‘We’ll be giving this investigation top priority from now on; I hope you don’t think otherwise.’
Diana smiled through her tears, the droplets shining on her high cheekbones. Dark eyes, hair slightly too long. Had the sorrow over her missing daughter aged her? He didn’t think so.
‘You didn’t find the person who did it,’ she reminded him.
‘No, we didn’t,’ Alex said. ‘But the situation is different now.’
‘In what way?’
‘We have a crime scene, a geographical location to which we can link the perpetrator. We’re hoping to be able to secure evidence of the person who did this, but…’
‘But it’s been such a long time,’ Diana supplied.
‘We can still do it.’
His voice was tense with fury and conviction. It was always painful to abandon the hope that preceded despair; nobody knew that better than Alex.
We can still do it. Because anything else is unacceptable.
He had said those words to Lena more times than she wanted to hear them. In the end he had spent so much time trying to find a way of saving her that he could no longer see that she was getting worse.
‘Mum is dying,’ his daughter said. ‘And you’re missing the end, Dad.’
The memories were so painful. So agonisingly painful.
His vision was clouded by tears. Fredrika came back with a tray of coffee, rescuing him without realising it.
‘Here we are,’ she said. ‘Milk?’
They drank in silence, allowing the absence of words to bring peace.
So far, Alex had not commented on the circumstances surrounding the discovery of Rebecca’s body; he had not told Diana that it had been dismembered and buried in two plastic bags. He hesitated before he spoke; he hated this part of his job.
Diana listened, wide-eyed.
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Nor do we, but we’re doing everything we can to find out what happened.’
‘Who would be sick enough to…?’
‘Don’t think about that.’
Alex swallowed.
‘There’s one more thing I need to tell you. Well, two in fact. I don’t want you to hear this through the press.’
He told her about the missing head and hands, calmly and in plain words. Then he gave her the piece of jewellery. Diana took it without speaking, then after a moment she said:
‘You said there were two things?’
Her voice was hoarse with tension, the tears pouring down her face.
‘She was pregnant.’
‘What?’
‘You didn’t know?’
She shook her head, her whole body trembling.
‘We’re very keen to identify the child’s father,’ Fredrika said. ‘I know you weren’t aware of a specific boyfriend, but had Rebecca ever said she wanted a child?’
‘Of course she did, but not until she was older. We spoke openly about that kind of thing. She was on the pill; she was very careful about contraception.’
‘How long had she been on the pill?’
‘Let me think; how old was she when the subject first came up? Seventeen, I think. I drove her to the clinic.’
A model parent, in Fredrika’s eyes.
Alex took over, not wanting the first meeting with Diana since the discovery of Rebecca’s body to go on for too long.
‘It’s quite a while since Rebecca disappeared,’ he said. ‘Has anything new occurred to you during that time?’
How long was two years? Two years was the difference between being single and having a family, between having a family and losing it.
Diana cleared her throat.
‘A friend of mine said something horrible a while ago, but I didn’t really attach any importance to it. It was just too stupid.’
Fredrika and Alex waited.
‘My friend has a daughter who was on the same course as Rebecca, and she hinted that the person who took her could have been someone she met on the internet.’
‘That doesn’t sound too unlikely,’ Fredrika said tentatively. ‘These days a lot of people meet their partners that way.’
‘Not like that,’ Diana said. ‘She meant… Her daughter had said that my Rebecca was selling certain things on the Internet.’
‘Things?’ Alex said.
‘Herself.’
Alex stiffened.
‘Where the hell did she get that from?’
‘She said there was a rumour going around after Rebecca disappeared. But in my wildest imagination I can’t believe…’
Her voice died away.
‘Was Rebecca insecure?’ Fredrika asked.
‘God, no.’
‘Lonely?’
‘She had loads of friends.’
‘Was she short of money?’
‘She would have come to me. She always did.’
Not always. That was something Alex had learned over the years. ‘Always’ was a word construed by parents when ‘usually’ was more accurate.
‘We’d really like to speak to your friend and her daughter,’ Fredrika said.
Diana nodded.
‘I must ring Rebecca’s brother,’ she said.
‘Of course,’ Alex replied. ‘And if you like we can arrange some counselling for you.’
‘That won’t be necessary.’
They headed for the door, passing several photographs of Rebecca on the walls. Don’t take them down, Alex thought. You would bitterly regret it.
‘What happened to her things?’ Fredrika asked.
‘It’s all in storage,’ Diana said. ‘Her brother and I emptied her room in the student hostel once the investigators had taken what they wanted, and we put it all in my sister’s garage. If you want to have a look I can give you directions.’
‘That would be kind,’ Fredrika said.
‘Just one more thing,’ Alex said.
They stopped.
‘Do you remember Håkan Nilsson?’
‘Of course. We’re still in touch; he was very fond of Rebecca.’
‘They’d been friends since school, hadn’t they?’
‘That’s right. And Rebecca helped him when his father died; that was in their last year at school.’
As the front door opened, the spring sunshine flooded the hallway.
‘Did Rebecca ever say anything to indicate that he might be a problem?’ Fredrika asked.
Diana looked past her, out into the street. A whole world was waiting on the other side of the door. She would have to think about when she might be ready to face it again.
‘I remember her telling me that he was upset when she decided to study in France. I suppose he had expected her to stay in Stockholm.’
‘Did he have any reason to expect that? Were they a couple.’
‘Definitely not. He wasn’t her type at all.’
Alex thought for a moment.
‘But they became friends again when she came home?’
‘I know they got back in touch, but it was only afterwards I realised they were close friends.’
‘What made you realise that?’
‘It was the only logical explanation. Why else would he have got so involved after her disappearance?’
6
The news that Rebecca Trolle had been found in Midsommarkransen eclipsed every other news story that afternoon. In his role as the officer in charge of the investigation, Alex Recht held a brief press conference. He chose to omit the macabre details – the fact that the body had been dismembered and that certain parts were missing.
There were plenty of questions from the journalists, but his answers were limited.
No, he couldn’t say what progress the investigation had made; it was much too early.
No, he did not wish to comment on whether they had any suspects.
No, he did not wish to explain how they had been able to identify the body so quickly, in spite of the fact that Rebecca had been lying in the ground for so long that there was no possibility of recognising her.
He brought the press conference to an end and went back to his office. His daughter Viktoria called him on his mobile.
‘Are you coming over for something to eat tonight, Dad? It would be really nice to see you.’