Jonny’s flushed face contrasted nicely with his white bandages. He sank down into the nearest chair. “That damned cat jumped on me from the hat rack. I had to go to Molndal Hospital for treatment. Including a tetanus shot. While I was defending myself from that cat, guess what? A little old lady came into the apartment and what does she say?” Jonny cleared his throat and proclaimed in perfect falsetto, “ ‘Are they being mean to you, little Belker?’ ”
Everyone around the table burst into laughter.
“Then she just picked up that tiger, and wouldn’t you know that little devil curled up in her arms and began to purr. She asked me to bring the cat’s feeding dish and water bowl into her apartment, because now she was going to take care of the poor little pussycat.”
Irene was happy to hear the last bit—both because Belker and Ruth Berg were going to keep each other company and because Linda’s apartment would now be terror-free for the police.
“Anything new about Linda Svensson?” asked Andersson.
“I went to Kungsbacka and talked to her parents. She’s an only child. They’re beside themselves with worry. I asked them if her ex had ever hit her, but they didn’t believe he had. According to them he’s not the violent kind. Otherwise nothing new turned up in Linda’s apartment. I searched the area around the apartment building for the bicycle, but I didn’t find it. The building manager lent me a master key, and I looked in the basement, the laundry room, and the garbage room. The building has two stairways, and there are nine apartments on each floor. None of the other inhabitants saw or heard anything around the time Linda disappeared. Well, except the old lady who took in that man-eating beast. She says she heard Linda leave her apartment on the tenth of February at eleven-thirty P.M. Not a trace since. She and the bicycle are just gone.”
Andersson frowned. He thought for a long time before he finally said, “Jonny, you keep working on finding Linda. Fredrik, too. It feels like time is running out on us. Birgitta, did you reach Linda’s ex?”
“Yes, but only by phone. He’s taking a seminar in Boras and won’t be back until late tonight. He works for some kind of computer company.”
“All right. You talk to that young man tomorrow. Take Jonny with you. Try to lean on him to see what he knows.”
“Okay,” said Birgitta.
Irene observed that Birgitta did not look at Jonny while she nodded. On the surface she didn’t show any discomfort, just seemed to accept the assignment. But Irene sensed the tension between Jonny and Birgitta, and she wondered why. Of course, all Jonny’s off-color jokes offended some people, but Irene hadn’t been a policewoman seventeen years for nothing. Her instincts told her there was more to it than that.
“Should we request a reverse search on Linda’s phone?” Birgitta asked.
“Reverse search?” Andersson echoed.
“Linda had an ID box on her phone, which, unfortunately, the cat destroyed. But we can ask the telephone company to check who called her phone number on the tenth of February.”
“Is that possible?” Andersson asked, surprised.
“Yes, but it’s not cheap. We have to go through the prosecutor’s office.”
“Inez Collin,” Andersson said gloomily.
“That’s right.”
Andersson sighed. “Okay. I’ll talk to Her Highness and arrange it. It sounds like something that won’t happen overnight, though.”
“I’ve got to leave at seven,” Irene put in. “But I want you to know that there were more than one person attending seminars on the night in question.”
She quickly explained the gist of her interview with Niklas Alexandersson, that he and Andreas Svard were living together, and that she planned to interview them together in their home at seven-thirty.
“I just don’t get that kind of thing at all.” Andersson shook his head. “Two guys living together? And one of them once married to a really cute girl to boot.”
“A cute girl who’s now dead,” Jonny pointed out.
“Exactly.” The superintendent thought a moment. “Tommy, go with Irene. It’s better if there are two of you.”
“Will do.”
“Fine. The pair of you will take care of our little pansies, ha! Hmmm.” Andersson cut his laughter short when he saw that only Jonny was laughing with him. He quickly turned to Irene. “Was that everything?”
“No. I went to the GT home office and had a chat with Kurt Hook.” Irene repeated her conversation with the journalist. Everyone else in the room had already read the article, and it had led to speculation about possible leaks. Here was the answer. As the icing on the cake, Irene played the tape she’d made of the conversation with Mama Bird. When she turned off the tape recorder, Jonny snorted.
“You’re terrible at re-creating conversations. But regardless, that is one crazy old lady. No reason to pay any attention to her.”
Irene nodded, ignoring his criticism of her dramatic-reenactment skills. “Of course, she’s mentally ill. But listen between the lines. She knows about Nurse Tekla and the story going around the hospital. She may have gotten the wrong date for Tekla’s death, but she knew it was a suicide. And she mentions that the building went dark. She must have been near the hospital when the power went out and the murder took place.”
Andersson’s face flushed with excitement from cheeks to ears, and he slid forward on his chair. “You’re absolutely right. We have to track down this … Mama Bird. You and Tommy get on it right away tomorrow morning.”
“Aye-aye.” Irene made a joking salute to her boss, but he’d already turned his attention to Tommy.
“So what did you do today?”
“I was supposed to help Birgitta interview Pontus Olofsson, but since he was gone for the day, I decided to help Hans and Fredrik canvass the neighborhood. We went to all the apartment buildings and single-family houses around Lowander Hospital. No one had seen or heard anything on the night in question. One person walking his dog around eleven-thirty P.M. said that the dog went crazy while they were walking through the park behind the hospital. The park there stretches all the way to a stream at its south side. On the west it meets the edge of a forest. That’s where the dog owner was walking his dog. The dog suddenly began to growl in the direction of the grove. The man couldn’t see anyone but felt uncomfortable, so they left right away.”
If the murderer hid in the grove of trees at the edge of the forest.… If Mama Bird also was in the vicinity.… They would have to find her. But where should they start to look for her? Maybe in the park.…
Irene’s thoughts were interrupted by her pager.
“Come get your pizza,” said one of the men from the front desk.
Irene and Tommy got up to get the food. In the elevator Irene said, “This evening we’re going to talk to Andreas Svard and Niklas Alexandersson. Then tomorrow morning we’ll have to search for Mama Bird. We’ll have to go to Lowander Hospital and see if there’s anything in the grove, if someone was perhaps waiting there. Perhaps she’s homeless? Hook said she smelled awful.”
Tommy nodded in agreement. “Seems reasonable.”
“There’s a lot of pressure on us right now, especially about Linda Svensson’s disappearance.”
“The two must be connected somehow. Marianne had Linda’s day planner in her pocket.” Tommy was thinking out loud. “And, for a night nurse, no flashlight? Very strange.”
And worrisome, Irene thought. Very worrisome. Yes indeed, why did Marianne, the night-shift nurse, have Linda’s day planner but no flashlight in her pocket?
THE POLICE OFFICERS had eaten their pizza and worked out their assignments for the following day when Irene and Tommy headed out to interview Marianne Svard’s ex-husband.
Finding the address was not easy. Many of the stone buildings near Linnegatan had been torn down in the 1980s when a changing water table had rotted their support pilings. Architects attempting to re-create a turn-of- the-century atmosphere had not always been successful, but now pleasant pubs, small boutiques, and proximity to the large forest of Slottsskogen had made this area extremely popular. House prices and rents were sky-high.
They finally located the address; A. SVARD and N. ALEXANDERSSON were on the nameplate by the entrance. Irene called on the intercom and heard Niklas’s sour voice. “I’m opening,” he said crossly.
The front door buzzed and let the police officers into an airy hallway. The light gray marble floor and warm, champagne-colored walls with their iris-blue borders were very attractive. The elevator was the same champagne
