Camilla Lackberg Crime Thrillers 1 and 2: The Ice Princess, The Preacher. Camilla Lackberg

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СКАЧАТЬ against the sharp midday sun. The mood in the room was double-edged. Gloom was mixed with Birgit’s obvious relief that Alex had not committed suicide.

      ‘Do you know who did it?’ Birgit had taken out a small embroidered handkerchief from her handbag and carefully dried the corners of her eyes so as not to ruin her make-up.

      Mellberg clasped his hands over his voluminous paunch and fixed his eyes on the people in front of him. He cleared his throat with authority.

      ‘Perhaps the two of you might tell me that.’

      ‘Us?’ Henrik’s surprise sounded genuine. ‘How would we know that? This must be the work of a madman. Alexandra didn’t have any enemies.’

      ‘So you say.’

      Patrik thought for an instant that a shadow passed across the face of Alex’s husband. The next second it was gone, and Henrik was again his calm and controlled self.

      Patrik had always harboured a healthy scepticism about men like Henrik Wijkner. Men who were born to succeed. Who had everything without ever having to lift a finger. Naturally Henrik seemed both pleasant and charming, but under the surface Patrik could sense currents that hinted at a more complex personality. He glimpsed ruthlessness behind the handsome features, and he wondered about the total lack of surprise on Henrik’s face when Mellberg revealed that Alex had been murdered. Believing something is one thing, but hearing it stated as fact is quite another. That much he had learned in his ten years as a cop.

      ‘Are we suspects?’ Birgit looked as astounded as if the superintendent had changed into a pumpkin right before her eyes.

      ‘The statistics speak for themselves in cases of murder. The great majority of perpetrators is usually found among the close family members. Now I’m not saying that’s true in this case, but I’m sure you understand that we have to be quite certain. No stone will be left unturned, I can personally vouch for that. With my broad experience in murder cases’ – another dramatic pause – ‘this will surely be resolved quickly. But I would like both of you to submit an account of your actions on the days leading up to the point in time when we suspect Alexandra was killed.’

      ‘And what point in time would that be?’ asked Henrik. ‘The last of us to speak with her was Birgit, but none of us phoned her until Sunday, so the murder could even have occurred on Saturday. I did ring her around nine-thirty Friday night, but she often took a walk in the evening before bed, so I assumed that she might have been out walking.’

      ‘All the medical examiner can say is that she has been dead for approximately a week. Naturally we will check your statements about when you phoned her, but we have one piece of information that indicates she died sometime before nine o’clock on Friday night. At around six o’clock, which must have been just after she arrived in Fjällbacka, she rang a Lars Thelander about a furnace that wasn’t working properly. He couldn’t come right away, but promised to be there no later than nine that evening. According to his testimony it was precisely nine o’clock when he knocked on the door. No one came to the door, and after waiting for a while he drove back home. Our working hypothesis is therefore that she died sometime that evening after she arrived in Fjällbacka, since it seems unlikely that she would have forgotten that the repairman was coming to look at the furnace, considering how cold it was in the house.’

      His hair was slipping again, this time down the left side. Patrik noticed that Erica could hardly take her eyes from the spectacle. She was probably controlling an impulse to rush over and straighten his hair. Everyone at the station had been through that phase.

      ‘What time did you say you talked to her?’ Mellberg directed his question at Birgit.

      ‘Well, I’m not quite sure.’ She thought for a moment. ‘Sometime after seven. About quarter past, or seven-thirty, I think. We spoke briefly because Alex said she had a visitor.’ Birgit blanched. ‘Could it have been …?’

      Mellberg nodded solemnly. ‘Entirely possible, Mrs Carlgren. But it’s our job to find out, and I can assure you that we will put all our resources on the case. In our line of work the elimination of suspects is one of our primary tasks, so please write up an account of Friday evening.’

      ‘Do you want me to provide an alibi too?’ Erica asked.

      ‘I don’t think that will be necessary. But we would like you to tell us everything you saw when you were inside the house, the day you discovered her. You can leave your written accounts with Assistant Hedström.’

      Everyone turned to look at Patrik, and he nodded in agreement. They began to get up.

      ‘A tragic event, this. Particularly in view of the child.’

      They all turned their eyes to Mellberg.

      ‘The child?’ Quizzically, Birgit looked from Mellberg to Henrik and back.

      ‘Yes, she was in the third month of pregnancy according to the medical examiner. Surely this can’t have been a surprise to you, could it?’

      Mellberg grinned and winked roguishly at Henrik. Patrik was utterly appalled by his boss’s tactless behaviour.

      Henrik’s face slowly lost all colour until it looked like white marble. Birgit turned to stare at him in astonishment. Erica felt as if she were petrified.

      ‘Were you two going to have a child? Why didn’t you tell me? Oh, God.’

      Birgit pressed her handkerchief to her mouth and sobbed uncontrollably, without a thought for the mascara that now ran in rivulets down her cheeks. Henrik again put a protective arm around her, but over Birgit’s head he met Patrik’s gaze. It was obvious that he hadn’t had a clue that Alexandra was pregnant. Judging by Erica’s hopeless expression, however, it was clear that she did know.

      ‘We’ll talk about this when we get home, Birgit,’ said Henrik. He turned to Patrik. ‘I’ll see to it that you receive written accounts about Friday evening. I suppose you’ll probably want to interview us in more detail once you have them.’

      Patrik nodded affirmatively. He raised his eyebrows to give Erica a questioning look.

      ‘Henrik, I’ll be right there,’ she said. ‘I just have to speak with Patrik for a moment. We’re old friends.’

      She lingered in the corridor as Henrik led Birgit out to the car.

      ‘Imagine running into you here. That was a surprise,’ said Patrik. He rocked nervously back and forth on his heels.

      ‘Yes, if I’d thought about it I would have remembered that you work here, of course.’

      She was twisting the handle of her purse between her fingers and looking at him with her head cocked a little to one side. All her small gestures were so familiar to him.

      ‘It’s been a long time. I’m sorry I couldn’t come to the funeral. How are you coping, you and Anna?’

      Despite her height she looked small all of a sudden, and he resisted the urge to caress her cheek.

      ‘We’re doing all right. Anna drove home right after the funeral, but I’ve been here a couple of weeks now, trying to clean up the house. It’s not easy.’

      ‘I heard that a woman in Fjällbacka had discovered the victim, but I had no idea it was СКАЧАТЬ