It took exactly an hour for Kurt Fogestam to ring. He sounded shaken. ‘You’d better sit down,’ he said.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Just sit down, Anders, before I tell you.’
Knutas sank down on to a chair without taking the pipe out of his mouth. ‘What’s happened?’
‘The officers who were supposed to pick up Erik Mattson went to Bukowski’s first, but he hadn’t turned up for work today. His boss didn’t seem surprised. He said that Mattson occasionally doesn’t come in. Clearly he has an alcohol problem. Or rather, had.’
‘What do you mean by “had”?’
‘They just phoned from Karlavagen, where Mattson lives. No one opened the door when they rang the bell, so they decided to force their way in. They found Erik Mattson lying in bed. He was dead.’
Knutas couldn’t believe his ears.
‘Murdered?’
‘We don’t know yet. The ME is on his way over there right now. But that’s not all. Do you know what was hanging above the bed?’
‘No.’
‘That painting that was stolen from Waldemarsudde. “The Dying Dandy”.’
74
The house stood at the intersection of two residential streets in an idyllic neighbourhood, close to the school in central Roma.
It was nine thirty in the morning. He had purposely waited until the worst of the morning rush hour was over, with people going off to work, children heading to day-care centres or to school, owners walking their dogs and coming out to pick up the morning newspapers. By now an air of calm had settled over the neighbourhood, and the street was quiet.
From where he was standing he could see the woman moving from room to room on the ground floor of the house. That must be Emma Winarve. Discreetly he took out his binoculars. He was hiding behind some shrubbery so that he wouldn’t be seen from any of the well-tended houses lining the street.
She was beautiful, dressed in a long, pink bathrobe made of some soft fabric. Her hair was sandy coloured, her eyes dark under distinctive eyebrows. She had high cheekbones and regular, classical features. No longer really young, of course, but still attractive. Tall and stately. He wondered how strong she was.
He saw her bend down and pick up the child. The next minute she appeared upstairs. He could just make out her shape as she moved from room to room. Through the cold lenses of his binoculars, he could follow her movements. Now she was leaning down, presumably to put the baby to bed. She stood there for a moment, doing something.
Then her bathrobe fell away, and he caught a quick glimpse of her bare back before she disappeared from view. She must have gone into the bathroom to take a shower. That was perfect. Swiftly he crossed the street, opened the gate and resolutely entered the property as if it were the most natural thing in the world. From a distance he could tell that the front door wasn’t locked. Great, he thought. That would only normally happen way out in the country.
He looked around before he opened the door. Not a soul as far as the eye could see. Quickly and quietly he slipped inside, finding himself in a messy hall filled with clothes, shoes and gloves all jumbled together. He could smell coffee and toast. Deep inside of him a feeling surged up that confused him for a few seconds. He made a concentrated effort to regain control of himself. Stay focused, he thought. Right now everything depended on staying focused. He peeked inside the kitchen. A radio was on, playing music at a low volume; there were dirty dishes in the sink and crumbs on the table. He made his way into the living room, where two large sofas faced each other. He saw a fireplace, a TV, rugs, books and newspapers, a bowl of fruit and a pair of ceramic candlesticks with candles that had burned down. Again that feeling welled up inside him; he pushed it back.
As he climbed the stairs, he heard the shower running. She was singing. He crept over to the door, which had been left half open. It was a big bathroom with two sinks, side by side, a toilet on the opposite wall of the room, a bathtub with a jacuzzi, and a shower booth with frosted glass. He could see the woman’s body in silhouette through the glass. Her loud, clear voice bounced off the walls.
The feeling came over him again. His eyes burned. Suddenly he was furious at her. There she stood, naked and beautiful, singing without a care in the world. She had no idea what was going on around her. What was happening inside of him. Fucking idiot. Rage shot up into his forehead, clouding his vision. He would show her. He gripped the piano wire between his fingers. Closed his eyes for a second to concentrate before he attacked.
Suddenly he was interrupted by a sound behind him. A few cries that threatened to become sobs. The woman didn’t seem to notice. She kept on singing while the shower water poured out.
Abruptly he turned around, slipped out of the bathroom and into the room where the sound was coming from. In the darkness, with the blinds pulled down, stood a cot, and in it lay the baby, now crying louder.
In a flash he picked up the little girl, wrapped in her blanket, and dashed down the stairs to the ground floor and out into the hall.
He could still hear the woman singing as he closed the front door behind him.
75
Unsuspecting, Johan picked up the phone. All he could hear at first was a hysterical person crying and screaming as she rattled off a string of words that didn’t make any sense. It took several seconds before he realized it was Emma and that she was shouting something about Elin. When Johan heard the name Elin coupled several times with the word ‘gone’, his blood turned ice cold.
‘Calm down. Tell me what happened?’
‘I… I was in the shower,’ she sobbed. ‘I had put Elin in her cot, and when I came out, she was gone, Johan. Gone.’
‘But have you looked everywhere? Maybe she somehow managed to crawl out.’
‘No!’ she shrieked. ‘No-o-o! She can’t crawl out on her own! Didn’t you hear what I said? She’s gone! Someone must have come in and taken her!’
She burst into such heart-rending sobs that Johan felt his nerves shatter. He could feel himself starting to cry. It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t be.
Pia was sitting next to him and had heard every word that Emma said.
She cast a glance at the photo on the wall. The picture of Johan sitting in his car outside Erik Mattson’s flat was still hanging there.
Suddenly the threat felt very real.
76
When the police arrived at Emma’s house in Roma, she was collapsed in the nursery upstairs. She was totally unresponsive, and the officers had to call an ambulance to take her to Wisby Hospital.
The police cordoned off the house and street. Roadblocks were put up at all the routes to and from Roma, and also at the entrances to Visby and down by the harbour. The next ferry to Nynashamn was due to depart at four o’clock, and all the vehicles waiting at the dock were searched. At the airport every passenger was checked. It would be impossible for the kidnapper to leave Gotland with the child, at least by the usual means of transport.
At first Knutas couldn’t believe it when he heard that Johan Berg’s daughter had been kidnapped. But he realized immediately that the reporter must have been conducting his own investigation and provoked the perpetrator in some way. He evidently hadn’t learned from previous experience to stay out of police business. Last time it had nearly cost Johan his life; now it was his little daughter’s life that hung in the balance. Knutas truly felt for Johan, and he rang him as soon as he found out what had happened. No answer, of course. Knutas then discovered that Johan was at the hospital with Emma, and he contacted him there. The reporter’s voice was barely audible when he at last picked up the phone.
‘I feel terrible about this,’ said Knutas. ‘I want you to know that we’re doing everything we can.’