Anna-Karin nodded. “Yes, that’s the only place they could be together. On the weekends, when the hospital was empty. Then Linda broke up with Pontus. They probably could have gone to her place after that, but the neighbors.…”
“Linda told you that they were planning to get married?”
“Yes.”
“When did she tell you that?”
Anna-Karin swallowed a few times before she replied in a whisper, “The weekend before she … died. She’d come to my place because I was alone. My guy was at work. We shared a bottle of wine. That’s when she told me everything. Nobody else knew anything about it. But I guess she felt she had to confide in someone.”
“Please excuse this personal question, but what is your boyfriend’s name and why was he working on the weekend? We’ve heard he worked at a school, and they don’t work on weekends, do they?”
A tiny smile appeared on Anna-Karin’s otherwise troubled face.
“His name is Ola Pettersson, and he is the principal of Varberg’s high school. He was one of the chaperones for a school dance Saturday evening, so we weren’t together that weekend.”
Irene returned to her main line of questioning. “So in that short space of time, Sverker had already proposed?”
“Yes, that’s what she said.”
“Did she say anything else? Did she feel threatened by anyone?”
“No, not at all. She was out of her mind with happiness.”
Irene thought over what she’d just heard. Now she understood why Linda was at Löwander Hospital in the middle of the night. She asked carefully, “Do you believe that Linda was meeting Sverker the night she and Marianne were killed?”
Anna-Karin nodded and said with a shaking voice, “Yes, and I just can’t figure it out. I’ve been beating my brains out over this. I was the only person who knew that they were together and meeting at the hospital. Why were Marianne and Linda killed? It can’t have been Sverker. I know that. He loved Linda.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because of what Linda said. And you police, too, must see that he’s sick with sorrow! I can tell you he’s aged ten years in just the few weeks since Linda disappeared—and was found.”
Anna-Karin had turned her tissue into a hard ball by this point, and she started nervously plucking tufts from it. Irene sighed and reached for the wastebasket under her desk. She held it toward Anna-Karin as she said in a friendly manner, “You can throw it here.”
For the first time that day, the nurse’s pale face flushed again to the well-known bright red. It looked much healthier. Irene continued, “Have you thought of where you’re going to live now that your apartment is gone?”
Anna-Karin started. “I haven’t thought about that yet. I guess I’ll have to stay with Mama for a while. She lives in Kungälv. I can take the bus to work from there.”
“Good. We will need your telephone number and address there. However, do not go back to work until these murders have been cleared up. And under no circumstances are you to give your new address and phone number to anyone at Löwander Hospital. It’s much too dangerous. Lie low for a while in Kungälv.”
“Can I leave Kungälv to visit Ola in Varberg?” Anna-Karin asked meekly.
“Just keep in contact with him by phone for a few days. We have the feeling that we’re going to solve this case and put the killer behind bars fairly soon.”
Irene’s voice sounded more certain than she felt, but Anna-Karin seemed to gather courage from her words.
Anna-Karin was given the opportunity to call her mother and make arrangements. As she told her mother about the fire, the flood of tears returned, and the officers could hear that her mother was crying just as hard. Once she hung up, she seemed in a much better mood. Tommy arranged a police escort to Kungälv.
As soon as Anna-Karin left the room, Irene reached for the phone and called Löwander Hospital.
“YES, LINDA AND I have—had a relationship.”
If Sverker Löwander had seemed hassled and worn out before, he was a total mess now. His eyes were sunken into their sockets. His hair was unwashed, and it appeared he’d lost twenty pounds during the past two weeks. His hands shook noticeably. He looks like he isn’t eating or sleeping much at all, Irene thought.
“How long did your relationship go on?” Tommy asked.
“Right before Christmas. That’s when we.…”
Sverker’s voice trailed off and he stared dully at Tommy and Irene’s messy bookshelf. Irene had placed herself on a chair by the door. Without discussing it beforehand, they had agreed that Tommy would lead the interrogation.
“Where did you usually meet?”
“The on-call apartment.”
“Can you tell me what happened the night she disappeared?”
Löwander kept staring at the bookshelf, but he began to talk hesitantly. “We didn’t see each other during the weekend.”
He fell silent again. Patiently, Tommy asked, “Why not?”
“My daughter Emma left to go on a skiing vacation with friends. Carina and I were invited to an important party on Saturday. On Sunday, Linda was busy. She was helping Pontus pack up the last of his things.”
“So you decided to meet at the hospital.”
“Yes.”
“Why did she come so late at night?”
Sverker held his head in his hands. “The ghost hour. No one on the night shift ventures out then. So there’s little risk we’d be seen. We’d have a whole hour.…”
“Did she arrive on time?”
With his face still hidden in his hands, Sverker mumbled, “No. She never came. I never saw her alive again.”
“Did you love her?” Tommy asked.
At first it seemed that Sverker didn’t hear the question, but after a few moments he took his hands from his face and nodded slowly. “Yes, I did. Very much.”
“So much that you were already discussing marriage?”
The doctor startled at this. For the first time, he looked directly at Tommy. “Discussing marriage? Who told you that?”
“So you weren’t?”
Sverker seemed troubled and kept running his trembling hands through his dirty hair. Finally he replied, “Well … I did tell Linda that my marriage to Carina was in bad shape and that I was considering asking her for a divorce.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t have time before … it … happened.”
“But Linda seemed to be very clear that you promised to marry her.”
“She did? Well, we probably would have … eventually.”
“Let’s go back to the night of the murder. Tell us what happened while you were waiting for Linda.”
“I was up in the apartment at eleven-thirty. I got undressed and got into bed. I tried to read for a while. Midnight came, and then it was a few minutes past.”
“Were you worried?”
“Not really. I thought she might have been held up and was running late. The minutes kept ticking away, and she didn’t come.” He looked at his shaking hands and took a deep breath. “At exactly twelve-fifteen, the power went out. I had just looked at the clock. At first I was irritated, but then I heard the respirator alarm go off. I leaped out of bed, threw on some clothes, and you know the rest. During everything that happened, I kept wondering where Linda was. It was as if I had a premonition.”
“Nurse Siv said that you took her flashlight and went to the operating rooms through the ICU’s back door. You saw no trace of Linda or Marianne?”
“No. Of course I was looking for both of them. I didn’t see anything. But I did feel as if I were being watched. Down in the entrance foyer … while I was waiting for the police. I know it sounds crazy, but I had the strong feeling of being observed. And I’m not superstitious.”
“You don’t believe it was the hospital ghost?”