Take my child and I would have nothing left.
She wondered if that feeling would weaken over time, if she would start to take Saga for granted or love her less. Didn’t Diana Trolle look like a woman who could learn to live again? After two years in the limbo of uncertainty she had finally found out what had happened to her daughter, and with that knowledge came a much longed-for peace. Fredrika was struck by a depressing thought: Diana had another child. Did that make any difference? Was the grief easier to bear if you still had one child left?
Take my child and I would have none left.
She tried to shake off the sense of unease that had crept up on her. Spencer didn’t want any more children, and she was almost forty. It was the right decision, not to have any more. For the whole family.
She unfolded the brochure she had slipped into her pocket earlier, and stared at Spencer’s name. It didn’t mean anything, she told herself, which was why she would ignore it. But she would keep the brochure.
Keep it and keep it to herself. A breach of the rules, but what could she do? There was obviously some logical explanation for the fact that Spencer’s name had come up.
The mentoring network, on the other hand, looked interesting. She checked on the website of Stockholm University’s students’ union and discovered that the scheme still existed. With a mentor by his or her side, the student was promised a guide, a greater sense of security and better preparation for life after graduation.
‘Have you decided what you want to be when you grow up?’ the website asked.
I haven’t, actually, Fredrika thought wearily.
All students were welcome to join the network. There were lectures and social events, a range of opportunities to develop contacts in different branches of industry. According to the website, a number of students would be selected on the basis of merit and education, and would be allocated a personal mentor. The mentors themselves had a variety of backgrounds, but were united by a desire to help ambitious young people progress in their chosen career.
But had Rebecca, a conscientious student with literature as her main subject, really been heading for such a career?
Valter Lund, the man who was predicted to be the next Swede to be invited to join the legendary Bilderberg Group – why had he been chosen to mentor Rebecca? Fredrika had read a number of articles about him, the financial superstar who came out of nowhere and eclipsed all the other stars in the sky. If she remembered correctly, he was about forty-five, and came originally from Norway. He looked pleasant; he was tall and slim. A much sought-after member of the most important company boards; a man who could reputedly turn cold ashes into gold. For Valter Lund, there was no such thing as poor soil or bad luck, simply an underlying belief in competence and ability.
How could he even find the time to be a mentor?
Fredrika found the number of the president of the students’ union on the website; he answered on the third ring.
‘Mårten, right in the middle of a meeting.’
‘Fredrika Bergman, police.’
Always equally effective; why did people have this innate respect for an organisation that aimed to manage society’s monopoly on violence?
‘OK, give me two seconds to finish off what I’m doing.’
He was back a moment later.
‘Police, you said?’
‘I’m calling about your mentoring network.’
‘Oh?’
A hesitant response, full of suspicion. Why would the police be calling about a network that could take the individual student to heights he or she couldn’t even dream of?
‘I’m investigating the murder of Rebecca Trolle, and your mentoring network has come up. I’d appreciate it if you could answer a few questions.’
‘OK. Although I wasn’t president when she was here.’
‘But you remember her being part of the network?’
‘Oh, yes, I was one of the people who set the whole thing up.’
A hint of pride in the voice, mixed with a distinctly less appealing smugness.
‘Valter Lund was Rebecca’s mentor.’
‘I remember that; a lot of people wanted him.’
‘Wasn’t it a bit strange that he ended up with Rebecca? Given that she was studying literature, I mean. She doesn’t seem to have been aiming for a high-flying career in industry.’
Fredrika was striving to maintain a neutral tone, trying to pretend that this question was just one of many that she was pondering.
‘It was different back then,’ said Mårten.
‘In what way?’
‘That was the year we set up the mentoring network. We thought the mentor’s role should be to coach and inspire, to be a kind of general guide. When we paired up the students and mentors, we disregarded what course they were following and their future plans, and tried to find a combination that was as exciting as possible. That meant we avoided pairing up men with men and women with women, business people with students of economics, artists with art students.’
‘That was daring.’
‘And stupid. It didn’t work at all, because it turned out that everyone thought the same as you. The students wanted a role model, and the mentors wanted a carbon copy.’
She heard him sigh.
‘So the following year we revamped the whole system.’
‘By which time Rebecca wasn’t there.’
‘No, and if she had been, she definitely wouldn’t have kept Valter Lund as her mentor.’
‘Did you know Rebecca?’
‘No, I can’t say I did. I saw her now and again through the network, exchanged a few words here and there. She seemed nice. Incredibly busy.’
‘Did you ever talk about her work with Valter Lund?’
‘That was the only thing we talked about.’
Of course it was.
‘Did she say how it was going? Do you know how often they met?’
‘He once invited her to lunch somewhere really expensive. And he came to listen to the choir; he does go to church, apparently. I think she said they went for a coffee afterwards. She didn’t say much about their work; I’m not convinced she was taking it all that seriously. That was also something we changed the following year; only those studying for a Master’s were allowed to take part.’
Fredrika tried to remember Rebecca’s diary. Surely, the abbreviation ‘VL’ had appeared more than twice?
‘Did you ever speak to Valter Lund? About his experiences as a mentor, I mean.’
‘I never spoke to him personally. We ran an evaluation session with the mentors, but he wasn’t here. Actually, now I come to think of it, he decided to leave the programme after the first year.’
‘He hasn’t been involved since then?’
‘No. He’s incredibly busy, of course. Several others left for the same reason.’
But none of the others had been working with a student who was murdered.
Fredrika ended the call with a vague feeling of unease in the pit of her stomach. She searched through the material from the original investigation and discovered that Valter Lund had been interviewed only once.
Why?
She found her copy of the lists Peder had given her showing the results of Ellen’s check on all the main characters who came up in the original investigation. There was no mention of Valter Lund. She was surprised, and sent an email to Ellen asking her to check Valter against police records like all the others.
From the tabloid press, Fredrika knew that Lund was one of the city’s most eligible bachelors. Could he have been Rebecca’s new love? That would explain all the secrecy surrounding both the relationship and the pregnancy.