Eden couldn’t help thinking about Fredrika. She had seen the way Alex looked at her, and thought she could sense something akin to desire. It wasn’t necessarily sexual; it could just as easily be material or intellectual, and Eden felt that Alex’s desire tended towards the intellectual. Strange. She couldn’t understand why Fredrika and Alex worked so well together when they were so different.
One of the investigators met her in the custody block. Eden wanted to interview Zakaria in his cell. Shake him up a bit.
A guard led them to the cell and unlocked the heavy door. Khelifi sat up on his bed as soon as Eden walked in, with the investigator following two steps behind.
Eden made the introductions and pulled up a chair. She sat down and left her colleague standing; he would soon realise that he was surplus to requirements in any case.
She could see that Zakaria was wondering why she was there. High-ranking officials from Säpo were rarely, if ever, involved in interviews, but Eden wasn’t like everyone else.
‘I would like answers to a few questions,’ she began. ‘You have very little to gain by failing to co-operate. Okay?’
Zakaria was pale, and the green T-shirt he was wearing made him look seasick. His expression was the same one she had seen on the faces of so many others in his situation. Provoked. Angry. Unavoidable emotions for someone who had seen his life’s work smashed to pieces.
‘I’ve got nothing to do with the plane that’s been hijacked.’ Eden took out her cigarettes.
‘Would you like one?’
She saw her colleague open his mouth and close it again. Zakaria hesitated for a second, then took a cigarette. Eden didn’t hesitate at all. She took one for herself then lit both.
‘Let me explain,’ she said, discreetly blowing smoke over her shoulder. ‘It doesn’t matter whether you’re involved in the hijack or not; you might still know something that’s important to us.’
Zakaria shuffled backwards on his bed, puffing greedily on his cigarette. He tapped the ash into an empty coffee cup, and Eden automatically did the same.
‘I’m going to die if you send me back to Algeria,’ he said.
There was no hint of a plea in his voice. His words were a statement, a simple transfer of information.
‘Our assessment of the situation is different,’ Eden said.
Zakaria leaned his head against the wall.
‘In that case, you’re crazy.’
Eden was sitting with her legs crossed as usual. The cigarette felt as familiar between her fingers as the weight of her handbag over her shoulder.
‘We’ll take the responsibility for our decision,’ she said.
‘To protect national security?’
‘Something like that.’
She stubbed out her cigarette.
‘Listen to me, Zakaria. Right now, several hundred people are being held hostage on a plane thirty thousand feet up in the air. We have reason to believe that the person who is behind all this is on board that plane. And we believe there is a risk that this will end in tragedy.’
She looked out of the small window. It was just possible to sense the grey, overcast sky outside.
‘And the really bad news as far as you’re concerned is that it won’t make any difference. You’re going home, Zakaria. I was informed just an hour ago that the government will not revise its decision. It cannot and will not negotiate with terrorists. If you want to stay in Sweden, you’ll have to offer us something better than a hostage scenario.’
Zakaria burst out furiously: ‘How many times do I have to tell you, this is nothing to do with me!’
Eden shrugged.
‘As I’ve already said, it doesn’t make any difference. What I’m trying to explain to you is that if some close friend or relative of yours is sitting on that plane, then that person is risking death or a lengthy prison sentence for nothing. So you would be doing them a great service by co-operating with us.’
‘That’s the second time you’ve mentioned co-operating,’ Zakaria said.
‘And I shall carry on mentioning it,’ Eden said. ‘It’s a good idea.’
Zakaria dropped his cigarette into the coffee cup. ‘What’s in it for me?’
‘That’s something we can discuss, of course. Have you any idea who might be behind this mess?’
Zakaria shook his head. ‘I haven’t a clue. I don’t know anyone who’s capable of something like this. I don’t move in that kind of circle.’
‘Oh, please,’ Eden said. ‘We’ve already dealt with all that. You’ve seen our surveillance footage, heard our phone tap material. You know that we know who your friends are.’
Zakaria stared at Eden, then burst out laughing. But his eyes were full of sorrow.
‘You are fucking unbelievable. You sit there with your stupid photograph and leap to conclusions that put every conspiracy theory about Elvis in the shade. You have nothing, nothing that proves I was involved in planning a terrorist attack with Hassan and Ellis.’
‘I think I have a great deal,’ Eden said. ‘Not only did you collect that package…’
‘I’ve told you, I didn’t know what was in it!’
‘… but your friend Ellis was kind enough to tell us that you were involved.’
The look Zakaria gave her was poisonous.
‘Just think about it,’ Eden said, leaning towards Zakaria. ‘You could make the difference between life and death for several hundred people. If you’re really not like Ellis and Hassan, you shouldn’t have any objections to helping us in our investigation. Who could be behind this?’
Zakaria scratched his head. He looked tired. When he glanced up and met Eden’s gaze, she felt sorry for him for the first time.
‘I don’t know anything about this. Nothing at all.’
And she believed him.
Shit.
She sat still for a little while longer. Her colleague didn’t move either; he seemed to have accepted his role.
Zakaria took a deep breath. ‘You have to listen to me,’ he said, pleading with her for the first time. ‘I am not involved in any form of terrorism. I know you were able to link my phone to previous investigations, but as I’ve said a hundred times, that phone didn’t belong to me back then.’
Eden knew that had been his defence, but it didn’t really change anything.
‘But you wouldn’t tell us whose phone it was, who you bought it from. And in court, you suddenly said that you didn’t remember the name of the person who sold it to you, or when you bought it. In which case, surely you have to understand that your story isn’t very convincing?’
Zakaria said nothing.
‘I presume you still don’t remember where you got your mobile from?’
Eden straightened up. Of course he wasn’t going to answer a question like that; it was all lies. Zakaria had no credibility left on this particular point; he had changed his story about the phone so many times that it was impossible to take him seriously, whatever he said.
Still he didn’t speak; clearly the pleading was over for now.
‘No? Okay. You don’t remember, and I don’t have time to guess.’
Eden got to her feet.
‘Whenever you come up with the name of someone you think could be involved in the hijack, just tell the guard and he’ll arrange for one of us to come down and see you.’
She put the chair back in the corner.
‘Thanks for the chat.’
‘Thanks for the cigarette.’
‘You’re welcome,’ Eden said, and left the cell, with her colleague trailing behind her.
24 13:15
‘I thought someone from Säpo was supposed to be coming with us?’ Fredrika said as they were driving along Sankt Eriksgatan towards Torsgatan.
They were on their way to Solna, where Karim lived.