As she got into the car, she grew pensive. What could be so urgent? The only thing she could think of was that it must have something to do with the visit to Junk-Olle’s place. Presumably Patrik and Gösta had found the family’s belongings. Whistling, she began driving towards Tanumshede. Suddenly she regretted her complaints about Patrik, at least to some extent. If he allowed her to help comb through everything, she would gladly do all the household chores single-handed for a whole month.
She pulled into the car park at the station and dashed inside the ugly, low building. The reception area was empty.
‘Patrik?’ she called as she walked down the corridor.
‘We’re in here. In the conference room.’
She stopped in the doorway. The entire table and floor were covered with all sort of items.
‘This wasn’t my idea,’ said Patrik with his back turned. ‘Gösta thought that you deserved to be present.’
She threw a kiss to Gösta, who blushed and turned away.
‘Have you found anything interesting yet?’ she asked.
‘No. We’re still unpacking, and we haven’t got very far.’ Patrik blew the dust off of several photo albums, which he set on the table.
‘Shall I help unpack, or should I start examining what’s here?’
‘The boxes are almost empty, so go ahead and start.’ He turned around to face her. ‘Did Mamma come over to the house?’
‘No, the kids are old enough so I thought I could leave them on their own for a while.’ She laughed. ‘Of course Kristina came over. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known that I was supposed to come here.’
‘I tried to get hold of Anna first, but she didn’t answer the landline or her mobile.’
‘She didn’t? That’s strange.’ Erica frowned. Anna was seldom more than a few metres away from her mobile.
‘Dan and the children are away, so I’ll bet she’s dozing outside in a deck chair, having a wonderful time.’
‘You’re probably right.’ She shook off the uneasy feeling and began going through all the things spread out in the room.
They worked in silence for a long time. The boxes had contained mostly ordinary things that anyone would have: books, pens, hairbrushes, shoes, and clothes that now smelled musty and mildewy.
‘What happened to the furniture and all the knick-knacks?’ asked Erica.
‘They stayed in the house. I suspect that most of the stuff disappeared over the years, considering all the tenants that lived there. We’ll have to ask Ebba and Tobias about that. There must have been at least a few things left when they moved in this spring.’
‘By the way, Anna went out to see Tobias yesterday. She borrowed the boat. I wonder if she got back okay.’
‘I’m sure she’s fine, but you could phone Tobias if you’re worried and find out when she left for home.’
‘I think I’ll do that.’
Erica took her mobile out of her handbag and tapped in Tobias’s number. The conversation was brief, and after she ended the call, she looked at Patrik.
‘Anna was out there for only an hour last night, and the sea was perfectly calm when she left.’
Patrik wiped his dusty hands on his trousers. ‘You see.’
‘Yes, I’m glad I called.’ Erica nodded, but inside she felt a nagging doubt. Something didn’t feel right. At the same time, she knew that she tended to worry too much, and she often overreacted, so she pushed the thoughts aside and went back to studying the items they’d taken out of the boxes.
‘This is so odd,’ she said, holding up a grocery list. ‘Inez must have written this. It’s hard to remember that she actually had a regular life that included things like grocery lists: milk, eggs, sugar, jam, coffee…’ Erica handed the list to Patrik.
He glanced at it, sighed, and handed it back. ‘We don’t have time for things like this. We need to focus on finding something that might be relevant to the case.’
‘Okay,’ said Erica, putting the paper back on the table.
They continued their search.
‘A very methodical guy, that Rune,’ said Gösta, showing them an exercise book that seemed to contain an accounting of all their expenses. The handwriting was so neat that it almost looked as if the pages had been typed.
‘Apparently no expense was too small to record,’ said Gösta, leafing through the exercise book.
‘That doesn’t surprise me, considering what I’ve heard about Rune,’ said Erica.
‘Check this out. It looks like someone had a crush on Leon.’ Patrik held up a page that had been torn from a notebook and was covered with scribblings.
‘A heart L,’ read Erica out loud. ‘And she was practising her future name: Annelie Kreutz. So Annelie was in love with Leon. That also fits with what I’ve heard.’
‘I wonder what Pappa Rune made of that,’ remarked Gösta.
‘Considering his need to control everything, it might have been catastrophic if they actually had a relationship,’ said Patrik.
‘The question is whether the feeling was mutual.’ Erica sat down on the edge of the table. ‘Annelie was in love with Leon, but was Leon in love with her? According to John, he wasn’t, but he might have been keeping his feelings secret from the others.’
‘The night-time noises,’ said Gösta. ‘You told us that Ove Linder said he heard noises in the night. Could it have been Leon and Annelie sneaking around?’
‘Or maybe it was ghosts,’ said Patrik.
‘Right,’ said Gösta, pulling over a bunch of receipts so he could go through them. ‘Has Ebba gone back out to the island?’
‘Yes, she caught a ride with the mail boat,’ said Erica absentmindedly. She had picked up one of the photo albums and was studying the pictures intently. There was a picture of a young woman with long, straight hair, holding a child in her arms. ‘She doesn’t look very happy.’
Patrik peered over her shoulder. ‘Inez and Ebba.’
‘Yes, and these must be Rune’s other children.’ She pointed at three children of varying ages and heights, who seemed to be reluctantly posing in front of a wall.
‘Ebba will be overjoyed to have these pictures,’ said Erica, turning the page. ‘They’ll mean so much to her. Ah, this must be her maternal grandmother, Laura.’
‘That woman looks dangerous,’ said Gösta, peering over Erica’s shoulder.
‘How old was she when she died?’ asked Patrik.
Erica paused to think. ‘She must have been fifty-three. They found her dead behind the house early in the morning.’
‘Nothing suspicious about her death?’ asked Patrik.
‘No, not as far as I know. Have you heard otherwise, Gösta?’
He shook his head. ‘The doctor went out there and decided that for some reason she must have gone out at night, suffered a heart attack, and died. There were no indications that her death was caused by anything but natural causes.’
‘Was it her mother who disappeared?’ asked Patrik.
‘Yes. Dagmar disappeared in 1949.’
‘An inveterate alcoholic,’ said Gösta. ‘At least, that’s what I heard.’
‘It’s a miracle that Ebba has turned out so normal, considering her family history.’
‘Maybe that’s because she grew up on Rosenstigen instead of out on Valö,’ said Gösta.
‘You’re probably right,’ said Patrik as he went back to rummaging through the items.
Two hours later they’d been through everything, and they exchanged looks of disappointment. Although Ebba would undoubtedly appreciate having more family photos and personal possessions, they hadn’t found anything of use to the investigation. Erica was on the verge of tears. She’d had such high expectations, but the conference room was cluttered with objects that were of no use to them whatever.
She glanced at her husband. Something was bothering him, but apparently he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. She’d seen that expression on his face before.
‘What are you thinking?’
‘I’m not sure, but something seems… fishy. I’m sure it will come to me later,’ he said, sounding annoyed.