‘The desire to win is so controversial here in Sweden,’ Gideon said. ‘Parents who provide elite training for their children often acquire a bad reputation. It’s quite different in other countries, and several contributors to the Super Troopers forum belonged to overseas sports clubs or academies for children. The Lion said he was planning to set up a new tennis academy in Stockholm, but it’s difficult to know how much of that was just talk and how much was true.’
‘Do you know his real name?’
‘Only his first name – Zalman. He’d just moved to Stockholm, or maybe he was about to move here, I don’t remember. He had emigrated to Israel from Russia a few years ago, so he didn’t write to the boys in Hebrew or Swedish, just English.’
‘Did he ever meet Simon and Abraham?’ Fredrika asked.
‘No, definitely not. We would never have agreed to that unless we were there too,’ Carmen said.
Silence. Fredrika could hear the faint sound of traffic, and she thought about all the people who had to work on a Saturday. The silence also allowed other thoughts to rise to the surface: they had no idea who the Lion was. He could be anyone, anyone at all.
It was as if time was standing still in the apartment, which rarely happened in a home with children. Simon was gone, but Polly was still alive. Fredrika wondered where she was, because she obviously wasn’t at home.
‘Do you think he’s involved?’ Carmen said. ‘The Lion, I mean. Zalman.’
‘We’d certainly like to speak to him,’ Alex replied.
Carmen was crying softly again, but Gideon remained motionless and mute.
‘Efraim Kiel,’ Alex said. ‘Do you know anyone by that name?’
There was no mistaking the astonishment on Carmen and Gideon’s faces. Carmen stopped crying immediately.
‘What’s he got to do with anything?’
That’s exactly what we’re wondering, Fredrika thought. Had it been a mistake to mention his name?
‘Possibly nothing at all,’ Alex went on. ‘We’ve discovered that he’s in Stockholm at the moment, helping with security issues at the Solomon Community, but he’s proving rather difficult to get hold of.’
‘Efraim Kiel is in Stockholm?’ Gideon said slowly.
‘How do you know one another?’ Fredrika said, unable to hide the surprise in her voice.
Gideon made a dismissive gesture.
‘We don’t. Not any more. But we did our military service together. Unless of course you’re talking about a different Efraim Kiel.’
‘You don’t have a picture of him?’ Alex said.
‘I don’t think so.’
Fredrika was fascinated by the links that had emerged. They had lived on a kibbutz together, done their military service together. A different context; a different philosophy. Did the fact that Efraim had once known Gideon and Carmen make him more or less interesting? She had no idea.
She spotted a doll lying in a corner. Definitely Polly’s.
But where was she?
Alex had also noticed the doll. He glanced at Fredrika. They had one more thing to discuss with Gideon and Carmen; the most difficult thing of all.
‘Unfortunately there’s another matter we need to bring to your attention,’ he said.
He looked at the doll.
‘Where is your daughter at the moment?’
‘With a friend,’ Carmen replied. ‘Her mother called to ask if it would help if they took Polly out for a few hours. We said yes. She doesn’t understand what’s happened, and she’s finding it difficult to see us so upset.’
Fredrika sympathised completely.
However, there was something in what Carmen had just said that started alarm bells ringing in her head.
Her mother called to ask if it would help if they took Polly out for a few hours.
Out where?
‘Where are they now?’ she asked.
Her pulse rate was rising, her heart pounding.
‘I think they said they were going to Tessin Park,’ Gideon said. ‘There’s a little toboggan run that the kids love.’
‘When are you expecting her home?’ Alex said.
Fredrika could see how serious his expression was.
He’s just as worried as I am.
Carmen glanced at her watch. ‘In an hour. Why do you ask? What’s going on?’
The sound of a telephone sliced through the apartment. Gideon got up so quickly that he knocked over his glass of water.
‘Hello?’
Carmen stood up and followed her husband into the hallway. Gideon came back into the living room, still holding the phone.
‘Has something happened?’ Carmen asked from behind him.
The telephone fell out of Gideon’s hand and crashed to the floor.
‘They can’t find Polly.’
The afternoon sky lay dark and heavy over Stockholm. The sun had made its guest appearance, and didn’t seem to have any plans to return. At least not according to the weather forecast.
‘It looks as if you’ll be able to get away to England tonight, but who knows when you’ll be home,’ Mikael said.
He was lying on his stomach on the bed, checking the weather on his laptop. Eden was busy packing.
‘I always manage to get home,’ she said.
Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. The tremor was only slight, but she was afraid Mikael might notice. She would rather say she had developed an acute form of Parkinson’s disease than tell him the real reason for her anxiety.
I met the biological father of my children today. I’ve met him before, of course. But never with the girls.
She knew he had realised. It had been written all over his face. Ironically, that was what it took for the brilliant Mossad agent to lose his composure.
The children’s voices filled the entire apartment. They were playing with an old dolls’ house their grandmother had given them. Fear squeezed Eden’s heart. Was it safe to leave them with Mikael? Who knew what Efraim Kiel might do now he knew what she had never meant him to find out.
Eden realised she was more frightened of how Efraim would react than of what Mikael would do if he ever found out that he wasn’t the father of the girls he had brought up.
No words would suffice if Mikael learned the truth. Right at the beginning, when she was pregnant and then when the girls had just been born, she had thought about telling him. Saying those terrible words.
I deceived and betrayed you. And I got pregnant. But he doesn’t exist any more, the other man. For me there is only you.
But not one syllable had passed her lips.
She remembered so clearly why she had first fallen for Efraim. Her whole life had been nothing but crap. She had just had a miscarriage, and Mikael had blamed her, saying that if she hadn’t been working so hard, if she had taken better care of herself, she would never have lost the baby.
His words had devastated her, because the doctor told her something different. She would have lost the child anyway. It was a miracle that she had fallen pregnant in the first place; medically speaking, she was virtually sterile.
That afternoon she went home to Mikael and said that she couldn’t see a future for them as a couple. He had pleaded with her, begged for forgiveness. Eden had turned her back on him, left him in limbo. Two days later she met Efraim at a conference organised by the London School of Economics. He had introduced himself as a researcher from the University of Tel Aviv, and she had believed that their meeting was pure chance, just like a fairy tale. At the end of the second day she went back to his hotel room, and stayed there until well after midnight.
That was the start of their affair.
It was cheap and passionate. And just a bit of fun. She stayed with Mikael, but their relationship was broken, and she didn’t know how they were ever going to be able to fix it.
As a researcher it was easy for Efraim to find reasons to visit London on a regular basis, and eventually he was there more or less all the time. With hindsight Eden realised that she had never once visited him at his place of work. Of course not – he didn’t have one.