‘Our relationship isn’t, or wasn’t, the kind that involves going around with photographs of each other in our wallets.’
No picture. But Alex had a picture. Not of Mona Samson, perhaps, but of the woman who had brought a chrysanthemum to the Solomon Community after Josephine had been shot. And he had brought it with him to the interview room.
‘Is this Mona Samson?’
He handed Saul the sketch. Saul gazed at it for a long time.
‘Hard to say, but it could be her.’
Alex took back the drawing. ‘It could be her’ wasn’t definitive enough, but it had been worth a try. He changed tack.
‘What do you know about her company?’
‘The basics. We never actually did business together.’
‘Would you be surprised if I told you that the mother company in Israel, which she used to register with the Tax Office, doesn’t exist?’
Saul’s eyes widened.
‘I didn’t check,’ he said. ‘I didn’t think it was necessary.’
He was more co-operative now, and Alex wanted to make the most of that.
‘Why did you leave Israel in 2002?’
‘I’ve already told you.’
‘I’d like you to tell me again. And this time you can cut the crap about the firm you were working for, because we know that both you and Gideon were employed by the Israeli military until you moved.’
Saul’s expression changed. His posture grew more erect as he stood guard over his past.
‘There are clearly defined limits when it comes to what I can tell you about my professional background,’ he said. ‘It’s true that I was in the Israeli armed forces, but I can’t go into which branch or what my work involved.’
‘Not even if it has something to do with your son’s murder?’
No answer.
‘Tell me why you moved.’
‘Because of something that happened on duty. An accident, you could say. Both Gideon and I had had enough after that. The risks and the level of personal commitment were too great. We were both going to become fathers, and in 2002 Israel was literally in flames. A cavalcade of suicide bombers had turned the country into hell on earth, and the Israeli counter-offensive wasn’t exactly moderate, of course. But we just wanted to get out of there, so we moved to Stockholm. We had both been here before, and knew one or two people. We thought we would be able to establish ourselves in Sweden, and we were right.’
‘Efraim Kiel – how well do you know him?’
‘You’ve asked me that before as well. Efraim has the same background as me and Gideon. And Daphne. We worked together. But he chose to stay, both in Israel and in the military. I have no idea what he’s doing these days.’
‘Have you had any contact with him while he’s been in Stockholm?’
‘No.’
‘Do you think he has anything to do with the deaths of Simon and Abraham?’
For the first time Saul dropped the mask completely.
‘Efraim? No, definitely not. Why would he do such a thing?’
Suddenly Alex had had enough.
‘That’s my fucking point! Why would someone do such a thing to you and Gideon? I don’t believe for a moment that you have no idea.’
Saul’s reaction was not what Alex had expected. He became completely calm. Relaxed a fraction, looked Alex straight in the eye.
‘Of course I have an idea,’ he said. ‘What astonishes me is that you apparently don’t.’
Alex felt control shift over to Saul, and there was nothing he could do about it. Saul realised what was happening, and grew in stature.
‘I was intending to deal with the matter myself, but if you’d like to help, then of course I would welcome your input.’
Deal with the matter myself?
‘Gideon,’ Saul said, uttering the name like a swear word. ‘Have you put the same energy into checking his alibi as you did with mine?’
Alex would like to think that was the case, but he didn’t know.
‘Yes,’ he said.
‘Liar!’
Saul Goldmann slammed his fist down on the table.
‘You’ve done no such thing. Gideon said he was in meetings all afternoon, but that’s not true. When I was driving home from Kungsholmen, after I’d been with Mona, I saw him walking along Strandvägen and turning off onto Nybrogatan. It was about twenty past two. I asked him about it, but he said I was mistaken, and that he’d been in a meeting with the bank then. No fucking way – I saw him from the car!’
Alex’s mouth went dry. This couldn’t be true. How many false alibis could these two come up with?
‘We’ll double check what you say, but I’m not expecting to find anything,’ he said, well aware of how feeble it sounded.
But Saul hadn’t finished.
‘Do you know why we don’t hang out together any more? Because we couldn’t have him around once we had a child. Gideon had more reasons than I did to leave Israel. There were rumours that he had been so damaged by what had happened to him that he had started molesting boys – hitting them, threatening them with knives. Now do you understand? I defended him, said it was slander. But then I saw him with a young boy one night when we were in a bar in Tel Aviv. And when I say a young boy, I mean a child who hadn’t yet reached puberty. They were standing out in the street, and it looked as if Gideon was trying to give him money, but the boy ran away. After that I was more careful.’
Alex saw a chance to regain the upper hand.
‘But you let Abraham and Simon spend time together.’
‘Never at their house, unless Carmen was at home.’
‘So you think Gideon murdered both your son and his own? Because he is so damaged by what happened to him as a child?’
Saul’s eyes filled with tears.
‘You should see him without clothes. My father made a good attempt at turning his skin into a patchwork quilt. I think he said he has over fifty scars. You can’t go through something like that and remain sane. It’s just not possible.’
The tears spilled over, and Saul dashed them away.
‘That night when we were searching for the boys, I saw Gideon. He was sitting in his car, staring into space. He had parked near the television centre. Do you know how many times I drove past him? Five. He sat there all night; he never moved.’
Alex went cold inside.
‘And Polly?’ he said. ‘What has he done with Polly?’
‘The question you should be asking is why she’s not dead,’ Saul said.
Alex didn’t understand.
‘It’s not Gideon who’s taken her – it’s Carmen. Because she knows what a sick bastard she’s married to, and she’s hidden the only child she has left.’
It was evening. Efraim Kiel suddenly realised he was kicking up the snow as he walked along; he had seen small children doing it, and he could understand why.
His heart was heavy as he remembered other children’s feet that had made the snow swirl up. Bare feet that grew cold, weakening their bodies.
He was a man with no religious conviction. Everything he had done throughout his life had been based on his own internal compass, his own perception of what was right and wrong, good and evil. The occasions when he felt with hindsight that he had done the wrong thing were few.
It took him only a few minutes to walk from the hotel to the address on Torsgatan where he had seen the woman enter the building. And this time neither Säpo nor the police were there. He peered into the dark stairwell. No movement out on the street or inside the building. He assumed the block housed mainly offices, which were now empty. Most people had probably set off home through the darkness.
To make dinner, or see what was on TV.
Put the children to bed, if they had any.
Things that Efraim knew others did, while he travelled far and wide to make sure that his people were safe and secure.
The light came on; someone was on their way out.
Excellent. He wouldn’t have to waste time trying to break in.