she can keep things like this secret from you, maybe you need to have a bit of a think about your priorities in life.’
‘Are you preaching morals to me?’
‘I’m going to hang up now, okay.’
‘So you mean it’s Tove’s responsibility and not yours?’
‘No, Malin. YOUR responsibility, and you’re trying to push it off on to Tove. Goodbye. Call when you’ve calmed down.’
‘National registration records,’ Johan calls. ‘I got their file from the national registration office and it says there that Rakel Murvall has four sons; her eldest is called Karl Murvall. Must be a half-brother, because it says father unknown in the register. He’s in the phone book, lives down on Tanneforsvagen.’
‘I know about him,’ Malin says. ‘We need to talk to him as soon as possible.’
‘Meeting in three minutes,’ Johan says, pointing to the door to the meeting room.
Malin wonders if the children will be outside today. Let’s hope so; isn’t it a degree or so milder today?
There are no children playing outside the nursery, instead deserted swings, climbing-frames, sandpits and slides.
Karim Akbar has joined them for the meeting, dressed in a stern grey suit, sitting next to Sven Sjoman at the head of the table.
‘So far they’ve only found blood from elk and deer,’ Sven says. ‘But they’re hard at work in the lab. Until we’re done we need to keep all our options open as far as the Murvall brothers are concerned. If nothing else, at least we’ve dug up a bit of shit.’
‘Machine guns and hand grenades are more than a bit of shit,’ Borje Svard says.
‘Speaking of weapons,’ Sven says. ‘According to the weapons experts at the National Laboratory of Forensic Science, none of the weapons we found at the Murvalls’ could have been used to shoot rubber bullets into Bengt Andersson’s flat.’
‘Machine guns and hand grenades aren’t shit. But they’re not what we should be focusing on,’ Karim says. ‘Crime can deal with that.’
‘The question is, who did you see out in the forest?’ Sven says.
‘We don’t know,’ Malin says.
‘Whoever it was, they’ve got something to do with this,’ Zeke says.
‘Johan, tell us about the fourth brother,’ Sven says.
When Johan has told them what they know, silence settles over the table.
Questions hang in the air, until Zeke says, ‘None of the Murvalls has ever, not one single time, mentioned a half-brother. Did he grow up with them?’
‘Looks like it,’ Malin says. ‘Helen seemed to think so.’
‘Maybe he broke away,’ Johan says.
‘Some people might prefer a different sort of life to the one they offer,’ Borje adds.
‘Do we know anything else about this Karl Murvall?’ Karim wonders. ‘Do we know where he works, for instance?’
‘Not yet,’ Malin says. ‘But we’ll know by the end of the day.’
‘And we can always ask the Murvall brothers, and their charming mother,’ Zeke grins.
‘I can try,’ Sven says, and laughs.
‘What about the ?sir angle?’ Karim looks round the team expectantly. ‘Considering the crime-scene, we can’t just let that go.’
‘In all honesty,’ Johan says, ‘we’ve been busy elsewhere. But we’re definitely going to look more closely into that.’
‘Carry on as much as you can now,’ Sven says. ‘Malin and Zeke, how did you get on talking to the parents of Joakim Svensson and Jimmy Kalmvik?’
‘To their mothers,’ Malin says. ‘Joakim Svensson’s father is dead, and Goran Kalmvik works on an oil rig. We didn’t get anything new, really. It still isn’t clear if the boys have an alibi for Wednesday evening. There’s also some confusion about where Kalmvik’s father actually is.’
‘Confusion?’ Sven asks. ‘You know what I think about that.’
So Malin explains why the boys’ alibi is doubtful, that they were alone in Joakim’s flat, and that Goran Kalmvik is away, but that his wife thinks he’s still on an oil rig out in the North Sea.
‘But he’ll be home tomorrow. Early. We thought we’d try to catch him then.’
‘And Margaretha Svensson’s lover? Might he have something to say about what her son gets up to? If he’s been trying to build up a relationship?’
‘We’re going to talk to Niklas Nyren today. We prioritised the Murvalls’ cabin last night.’
‘Good. But make the fourth Murvall brother the priority for now. I’ll talk to the family.’
‘What, Karl? He moved away to the city.’ Rakel Murvall’s voice over the phone.
Moved away to the city? It’s only ten kilometres or so, but she makes it sound like the other side of the world,
