‘And Säpo?’
‘I’ll make sure that you have access to the areas and information you need. What do you say?’
There wasn’t one iota of hesitation in Fredrika’s mind.
‘I say yes.’
And that was it. Fredrika Bergman was – temporarily – on her way back to the police.
With a feeling that she had stepped back in time two years, Fredrik walked into Alex’s office less than an hour later. It wasn’t the same office, but it was the same Alex.
‘Back again,’ he said.
‘It’s only temporary.’
‘I’ll believe that when I see it.’
She remained standing. Her handbag slid off her shoulder and she heard it land on the floor with a thud.
‘Sit down,’ Alex said. ‘Säpo and I have just discussed the allocation of the most urgent tasks; we’ve worked out what they’re going to do and what the National Bureau of Investigation will do. I’m heading out to try to get hold of Karim Sassi’s family, along with an investigator from Säpo. Do you want to come?’
Fredrika was confused.
‘I don’t know. I don’t think I’m here to go out and about with you.’
‘So why are you here?’ Alex sounded annoyed.
‘Well, I’m supposed to act as a kind of liaison officer, make sure the communication channels between the police and the government office are kept open so that we don’t end up out of the loop. It’s important that we’re updated on a regular basis.’
‘So what are you going to do? Just sit here?’
She swallowed. ‘I’ll come with you.’
Alex looked pleased.
‘I just need to call in and see where Säpo are up to,’ Fredrika added.
‘I’ve just come from there – I can give you the latest,’ Alex said.
Fredrika got up and followed Alex out of the room, the sight of his broad back making her feel safe. The corridor on which the National Bureau of Investigation was located looked just like every other corridor in Police HQ, and it smelled the same too. Coffee. Always coffee.
‘Does it feel good to be back?’
‘Alex, I’m not back. I’m just here because of the hijacking.’
He didn’t say anything – he didn’t need to. She could tell exactly what he was thinking: that she was fooling herself and everyone around her. That she belonged in the police.
God knows where I belong, Fredrika thought. Everywhere and nowhere.
She was suddenly overwhelmed by memories of the year in New York. Endless days spent pushing her son’s buggy up and down the streets of Manhattan, thinking she was the luckiest woman in the world. It had been good for them to get away. Spencer had had the chance to grow, to heal after everything that had gone wrong. He was only a few years away from retirement age, but he had made it clear to both Fredrika and his superiors that he intended to carry on working. For a long time.
The underground car park was just the same; several storeys deep, the air full of cold and exhaust fumes. She didn’t like being down there, and got in the car as quickly as she could. Alex explained why they were going to speak to Karim’s family, and the colour drained from Fredrika’s face.
‘Hang on a minute – are you telling me you think the captain is involved in this whole business?’
‘We don’t think anything and we know virtually nothing,’ Alex replied. ‘But from what we’ve seen, Karim Sassi has been in contact with one of the mobile phones that was used to make the bomb threats in Stockholm yesterday. And that’s why we want to talk to his family, find out whether they noticed if he seemed tense or was behaving oddly before this trip.’
‘Can’t you ask him straight out? Over the phone?’
Alex manoeuvred the car out of the cramped car park.
‘And risk a situation where he feels pressurised, and does something really stupid? We don’t actually know if he is involved. But if he is, then I don’t like the idea of discussing it over the phone.’
He was right, of course. It was a nightmare for all concerned if Karim was part of the plan. If the terrorists had the pilot on their side, then they didn’t need bombs.
‘If the worst comes to the worst,’ Fredrika said slowly. ‘If we find out that Karim really is a part of what’s going on…’
She fell silent.
‘Yes?’
‘What then? Could you call Erik and ask him to take over the controls, if that’s the case?’
She could see that the same thought had occurred to Alex.
‘I don’t know. If we do end up facing that situation, I’m afraid they would take me off the case. After what happened with Peder.’
Fredrika knew exactly what he meant. Peder’s actions two years ago when he shot dead the man who had murdered his brother had led to a major internal investigation. There had been endless discussions about what could have been done differently. How could the tragedy have been avoided? Because it was a tragedy, there was no other way of looking at it. Peder had lost his job, and the police had lost a valued colleague. Fredrika hadn’t given much thought to what the world had lost through Peder’s crime; from what she had heard, the man he had shot would be missed by no one.
Unlike everyone on board Flight 573.
Going to Karim Sassi’s house seemed like a good idea. What, if anything, had this married father with young children got himself into? What was he hiding, this man who carried the responsibility for the lives of over four hundred people?
No crime could be planned and carried out without a single person realising what was going on.
If Karim was mixed up in the hijack, they would soon know about it.
23 13:00
They couldn’t put it off any longer. It was time to go over to the cells and talk to Zakaria Khelifi. Eden Lundell knew he had been told that an entire jumbo jet had been hijacked in his honour.
She hated the fact that a plane was under threat rather than a terrestrial target. The situation was slipping through her fingers, and there wasn’t a thing she could do to change that. And the time she had at her disposal was disappearing fast.
The press hadn’t revealed exactly which flight was involved, which meant that virtually every single individual with a relative who was currently on board a plane was calling the police to find out if the person they knew was at risk. Eden just couldn’t understand how responsible adults could behave in that way. The newspapers had made it absolutely clear that the hijacked plane was on its way to the USA, so why would someone whose relative was on the way to Lanzarote call the police?
Sebastian had gently suggested that she should be a little more self-critical. They had decided against confirming the story in the mass media, which had led to increased speculation.
‘We have to give them something,’ he said.
‘Like what?’
‘Anything at all. Confirm that there has been a threat, at least. That it definitely involves a flight to the USA and nowhere else. We don’t have to be any more specific than that.’
The police and Foreign Office switchboards were jammed. Eden had refused to release the passenger lists, which meant that those who called didn’t get an answer to their questions. It wouldn’t work for long, but it would have to do for the time being.
Eden wanted to question Khelifi herself, or Zakaria as she usually thought of him, and there were several people who objected to that particular suggestion. Her own head of department was very clear about what a stupid idea it was.
‘Eden, someone in your position doesn’t conduct an interrogation.’
‘Since when?’
‘Since always. You need to leave this to one of Dennis’s team.’
Eden informed Dennis, the head of investigation, that she would be happy to take one of his team along with her, but that she absolutely intended to be there. She heard her boss sigh behind her as she left his office.
But Eden didn’t care. She knew when she wanted something, and she knew how to get it. Alex Recht and Fredrika Bergman had just gone to talk to Karim Sassi’s family, and Säpo were going to speak to Zakaria Khelifi at the same time; after all, he was the protagonist in the drama.