Carina Lowander opened the door at the same time they rang the bell. She looked every bit as fresh as Irene had imagined.
“Hi. Come on in. I’ve just made coffee. Would you like some?”
“Yes, please,” Tommy and Irene said in unison.
Carina ushered them toward the living room, which Irene immediately baptized “White Sea” in her head. The room was large and airy. Light streamed through colossal bay windows framed by thin white silk curtains. The walls were painted a bright white. The sofa group was also white, and the stripes on the black-and-white abstract rug were just as blinding. The rug must be at least thirty feet square. Irene pictured someone trying to carry it outside to beat it clean. Impossible. Supposedly an eleven-year-old girl lived in this house. Irene thought about how her house had looked when the twins were that age. Crumbs and chips all over her rugs. This rug might not require a beating, as it appeared neither children nor adults spent time in this room. Everything was clean and clinically white. Cold and perfect.
Three enormous paintings were hung on the wall. All three had different color schemes, but the motif was the same—large waves at sea. In one of the paintings, sunlight struck deep into the waves, giving them a turquoise glow.
Carina came through the doorway with a percolator in one hand and three ceramic mugs clustered together by their handles in the other. “Milk or sugar?”
Irene and Tommy declined, both preferring black. After she filled the mugs, Carina sat in one of the armchairs. She was wearing black stretch pants, a black silk top, and a clear blue jacket that matched her eyes. Her skin was faultlessly tanned, and her face could have belonged to a fashion model. Close up she appeared thirty; no one would have imagined she was really thirty-six. It pained Irene to admit to herself how beautiful Carina was.
“You’re in luck that today’s Thursday. I go in to work at noon on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but I work until ten at night. Tuesdays are the worst. I start working at Corporate Health Services in the morning and finish with aerobics at night.”
“Sounds like a tough schedule to me,” Tommy said. “We’ve gotten some information that we need to run past you—just routine. Hope that’s okay.”
“Sure, no problem.”
“Can you tell us more about your work?”
“I have two jobs. I have a half-time position leading a rehabilitation group at Corporate Health. My other part-time job is more fun. I lead aerobics and exercise groups at a gym. I like aerobics the best. But still, I do use my real training more with the rehabilitation group.”
“I’ve heard you’re a physical therapist,” Tommy said.
“That’s right, but after a while I realized I wanted to work with healthy people, too. That’s the real way to go. If people exercised regularly, they wouldn’t need rehabilitation.”
“Have you worked at Lowander Hospital as a physical therapist?” Irene asked, although she already knew the answer.
“Yes. My first job was at Lowander.”
“And that’s where you met your husband?” Irene asked innocently.
A gleam of mistrust appeared in Carina’s eyes. “I took it for granted that you’d already heard the old gossip. It goes around at the speed of light at Lowander.”
“Was that why you quit your job there?”
“In part. Many people there liked Barbro and thought that Sverker and I … betrayed her. The whole thing was awful. Barbro had had periods of depression long before Sverker and I became a couple. She was psychologically unstable, you could say. Sverker and I had a passionate relationship. When we realized it was serious, we hesitated to tell her because of her nervous temperament. We didn’t want to hurt her. But once I knew I was pregnant, the whole thing came to a head. But we still didn’t know what to do. And then one of the gossips at the hospital called Barbro and told her everything. It was … horrible. She totally fell apart.”
“Do you know who told on you?” Irene asked.
“No. I kept working at the hospital a few more years before I decided to change jobs. But I was never able to find out who told her.”
“Is there anyone you suspect?”
“Well, there are a few old nurses and secretaries who were openly hostile toward me. They could never accept that Sverker and Barbro divorced and blamed me. But I never knew which one was the snitch.”
“What happened to Barbro right after the divorce?”
“She was in and out of a mental hospital. Several times. Like I said, she fell apart as soon as she knew that Sverker and I had a relationship. I believe she still takes a bunch of pills. I really don’t know for sure. But at times she’s really … strange.”
“Do you run into each other often?”
Carina looked at Irene in surprise. “No. Never. She’s refused to meet me since they divorced. We just talk on the phone when it’s necessary. Nowadays John and Julia are all grown up, so there’s hardly any reason for us to contact each other.”
“Do you find it difficult to deal with her?”
“Not really. But she can’t stand me. I believe that we should get over our differences for the sake of the children and at least be polite. She refuses. The worst of it is that she’s turned the children against me and Sverker. Only God knows what nonsense she’s stuffed into their heads, but Sverker and his children have never gotten along.”
Irene thought it was time to get down to the real business at hand. “We’re here today mostly to listen to your version of what happened when the doctor’s mansion burned down. We know that Barbro accused you of setting the fire and that there was an investigation.”
A shadow of rage passed swiftly over Carina’s face but disappeared just as fast. Her voice did not even hint at irritation, but rather at deep sorrow.
“Unfortunately, this was at the same time that Barbro was at her worst. Of course we all felt sorry for her. Jealousy made her paranoid, and it spilled over. She wanted me in jail for arson. She even suggested Sverker had a hand in it so that he could get the insurance money.”
“What were her reasons for suspecting you of arson?”
“Supposedly I set fire to the house because I didn’t want to live there. Sverker was supposed to have wanted the insurance money so that we could buy this house for ourselves.”
“Did she make it up out of thin air?”
“Completely! Sverker had just inherited a great deal of money from his father. Almost three million crowns. He didn’t need insurance money. He would have been better off if he’d just sold the mansion outright. The profit from its sale would have been more than insurance, let me tell you.”
“And the idea that you didn’t want to live there?”
Carina’s face had turned an indignant red. It intensified the blue of her eyes. “I was only twenty-four. I thought the mansion was too old and too big. Barbro and Sverker had begun renovations, but they hadn’t gotten very far. The expense weighed on them. The entire place was run-down, and nothing had been done to it since the end of the nineteenth century. For me it was mostly because Barbro had lived there and set her stamp on the house. She has no taste. But I would have accepted living there as long as I was with Sverker.”
“So you’re saying that Barbro’s accusations are without merit,” Irene summarized in her most neutral voice.
“That’s right. And if I didn’t want to move into the mansion, I just would have refused to do so.”
“But you were pregnant,” Tommy said.
“That wouldn’t have changed anything. I wanted to live with Sverker, even in the mansion if that’s what he wanted. But he didn’t want to either. Before we’d decided what to do, the place burned down.”
“Was anyone at home when it caught fire?” Tommy asked.
“No. The fire started around ten in the morning. Both Sverker and I were at work. Of course, it’s just a stone’s throw away, but neither one of us was at home.”
Irene pondered this for a minute. Then she asked, “Could Barbro have set the fire?”
Carina sighed again. “They investigated everything at the time. There was never any proof of arson. The final
