According to what she states, Kjell Göran Hedberg started as an apprentice at a small shipyard and boat builder in Vaxholm when he finished school in the summer of 1960. Because they were neighbors in Vaxholm, up to the middle of the sixties, they ran into each other regularly when they were in town, seeing mutual friends, etc. She has not had any closer association with Hedberg, however, neither during their time in school nor later. At the same time they have never been enemies and always talked with each other the few times they happened to meet.
During the following years they met more seldom. She knows however that he started at the police academy in the mid-sixties and became a policeman a few years later. It was her parents who told her that. Sometime in the early seventies, when she was working at the emergency room at Södersjukhuset, she saw Hedberg and an associate of his who were then working as patrol officers in Stockholm. On the occasion in question they brought in an intoxicated individual who had been knifed. On the same occasion they also had a cup of coffee together and exchanged phone numbers. The reason for the latter was that she and her husband at the time were thinking about buying a sailboat and she took the opportunity to ask Hedberg for advice because she knew he had worked at shipyards before and had some contacts in the boat business. No renewed contact on account of this was made, however.
Thereafter it was almost ten years before she encountered Kjell Göran Hedberg again. On a summer evening sometime in the late seventies when she and her husband at the time visited the hotel in Vaxholm to have dinner. Hedberg was there for the same reason, together with a woman she was surely introduced to but whose name she does not recall. On the other hand she remembers that he mentioned then that he was working at SePo.
The last time she met Kjell Göran Hedberg was about eleven o’clock in the evening, on Friday the twenty-eighth of February 1986, on Sveavägen in Stockholm.
LISA MATTEI:
Tell me about the last time you saw Kjell Göran Hedberg. In as much detail as possible.
GERTRUD ROSENBERG:
As I said to you earlier it was the same evening that Palme was shot. On that point I’m quite certain. I and the person I was with were walking on Sveavägen heading north. We’d had dinner at a restaurant by Kungsträdgården. We had booked a room at a hotel by Tegnérlunden. There were a lot of people walking in the opposite direction. The movie theaters had just closed, which was probably why. Considering that we were actually both married to other people plus he was my boss, we chose to turn off to the left onto Adolf Fredriks Kyrkogata where there weren’t so many people. So as not to run into anyone we knew. It was right then that I saw Kjell. At the intersection between Sveavägen and Adolf Fredriks Kyrkogata. Right by the hot dog stand that’s there. On the same side of the street as the church and the cemetery. Just as we’d turned onto the cross street, he entered the crosswalk headed in the direction of Kungsgatan. So I saw him from the side at an angle at a distance of five or six yards, and as I already told you I have excellent vision in both eyes.
LISA MATTEI:
And the time was…
GERTRUD ROSENBERG:
Well past eleven. You see, we left the restaurant right after eleven, that I remember. Say it took perhaps fifteen minutes to walk to where we saw him. The weather was terrible so we were walking fast. We were in love, too, so I guess we were in a hurry to get back to our hotel room.
LISA MATTEI:
A quarter past eleven?
GERTRUD ROSENBERG:
Yes. A quarter past eleven. Not earlier.
LISA MATTEI:
You’re certain it was Kjell Hedberg you saw?
GERTRUD ROSENBERG:
Spontaneously, yes. I was even about to say hi to him. At the same moment it struck me that perhaps that wasn’t so suitable, considering that he had actually met my husband. Although you should know that I hesitated, went back and forth. Quite a while, then I decided that I’d only seen someone who looked like Kjell. Considering what happened, that is.
LISA MATTEI:
Did he see you?
GERTRUD ROSENBERG:
I really don’t think so. He was walking fast. Seemed to have his attention directed at the other side of the street. Sveavägen that is.
LISA MATTEI:
At the same time as he’s walking straight ahead? In the opposite direction, toward Kungsgatan and at a brisk pace?
GERTRUD ROSENBERG:
Yes. It was the way he walked too. Typical Kjell. He was like that. Good condition, goal-oriented, always had his eyes open. The clothes were also Kjell, in some way. A practical, somewhat longer jacket. Dark winter model. Dark gray pants, not jeans, certainly proper shoes on his feet even though I didn’t think about that. Nicely and practically dressed. That was Kjell to a T if I may say so…
“She’s out getting a little on the side?” asked Johansson, looking up from the papers he had in his hand and at Mattei.
“Yes,” said Mattei. “She and her boss. For a month by then. Married to other people. She was living on Kungsholmen with her husband and two children. He was living in Östermalm with his wife. Fifteen years older than her, so his kids had left the nest. Officially he was at a conference in Denmark. His wife was probably at home. Our witness, on the other hand, was a grass widow. Her husband had taken the children and gone to the mountains during sports week.”
“So why didn’t they go to her place?”
“I asked her that. She didn’t want to. Thought there was a boundary there.”
“Yes, I suppose there is,” sighed Johansson. “So instead they go to Hotel Tegnér up by Tegnérlunden.”
“Which I guess we should be happy about,” Mattei observed.
“Why?” wondered Johansson.
“I haven’t had time to tell you yet, but I found the hotel booking this morning. It was in one of those old boxes that Jan always sighs about. One of a couple of thousand hotel reservations that were never processed. Gertrud Lindberg, that’s her maiden name, had reserved a double room for one night. Did it the day before, by phone. Gives her parents’ address in Vaxholm.”
“Who would have ever thought of her if they had rooted through those piles of papers?” sighed Johansson. “So why did she wait so long before she got in touch with us?” said Johansson. “Before she contacted our dear colleagues if I were to put it correctly.”
“It’s in the interview,” said Lisa Mattei.
“I know,” sighed Johansson. “Help an old man.”
“The reason she didn’t make contact immediately was not that she’d been ‘getting a little on the side.’ That’s not the decisive reason, and there I actually believe her,” said Mattei.
“So what’s the reason?”
“That she didn’t think she had anything to add. At that point in time she didn’t have the slightest thought that Kjell Hedberg could have been involved in the murder. She didn’t see the Palmes. No Christer Pettersson character either. Or anything else that was shady or strange. She didn’t hear any shots. It was a Friday evening after payday, lots of people out in town to amuse themselves. Apparently also an old schoolmate of hers. Perhaps on his way to a secret mistress?”
“Not a peep about the historical moment?”