‘I promise,’ Holt said. She knew she was good, and unlike far too many of her sisters, she had no problem saying so if it proved necessary. But as for being the best? And hearing that from Johansson? It’s a bit much, considering how much I’ve argued with him over the years, she thought.
‘Good,’ Johansson said with a smile. ‘Well, enough of that, we’re here to have a good time. No more business. Back to pleasure. You choose the next subject, Anna.’
‘Tell me,’ Holt said. ‘Tell me why you’ve suddenly decided to stop being a police officer.’
‘As I said,’ Johansson said, still cheerful. ‘It’s time to have fun. No more business. But if you like, I could tell you why I became a police officer. How it all started, so to speak.’
‘Why did you become a police officer?’ He hasn’t changed, Holt thought.
‘Because I like working things out,’ Johansson said. ‘That’s always been my great passion. That and Pia, of course. The incomprehensible happiness of finding the woman of your life more than halfway through your time on earth.’
And now that you know who killed the prime minister, it isn’t so much fun finding things out anymore, Anna Holt thought. Which leaves your wife, because, after all, you still love her, she thought.
25.
One week later the Stockholm County police chief had called and asked if he could invite Holt for lunch. Preferably as soon as possible.
‘That sounds lovely,’ Anna Holt said. Because they were both on the board of the same network for female police officers, because they liked each other, respected each other, and because there wasn’t the slightest reason to say no.
‘That sounds lovely. When did you have in mind?’ Holt asked.
‘Can you do Friday next week?’ the county police chief had asked. ‘I thought we might eat in my office so we won’t have to deal with all those strange men.’
‘Sounds like an excellent idea,’ Holt agreed.
Fortunately someone who wasn’t the slightest bit like Johansson, she thought, as she hung up.
On Friday the next week she had been asked the same question.
‘Would you like to become police chief of the Western District? I’d be very happy if you said yes.’
‘Yes,’ Holt said, and nodded. ‘I’d love to.’
‘It’s a deal, then,’ said the county police chief, who didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised.
Anna Holt’s appointment had been made public at the start of January, and on Monday, March 3, she had started her new job. The mills of bureaucracy ground slowly. This time they had ground faster than they usually did.
Considering the job she had chosen, her honeymoon had lasted considerably longer than she had any right to expect. After six weeks as police chief of the Western District the county police chief had contacted her once more.
‘We have to meet, Anna,’ she said. ‘At once, ideally. I want to ask you for a favor.’
Why am I suddenly thinking that you sound almost like Johansson? Anna Holt wondered.
‘You wanted to ask me for a favor?’ Anna Holt said when she was sitting in the county police chief’s office a couple hours later.
‘Yes,’ she said, and looked as if she was getting ready to take the plunge.
‘Out with it, then,’ Holt said with a smile.
‘Evert Bäckström,’ the county police chief said.
‘Evert Bäckström,’ Anna Holt repeated, not even trying to conceal her astonishment.
‘Are we talking about the same Evert Bäckström who is currently with the Stockholm Police property tracing department? The Evert Bäckström, so to speak?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ the county police chief said with a smile. Well, she made a good attempt at smiling, at any rate. A smile that she had to struggle to achieve.
‘You have a vacant superintendent’s post in the Western District. I want us to put Bäckström in it,’ she clarified.
‘Considering that we know each other and that I respect you...’
‘The respect is mutual, you know,’ the county police chief interjected.
‘... I can only assume that you have very good reasons.’
‘I’ll say,’ the county police chief said with feeling. ‘If only you knew. To deal with the practical side first, I was thinking that we could put him there for the time being, on a temporary placement, which means that we’d avoid any formal difficulties and still have our hands free if it turns out that isn’t working. You don’t have to worry about that.’
‘Hang on,’ Holt said, holding up her hands in a blocking gesture. ‘Before we do anything, I think I’d like to hear your arguments.’ A month or so into this new job, Holt thought. Then suddenly Bäckström tumbles from the sky. Right into my arms. Like a fallen angel, or rather a middle-aged, broken-winged, and very fat cherub.
‘I’ve got several arguments if you can bear to hear them,’ the county police chief said, getting ready to take the plunge again. ‘If you can bear it?’
‘Yes. Of course. I’m listening,’ Holt said.
To start with, Bäckström had a senior post. After all, he had actually been a superintendent with the National Criminal Investigation Department’s own murder unit until his most senior boss had kicked him out and had him transferred back to Stockholm, where he had his basic post.
‘For reasons that I’ve never managed to get entirely clear,’ the county police chief said. ‘He isn’t a bad detective, after all. He’s solved a large number of serious crimes.’
‘Hmm,’ said Holt, who had worked with him. ‘He runs round like a herd of elephants, tearing up everything in his path. Once the dust has settled, his colleagues usually manage to find one or two interesting things. Apart from the way he goes about things, I might actually agree with you. Whenever Bäckström is around, things do at least seem to happen.’
‘Yes, the man seems to have an inexhaustible amount of energy,’ the county police chief said with a deep sigh.
‘Yes, it’s completely incomprehensible, considering the way he lives and the way he looks,’ Holt agreed.
‘His current posting in property was an unfortunate choice. It’s not that any of his bosses have come up with anything concrete against him. But there’s a huge amount of gossip. I don’t actually think enough has been done to try to help him. He’s been given work that doesn’t interest him. Bäckström feels that he’s been unfairly treated. Unfortunately there’s a degree of justification in that, and the Police Officers’ Association are on my back constantly. He also has excellent references. Outstanding references, actually.’
The sort of references you get when your bosses want to get rid of you, Holt thought. How on earth had that happened? she thought, but contented herself with a nod.
‘Anna,’ the county police chief said, with another sigh. ‘I have a feeling that you’re the only person who can handle him. And if you fail, I promise to take him back. Maybe even sack him, although that would have the union demanding my head on a platter.’
‘I’m still listening,’ Holt said.
‘Over the past six months he’s been going round saying that he’s uncovered a secret cabal that was involved in Palme’s murder. And I was stupid enough to let him present a report about it. I can assure you, Anna...’
‘I know,’ Anna Holt said. ‘I’ve heard him myself.’
‘Obviously it’s ridiculous, especially when you consider that one of the people he identifies as being part of the cabal suddenly got in touch with me and asked me to help him. Help Bäckström, I mean. A senior member of parliament. He reckons Bäckström’s the victim of official maltreatment. Several times over, no less.’