‘Apparently, he’s travelling in his own car,’ Alex replied.
They headed along Torsgatan towards the Solna Bridge and passed the Northern Station area, which had been transformed into a gigantic building site. There was talk of thousands of new homes and offices, but for most people the final outcome seemed very distant. So far there was no sign of any construction, just a whole lot of dust.
‘What’s your impression of Säpo?’
Fredrika couldn’t help feeling curious. The people she had met at the two meetings she had attended so far had looked much as she had expected: well-dressed and talented. Eden Lundell was different, however; she was too colourful, too obvious. There was nothing discreet about Eden’s appearance, and yet it seemed to Fredrika that she didn’t give away anything of herself.
‘They’ve surprised me,’ Alex said. ‘I thought they’d be greyer, more boring.’
‘Why?’
‘I’ve had several colleagues who’ve moved across to Säpo over the years, and none of them has looked exactly full of the joys of spring. Admittedly, they’ve all said they were happy in their new post, in spite of the fact that everything was so bloody secretive, but I could tell that things weren’t right somehow. Eventually, one of them got pissed at a party and told me the truth – that he would never have stayed if the money hadn’t been so good. Although he did seem to be doing a particularly boring job, and I’m sure a lot of them enjoy their work. Eden certainly seems to.’
Fredrika shuddered. A boring job was the worst thing in the world. She also had friends and former colleagues who had moved over to Säpo, and had reached approximately the same conclusion as Alex. Not enough happened at Säpo, however bizarre that might sound, to make it worth applying for a post there.
Alex slowed down; they had arrived.
Karim Sassi lived in a house at the end of a terrace. Fredrika noticed that most of the windows lacked curtains, but there were large potted plants in several of them. She could see that the small garden at the front of the house was well cared for, even though autumn had come early and mercilessly killed off everything that was pretty and flourishing in the borders.
They got out and were walking towards the front door just as another car appeared and parked behind Alex. A tall, dark man got out, raising a hand in greeting.
‘No one home?’ he asked.
‘We don’t know yet,’ Alex replied.
‘I can’t see any lights,’ Fredrika said.
The house was in darkness. She pulled her jacket more tightly around her; why did it always have to be so cold?
Alex rang the bell, and the shrill sound made them all jump. No one came, and Alex tried again.
The guy from Säpo shook his head.
‘There’s no one in,’ he said. He went down the steps and started peering in through the windows.
Alex followed him, but Fredrika waited at the bottom of the steps. She was too short to be able to see in properly.
This was a very pleasant area. Quiet. Plenty of greenery. Spencer, who had spent the whole of his adult life living in houses, had begun to question their decision to live in an apartment in the city centre. The children needed a garden, he said. But Fredrika thought it was more about Spencer’s own needs, about his identity.
You can’t fool me, my darling.
Fredrika would rather stick pins in her eyes than live outside the city.
‘If you can find a house in the middle of town, then I’ll move,’ she had said.
They hadn’t really discussed the matter since then.
Alex and the guy from Säpo had finished inspecting the house. No one was home, it was as simple as that.
‘I suppose the kids are in school and the wife is at work,’ Alex concluded.
But Fredrika had the feeling there was more to it. The house had a deserted air about it, and she wondered if the family had actually gone away.
‘Don’t we have a phone number for the wife?’ she asked. ‘We could call her instead.’
‘We checked but we couldn’t find anything,’ Alex said. ‘That’s why we had to waste time driving over here. We don’t even have a landline number.’
As they headed back towards the cars, they saw a young woman with a buggy approaching Karim’s house. She looked worried, and slowed down before stopping a few yards away.
Alex went to meet her, and introduced himself and his colleagues. Fredrika thought he had a disarming manner when he spoke to people he didn’t know, whereas she had a tendency to become more rigid, getting stuck in her professional role in a way that failed to inspire trust.
The woman told them she was a close friend of the Sassi family.
‘I live over there,’ she said, pointing. ‘We usually keep an eye on the post when one of us is away; I was just coming to empty their mailbox.’
So they had gone away. Fredrika felt a stab of disappointment, and she could see that Alex felt the same. Their colleague from Säpo remained expressionless.
‘Has something happened?’ the woman asked. ‘With the police being here, I mean.’
She looked even more worried as she went on.
‘Well, I mean of course something’s happened; such a lot seems to have gone on, both yesterday and today. It’s all very upsetting, what with this plane being hijacked and everything.’
Strangely enough, she didn’t seem to have made a connection between the police’s visit to Karim’s house and the plane she had just mentioned, Fredrika thought. If they were such good friends that they took care of each other’s post, then she must know that Karim was a pilot.
‘We need to get hold of Karim’s wife,’ Alex said. ‘It’s nothing serious, we’d just like to ask her one or two questions. I don’t suppose you have her contact details?’
The neighbour started rummaging in her handbag.
‘Yes, I’ve got her mobile number here. She usually keeps her phone switched on even when she’s in Denmark.’
‘Denmark?’
‘Her parents live there; she was born and raised in Copenhagen.’
‘I see. Will she be there for long?’
‘They left this morning, and I think they’re staying all week.’
So they wouldn’t be able to see her face to face for several days, but that didn’t matter; they would have to call her instead.
We only have hours in any case.
Fredrik had to remind herself that this investigation had a time limit unlike any other. She pictured the plane as she silently worked out how much fuel was being used up every minute, every hour. How could they possibly fix this in time?
‘You haven’t noticed anything unusual in the neighbourhood over the last few days?’ Alex asked casually.
The woman shook her head.
‘No, I can’t say I have.’
‘Good,’ Alex said. ‘In that case, I’m sure everything’s fine.’
He made a note of the mobile number and thanked the woman for her help.
As they were just about to walk away, she suddenly said, ‘Actually, there was something.’
It was always the same. There was usually something to remember if you just thought about it.
‘Tell me,’ Alex said.
‘I don’t know if this is of any interest to you, but when I came over to pick up the key this morning, I saw Karim’s youngest daughter talking to a girl I didn’t recognise.’
‘It wasn’t another mother from somewhere around here?’
‘No, I don’t think so, but I have to confess that I can’t really tell you much about what she looked like. She was leaning forward, facing away from me. Karim’s daughter was playing in the front garden, and the door was open. This girl was standing on the pavement, talking to the child over the fence. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it if the little girl hadn’t got so upset.’
Fredrika could see that Alex was digesting what he had heard. Could this have something to do with the investigation, or was it just an unrelated incident?
‘Why did she get upset?’