Alex nodded.
‘We hope we won’t need to take up too much of your time,’ he assured the clergyman. ‘But some new questions have come up and I’d just like to try them out on you.’
It was Ragnar Vinterman’s turn to nod.
Alex observed him. Straight-backed, with his hands resting on the arms of his chair. A hunter, ready for action. Armed to the teeth. The situation felt familiar, like something out of a film Alex had seen.
The Godfather, he thought, and almost laughed out loud. As if this were some Italian sit-down where the first thing you all do is put your gats on the negotiating table.
Alex was baffled by the clergyman’s change of attitude. But he was in no mood for compromise, either; he wanted proper answers to his questions. He was sure that Peder, a silent presence at his side, sensed the mood as well.
‘Last time we met we were talking about Karolina Ahlbin’s drug habit,’ Alex began, leaning back on the sofa. ‘Could you hazard a guess as to when she got into all that?’
Ragnar Vinterman leaned back, too. He had an almost impudent look on his face.
‘As I think I made plain to you last time,’ he said, ‘virtually everything I know, I heard from Jakob. So it’s hard for me to be precise on that.’
He looked at Alex to make sure he was listening and understanding. Which he was.
‘But at a cautious estimate I’d say her problems started in her late teens.’
‘She went straight onto hard drugs?’
‘That I can’t say.’
He’s backing off, thought Alex. Realises what he told us has been contradicted.
‘So did Jakob talk to you about this on a regular basis?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ Ragnar Vinterman said firmly. ‘He did.’
‘How many years did Jakob spend hiding illegal migrants out at Ekerö?’ asked Alex, as if it were a natural extension of the conversation about his daughter’s drug use.
‘I’m afraid I don’t know that either,’ the clergyman said, crossing his legs.
‘But you know he did it?’
‘Everybody knew that,’ he said drily.
‘But you decided not to mention it last time we were here?’
‘I assumed it wasn’t relevant to the case as a whole. And I really didn’t want to blacken Jakob’s memory in front of the police.’
Alex smiled.
‘How noble of you,’ he said before he could stop himself.
Ragnar Vinterman’s face darkened, and Alex went on.
‘Were you involved in his activities yourself?’
‘Never.’
‘Was anyone else in the parish?’
‘I honestly don’t know.’
Alex felt his frustration growing. He glanced at Peder.
‘Now you’ve had a few days to think about it,’ said Peder, ‘are you still convinced Jakob took his own life?’
The clergyman went very quiet. His bearing and expression changed, as though a sudden shadow had passed over him.
‘Yes,’ he said clearly. ‘Yes, I am.’
With ill-concealed eagerness, Alex leaned forward.
‘Tell us how you see it.’
Ragnar Vinterman, mimicking Alex’s body language again, leaned forward, too.
‘I can’t say Jakob and I had a particularly close personal relationship. But as colleagues we were as close as it was possible to be. We exchanged confidences on a daily basis and had the same views on a great many questions of faith. So I think I can say I really did know Jakob. And believe me – he wasn’t in good shape. Not at all.’
‘His psychiatrist thinks otherwise,’ Alex said matter-of-factly.
Ragnar Vinterman gave a snort.
‘Erik Sundelius? I lost confidence in him at a pretty early stage. Marja and I both begged Jakob to change doctor. But he was so damned stubborn, you know.’
‘And why did the two of you want him to change doctor?’
‘The man was irresponsible,’ replied the clergyman. ‘He would never adapt his methods, even though Jakob wasn’t responding to the treatment. I freely admit I was so concerned that I decided to check up on him.’
That’s all we need, a vicar playing private investigator, Alex thought wearily.
‘What did you find out?’ asked Peder.
‘That my judgement was correct. He’s had two misconduct warnings from the Medical Council for – how shall I put it – “hazardous methods” used on high-risk patients; in each case, the patient ended up committing suicide. And he was prosecuted for the murder of his wife’s lover.’
Seeing the expressions of surprise on Peder and Alex’s faces, he leant back in his seat with an air of great satisfaction.
‘But the police already knew all about that, of course,’ he said mildly.
No, Alex thought, his jaw set doggedly. We didn’t.
‘Damn,’ Alex said in exasperation once he had started the car and backed rather too fast out of the vicar’s drive. ‘How the hell could we have missed that?’
‘We didn’t have any particular reason to check it out, did we?’ Peder said, and was interrupted by the ring of his mobile.
Ylva. It was rarely good news when she rang.
‘Peder, Isak’s running a really high temperature,’ she said anxiously. ‘And he’s got a rash on his tummy. I’m taking him to the hospital, but I wanted to ask if you could look after David while we’re gone.’
Fear caught Peder unawares. His son was ill and he wasn’t there. His permanently guilty conscience reared its head again.
‘I’ll be right there,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’m in the car with Alex. He can drop me off on the way back to HQ.’
Alex looked at him as he rang off.
‘One of the boys is ill,’ he said. ‘Can you let me off at Ylva’s? If Fredrika’s in after all, maybe she could go to the Ljungs with you?’
Alex nodded.
‘Fine by me.’
In the short drive to what had once been Ylva and Peder’s shared home, Peder reviewed his situation in life for the hundredth time. The news that Pia Nordh was moving in with the repulsive Joar paled into insignificance. ‘Can you let me off at Ylva’s?’ he had said to Alex. As if it was an address like any other.
There had been a time when he felt as if his heart was about to blow to smithereens in his chest. It was a bloody long time since he’d loved anybody like that.
His mobile rang again. His brother this time.
‘Hiii,’ said Jimmy in his usual, rather slow way.
‘Hi,’ said Peder, and heard his brother laugh.
It was sometimes a real blessing that Jimmy was so easy to entertain, so easy to make happy.
‘Something’s happened,’ Jimmy said excitedly.
Peder laughed. ‘Something happening’ could mean anything from a royal visit to a new lampshade in his room.
‘I’ve got a girlfriend.’
The words struck Peder dumb.
‘What?’ he said dopily.
‘A girlfriend. A proper one.’
Peder gave an involuntary guffaw.
‘Are you happy?’ Jimmy asked expectantly.
A warm feeling spread inside him and smoothed out some of the knots that had multiplied there.
‘Yes,’ said Peder. ‘What do you know, I am glad, in spite of everything.’
A short time later, Fredrika and Alex parked outside the Ljungs’ flat on Vanadisplan. The Vasastan area had always appealed to Alex, he told Fredrika in an unusual moment of candour. He and Lena had agreed that the day they grew old they would get themselves a pied à terre in just this part of town, for overnight stays, to avoid simply mouldering away in their house out at Vaxholm. Fredrika felt uneasy as Alex’s expression shifted from open to pained in the course of talking about himself and his wife.
That’s what it is, she thought. He’s worried about his wife.
Alex took the lead as they went up the same staircase Fredrika and Joar had taken a few days before.
They found the Ljungs’ door ajar when they got to the floor where their flat was.
Alex gave an authoritative knock and Elsie Ljung came out to greet them.