Joona stands up and walks closer to the television when the news anchor says that the mother of the kidnapped child has asked to plead with the kidnapper on live television.
The screen now shows Pia Abrahamsson sitting at a kitchen table and holding a sheet of paper. Her face looks tortured.
“If you can hear this,” she starts, “please listen to me. I understand that you’re the victim of injustice. But, please, Dante doesn’t have anything to do with it.”
Pia looks directly into the camera. “Please bring him back,” she whispers, her voice shaking. “You are probably a kind person at heart. Dante is only four years old, and I know how frightened he must be. He is so…”
She looks down at the sheet of paper and tears start running down her cheeks.
“Please don’t hurt him. Please don’t hit him or…” She starts to sob and turns her face away from the camera.
The news returns to the studio in Stockholm. A forensic psychologist from Säter Hospital explains to the news anchor how dangerous the situation is.
“I have not seen the girl’s medical records and I do not want to speculate on whether or not she is guilty of these two murders, but just considering where she has been placed, she is most likely psychologically unstable. Even if-”
“What kind of threat does she pose to the child?” asks the anchor.
“It could be that she’s not concerned about the boy at all. She might have forgotten about him entirely. He’s just four years old, though, and if he starts crying or calling for his mother, she could become angry and dangerous.”
Susanne smiles as she arrives to get Joona. He follows her to the elevator and they ride to the top floor and enter a gloomy bridal suite. The minibar is padlocked and there’s a Jacuzzi with golden feet in the bedroom.
Tuula Lehti is lying on a king-size bed covered with bolsters. She’s watching the Disney Channel. The person from the Office of Victim Services nods as they enter. Susanne closes the door and Joona pulls out a chair with red plush cushions and sits down.
“Why did you tell me that Vicky was meeting a man named Dennis?” Joona asks.
Tuula sits up and clutches a heart-shaped pillow to her chest.
“I thought she was,” she replies.
“Why did you think that?”
Tuula shrugs and looks back at the television.
“Did she tell you about a man named Dennis?”
“No.” Tuula smiles.
“Tuula, I really need to find Vicky.”
Tuula kicks the bedcover off the bed and turns her gaze back to the television.
“Do I have to be stuck here all day?” she asks.
“No, you can return to your room whenever you want,” the support person says.
“Sinä olet vain pieni lapsi,” Joona says in Finnish. “You’re just a small child.”
“Ei,” she replies and looks him in the eye.
“You shouldn’t have to live in institutions.”
“I’m fine here,” she says flatly.
“Don’t bad things happen to you?”
She turns red and her white eyelashes flutter.
“No,” she snaps.
“Miranda hit you yesterday.”
“That’s right.” Tuula holds the pillow even tighter.
“Why was she angry?”
“She thought I went to her room and was messing around.”
“Did you?”
Tuula licks the pillow. “Yeah, but I didn’t take anything.”
“Why were you messing around in her room?”
“I mess around in everyone’s room.”
“Why?”
“For fun.”
“But Miranda thought you’d taken something from her room.”
“Yeah, she got mad.”
“Why did she think you’d taken something?”
“She didn’t say,” Tuula says, and smiles.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know. Usually people think I take their pills. Lu Chu pushed me down the stairs when she thought I’d taken her freaking uppers.”
“If it wasn’t pills, what did Miranda think you’d taken?”
“Who cares? Makeup, earrings.”
Tuula moves until her legs are dangling off the edge of the bed and then flops backward. She whispers something and Joona catches the words “rhinestone necklace.”
“What about Vicky?” asks Joona. “Did Vicky like to hit people?”
“No.” Tuula smiles again and sits up.
“What does she do?”
“I can’t say because I don’t know her. She hasn’t said a single word to me. But…” The girl shrugs and stops talking.
“Why didn’t she talk to you?”
“Don’t know.”
“You must have seen her angry at some point?”
“She cuts herself… You can…” Tuula shakes her head.
“What were you going to say?”
“You can forget about her. She’ll kill herself soon enough, then you’ll have one less problem.”
Tuula looks at her fingers, says something inaudible, then gets up abruptly and leaves the room.
39
Caroline, who looks somewhat older than the others, enters the room with the support person. She’s wearing a long, baggy T-shirt with a picture of a kitten on it. There’s a tattoo of runes along one of her arms and there are old injection scars on the insides of her elbows.
As she greets Joona, she smiles shyly. Then she sits down in the armchair next to the brown desk.
“Tuula says that Vicky usually sneaks out at night to meet a guy,” Joona begins.
Caroline laughs. “No, she doesn’t.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I know she doesn’t.” Caroline is smiling.
“You’re absolutely sure?”
“Tuula believes that we’re all sluts.”
“So Vicky doesn’t sneak out?”
“No, she does.” Caroline looks serious.
“What does she do when she sneaks out?”
Caroline looks him briefly in the eye and then looks out the window.
“She goes behind the brewery and calls her mother.”
Joona knows that Vicky’s mother died before Vicky arrived at Birgittagården. He decides not to confront Caroline with this information. Instead, he calmly asks, “What did they usually talk about?”
“Well, the thing is, she just leaves messages on her mother’s voice mail. I don’t think her mother ever calls her back.”
Joona nods and thinks that perhaps no one has told Vicky that her mother is dead.
“Has she ever mentioned someone named Dennis?” he asks.
“No.”
“Think back.”
She looks at Joona, and jumps when Susanne Öst’s cell phone rings. Susanne checks it for a message.
“Who would Vicky run to for help?” asks Joona, although he realizes the energy has gone out of the interview.
“I think the only person she’d run to is her mother.”
“No friends or boys?”
“No,” Caroline says. “But I really don’t know her. We’re both ADL and so we meet often, but she never talks about herself.”
“What is ADL?”
“It sounds like a diagnosis but it means All Day Lifestyle. It’s for those who behave. They let you go with them to Sundsvall to go shopping for groceries and stuff. Exciting, isn’t it?”
“But you’d have the chance to talk?”
“Yes, but we didn’t say much.”
“So whom did she talk to?”
“Nobody,” Caroline says. “Except Daniel, of course.”
40
Joona and Susanne walk back to the elevator in silence, but she laughs when they both hit the button simultaneously.
“When can we question Daniel Grim?” asks Joona as they ride down.
“The doctor thought it was too early yesterday, which is understandable,” Susanne says, giving him a brief glance. “This is not an easy case, this one. I’ll give them a reminder call and let’s see what they say.”