“SHE REFUSES TO talk. Honestly, I don’t think she even hears what I’m saying.” The prosecutor, Inez Collin, looked concerned. She crossed her legs, one foot swinging impatiently. Irene admired her shoes, a deep burgundy made of kid leather, very expensive. They were the same color as her outfit, and Irene inwardly complimented her on her color sense. Inez wore a long jacket and a knee-length skirt. Her nails were impeccably manicured in deep wine red, and her blouse was a shimmering light gray silk. The same gray tinted the prosecutor’s nylons and, incredibly, matched her eyes. How did she do it? Did she wear colored contact lenses? Probably not. Inez had always had the same gray eyes and platinum-blond hair in a severe ponytail. Irene couldn’t help admiring her because she was good-looking and well-dressed, but Inez still didn’t hold a candle to Carina Lowander.
Carina remained as silent as a nun. Three times a day, she did her workout in her cell. She played her gym routine on a tiny cassette player, the only item she was allowed. Her arm, in a cast, and her broken ribs didn’t seem to trouble her in the least. When the investigators tried to question her, she sat with a faraway smile on her face, her eyes focused on the wall. A psychological evaluation had already been requested. It would take some time before her mental state could be assessed. Before then the investigative team wanted to clear up the last remaining questions.
“Our difficulty with finding proof is that only Carina herself can answer how the murders actually took place —and why. We really don’t have much. Our main evidence is the flashlight, of course, which was found in the trunk of her car. Can you believe she kept that?! Especially since it was engraved with the letters ICU and M.S. The hair and fingerprints in the suitcases were hers. Still, none of this proves that she was the killer. All we really have is the attack on Inspector Huss,” Inez Collin concluded.
“She’s been pretty damn good at eliminating any witnesses,” muttered Superintendent Andersson.
“She missed one,” Birgitta Moberg said, then pausing for dramatic effect. “Siv Persson. I called her in London last night. She’s returning home this afternoon with her son.”
Jonny snorted. “She’ll never admit that it wasn’t a ghost.”
“But she already has. I think it was her initial shock that made her believe she’d seen a ghost. On the phone she told me, ‘That image is turning around in my head. I’ll figure out who it was soon.’ Maybe she recognized Carina as the ghost nurse after all,” Birgitta concluded.
“That lady is completely nuts,” Jonny said.
Irene carefully shifted her leg, which was in a cast. It was itching terribly. The operation on her muscles and tendons had gone well, but she’d have to wear the cast for several weeks more. Thankfully, no bone had been broken. At least osteoporosis wasn’t showing up yet.
Inez Collin looked at Irene’s leg thoughtfully. She cocked her head and finally said, “A cast on a leg looks more dramatic than one on a wrist.”
The assembled group of investigators raised their eyebrows. The prosecutor said pensively, “I’m thinking about Carina’s personality. My impression is that she believes she is above other people. Smarter. Stronger. More beautiful. She seems to believe she’s entitled to use whatever methods she wants to reach her goals. Sociopathic. I believe she’s as vain as other sociopaths. Extremely vain, in fact. Perhaps we should use that.”
Inez quickly sketched her strategy. Irene protested at first, but then let herself be convinced. It was worth a try.
THEY BORROWED A wheelchair from Central. Irene sat down in the chair, and her colleagues helped unfold the foot-rest. With her leg sticking straight out, she definitely appeared pathetic, defenseless, and vulnerable.
Fredrik Stridh was playing her caretaker. The chair’s wheels burned rubber as he cleared the corner to catch the elevator. He punched the top button, and soon they started their journey up to the prison floors.
CARINA HAD JUST had a shower and was drying her hair with a towel. The cold cell smelled like expensive perfume with an undertone of coconut, the same aroma that had alerted Irene’s subconscious that day in the garage. So far Carina’s prison stay had not even made her tan fade.
Fredrik went in first and said, “You have a visitor.” Without waiting for an answer, he went back to the hallway and returned pushing Irene in her wheelchair. Carina stopped in the middle of drying her hair and stared straight at Irene, still not saying a word.
Fredrik said, “It’s crazy what you did to poor old Irene Her leg practically fell off. She’s on months of sick leave.”
Irene fumed inwardly. Fredrik was taking his role a little too seriously; he was overstepping the script as well. Carina did not appear to react, but there was a touch of curiosity in her eyes as she regarded Irene’s cast.
Irene hurried to take over from Fredrik. “You’re really strong. This was the worst fight I’ve ever been in. I told everyone you were the strongest and smartest person I’ve ever come up against. You are in fantastic shape.”
She stopped talking, wondering if she’d spread it on too thick. Perhaps not, because Carina was starting to show the hint of a smile. At least she appeared to be listening. Encouraged, Irene continued. “The cleverest bit was when you decided to dress up in Nurse Tekla’s old uniform from the suitcase. If anyone saw you, they’d think they’d seen the hospital ghost. Very clever.”
To Irene’s surprise, Carina answered. “It went just as I planned. Those superstitious old broads really believed I was the ghost.” There she stopped, but her expression was no longer vague. She looked downright smug.
“What I don’t understand is why Linda had to die, even though she tried to get her claws into your husband. …” Irene started.
Carina’s eyes were bottomless pits of hate as she replied, “I don’t give a damn what she and Sverker were up to in the on-call apartment! It was my hospital and my plan to make it into Goteborg’s best-ever fitness center. All that work I put into the drawings and plans. And then that little piece of shit tries to convince Sverker to get a divorce.”
“Did he say he wanted a divorce?” Irene said, pretending to be outraged.
“I heard them!” Carina stopped and gave Irene a suspicious look, but Irene was ready and made a sympathetic face. Carina was encouraged. She continued, “I was at the door to the on-call apartment and heard them. It was the first weekend after we returned from Thailand. Sverker suddenly had to go to the hospital. I knew what was going on, but I pretended not to. I’ve been through it before. And twelve years ago I was the one doing the same thing. Ha! So I followed them.… I opened the door—and I heard them.…”
Carina pressed her lips together. Her eyes thinned to slits. Softly, she hissed, “I couldn’t allow that. My plans … my hospital … It was her own fault she had to die. She could have kept on with the affair as long as she pleased, but she wanted to get married. That whore! No way could she marry him. I had no money to get the building on my own, so I could only keep it through Sverker. And we are married, after all.” Carina lifted her chin defiantly and looked right at Irene, who nodded her agreement.
Irene phrased her next question carefully. “How did you get into the building? You’d given Sverker the main key, hadn’t you?”
Carina nodded slyly and said in a confidential tone, “I didn’t just find the drawings in Hilding’s suitcase. There was a key chain as well, with the mansion key and the hospital key. They hadn’t ever bothered to change the locks. Of course Hilding had a master key. Sverker had missed that fact completely!”
Carina beamed in triumph, very pleased with herself.
“When Sverker called and said that he had to stay late that night, I knew right away that she was going to be there, and I knew what time, too. Sverker has no imagination. I had hidden the uniform at home already, so I just took it with me in the car and changed in the grove. You should have seen me slipping across the lawn. If anyone had seen me, they’d have had a heart attack.” She broke out in scornful laughter that made the hair on the back of Irene’s neck stand on end.
Suppressing a shudder, Irene said, “God, you were clever. Though someone did see you. The homeless
