Smiling broadly, Krister turned to look at her. “Russian beet soup. I’ve made real smetana.”
Irene tried to comfort herself by thinking that the graham dinner rolls were bound to be at least as tasty as they were filling.
SVERKER LOWANDER MIGHT have felt mentally recharged after his squash match, but he didn’t look all that physically refreshed. Tommy and Irene had arrived at exactly 8:00 A.M., and they were now sitting in his office at Lowander Hospital.
“Carina said you’d visited her yesterday. Sorry I wasn’t home. I’ve started to get back to exercising again. I feel I really need it. Time to return to my routines.” Sverker’s voice faded, and he looked down at his hands, which were folded and resting on his desk.
“We just have a few follow-up questions for you,” Tommy said.
“That’s fine.”
Tommy wore his most innocent look; Irene knew that he was going to cut to the chase. “Why did Linda have your cell-phone number in her day planner?”
It was obvious that Lowander didn’t expect the question but was doing his best to maintain an impassive expression. “I’ve already explained that.”
“It would be better if you explained it again,” Tommy said in a friendly but unyielding manner.
“It happened last fall. I was at a seminar at Hotel Gothia, and I gave Linda my cell phone because one of my patients wasn’t doing well. She was working that day.”
“Wouldn’t it have been more logical for her to jot it down in the department’s phone book?” Tommy objected.
Lowander shrugged. “Maybe so. But she didn’t.”
“You never saw where she wrote it down?”
“No.”
“We have traced a phone call from your cell phone to Linda Svensson the evening of February tenth. It was recorded at six thirty-five P.M.”
Sverker Lowander rubbed both eyes hard before he replied. “I’d forgotten that completely. Things were crazy after we found Marianne. And then when Linda.… I’d forgotten that.” He took a deep breath before he continued. “It concerned the snafu with Nils Peterzen’s medical paperwork. It wasn’t there the morning of his surgery. I was searching for it and asked Linda about it in case she’d seen it somewhere on the ward. It was in the secretary’s office. I was able to glance through it as I headed up to operate. Of course I should have read it more thoroughly. His vitals weren’t good. He should have been seen by a lung specialist before we operated. His blood results and oxygen rate hadn’t been included in the charts.…” He sighed heavily. Then he turned his hypnotic green eyes toward Irene and said, his voice pleading, “Nils Peterzen seemed to be in good shape. He was optimistic and in an upbeat mood. He even joked on the way to surgery. He didn’t want to put off the operation.”
Sverker fell silent and looked morosely at the two officers. “After he took a turn for the worse that evening, we got the acute readings regarding his blood gases. Of course they were abysmal. I was worried and wanted to know what the original levels had been. I couldn’t find the record anywhere. Nurse Ellen had the evening shift, but she hadn’t seen his chart that day. Then I called Nurse Linda, but she hadn’t seen those values on Peterzen either.”
“So she was home when you called.”
“Yes.”
“How did she seem to you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Was she happy? Tense? Worried?”
Sverker looked doubtful as he answered. “I didn’t notice anything unusual. She seemed her normal self. But I had other things on my mind.”
“So you’re worried that the reason Nils Peterzen died was really your own carelessness.”
Lowander sank lower into his chair and nodded reluctantly.
“Do you remember when Carina began to talk about her idea for the fitness center?” Tommy asked.
Sverker looked surprised. “Yes, last Christmas. Why?”
“Did you lend her your master key so that she could search for the architectural plans of the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“When did she return them?”
Lowander wrinkled his brow as he thought. “Don’t know for sure. Sometime before New Year’s Eve. I came here, too, to look through the building before we headed off to Thailand on vacation. We celebrated my fiftieth birthday in Phuket.”
“When did you leave?”
“On New Year’s Eve. We returned on January thirteenth.”
“Did you want to avoid a big party with family and friends?” Irene asked.
Sverker smiled. “No, they all came over the following weekend. You can’t escape a fiftieth birthday.”
“Did you go into the attic when you searched the building before your trip?” Tommy asked.
“No, there wasn’t any reason to go there. Nothing to see.”
“So there was no indication anyone got into the hospital building while it was closed?”
“No, only Carina, but I knew that already, of course.”
For the moment it looked as if nothing more could come out of this interview. The police officers stood up and thanked the doctor for his time. Then Irene was struck by a thought. “Does your ex-wife, Barbro, know that you’re going to shut the hospital?”
Sverker looked at her quizzically. “No, why would she know that? We’re not in touch at all, especially after John and Julia moved to the United States.”
“Do you have contact with your children?”
“Of course,” he replied tersely.
“Do you think that she might have heard from them about Carina’s plans to start a fitness center?”
For the first time during their conversation, Sverker looked irritated. “No, they hardly talk to her. Why are you asking these kinds of questions anyway?”
“Just a thought. Barbro has tried to throw suspicion on you and Carina before. Like the time when the mansion burned down.”
“We didn’t take that seriously. Nobody believed her. It was clear that she wasn’t in her right mind. Barbro would never hurt a fly.”
IRENE AND TOMMY swung by the ICU to have a chat with Nurse Anna-Karin.
“I believe she’s hiding something,” Tommy said.
“Why do you think that?” Irene asked.
“Just experience and a cop’s nose.”
They decided they’d bring her to the police station if she didn’t cooperate about what she knew.
When they pressed the door opener to the ICU, nothing happened. The door stayed shut. Tommy knocked hard, and they could hear approaching footsteps.
“Who is it?” a voice called.
It wasn’t Anna-Karin’s voice but that of a somewhat older woman.
“Inspectors Huss and Persson,” Tommy said.
The door was opened carefully. The elderly nurse introduced herself as Margot.
“We’re looking for Anna-Karin,” Tommy said in his friendliest voice.
