, then I hope that you understand that everything has been managed in the best way.” For now the shit has finally hit the right fan, and considering the context, that was probably an unusually apt description, thought Waltin.
Enough, thought Berg. And the alarm bells were thundering so it was impossible to even think.
“I understand what you mean,” said Berg. What do I do now? he thought.
A little over a week at the new job and Johansson had never felt so frustrated in his entire professional life. He’d of course been aware that he would no longer be working as a police officer. It was the price you had to pay if you wanted to advance, and Johansson could actually imagine life as a high-level bureaucrat. He was good at getting people to feel comfortable and do their part and see to it that there was order in existence, even within the police department. But unfortunately that wasn’t what he was working on. He’d become clear about that after a few days, and there was nothing that even suggested a different, and better, future. During the week that had passed he’d only worked on reassigning bad police officers to higher positions with the help of their extraordinary ratings, and arranging it so that good police officers got to quit early because they’d already had enough. One of them he remembered from his time with the surveillance squad. An officer fifteen years his senior, who not only was a real policeman, but who had gladly shared with a young and inexperienced Lars Martin. Johansson called him up and asked him out to lunch. If for nothing else than to get to see him and see what had happened, and-if nothing had happened after all-to try to persuade him to stay.