'How do you know?'
Martin Beck looked gravely at Kollberg and said, 'I know because I did exactly the same thing eleven years ago. I didn't find anything either. And I didn't have any Asa Torell to carry out sexual-psychological experiments on. The minute you told me that about her, I knew what he had been working on. But I forgot that you didn't know as much about Teresa Camarao as I did. Come to that, I should have realized it when we found those pictures in his drawer.'
'So he was trying out a kind of psychological method?'
'Yes. That's all there is left. Find a person who resembles Teresa in some respect and see how she reacts. There's a certain amount of sense in it, especially if you already happen to have such a person at home. The investigation as such has no gaps. Otherwise ...'
‘What?'
'I was going to say that otherwise we'd have to turn to a clairvoyant But some bright guy has already done that It's there somewhere in the file.'
'But this doesn't tell us what he was doing on the bus.'
'No. It doesn't tell us a damn thing.'
'I'll check a couple of things anyway,' Kollberg said.
‘Yes, do,' Martin Beck said.
Kollberg sought out Henrique Camarao, who now called himself Hendrik Caam, a corpulent, middle-aged man who sighed and stole an unhappy glance at his blonde upper-class wife and a thirteen-year-old son with velvet jacket and Beatles hair-do, and said, 'Am I never to be left in peace? Only last summer there was a young detective here and ...'
Kollberg also checked Caam's alibi for the evening of 13 November. It was faultless.
He also tracked down the man who had taken the pictures of Teresa eighteen years earlier, and found a toothless old alcoholic in a cell in the long-term wing of the central prison. The man, who had been a burglar, screwed up his mouth and said, 'Teresie. I'll say I remember her. She had nipples the size of beer-bottle tops. Funny thing, there was another cop here a few months ago and...'
Kollberg read every word of the report. It took him exactly a week. On the evening of Tuesday, 18 December 1967, he read the last page. Then he looked at his wife, who had been asleep for some hours; her head, with its dark ruffled hair, was burrowed into the pillow. She was lying on her stomach with her right knee drawn up and the quilt had slipped down to her waist. He heard the sofa creak in the living room as Asa Torell got up and tiptoed out to the kitchen for a drink of water. She still slept badly.
There's no missing part in this, Kollberg thought No loose ends. All the same, tomorrow I'll make a list of all the people who were interrogated or who are known to have been with Teresa Camarao. Then we'll see who's still left and what they're doing now.
26
A month had passed since the sixty-seven shots were fired in the bus on Norra Stationsgatan, and the ninefold murderer was still at large.
The police board, the press and the general public were not the only ones who showed their impatience. There was yet another category who were particularly anxious for the police to find the guilty man as soon as possible. This category comprised what is popularly known as the underworld.
Most of the people who usually busied themselves with crime had been forced into inactivity during the last month. So long as the police were on the alert, it was best to lie low. There was not a thief, junkie, dealer, mugger, bootlegger or pimp in the whole of Stockholm who didn't hope that the mass murderer would soon be seized so that the police could once more devote their time to Vietnam demonstrators and parking offenders and they themselves could get back to work.
One result of this was that for once they made common cause with the police, and most of them had no objections to helping in the hunt
Ronn's work in his search for the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle called Nils Erik Goransson was also made much easier by this willingness. He was quite well aware of the motives behind the unusual good will shown to him, but he was nonetheless grateful for it.
He had spent the last few nights contacting people who had known Goransson. He had found them in squats, restaurants, bars, billiard halls and common boarding houses. Not all were willing to give information, but many did.
On the evening of 13 December, on a barge moored at Soder Malarstrand, he met a girl who promised to put him in touch the next evening with Sune Bjork, the man who had let Goransson share his flat for a week or two.
The next day was a Thursday and Ronn, who had snatched only a few hours in bed during the last few days, spent half the day sleeping. He got up at one o'clock and helped his wife to pack. He had persuaded her to go up to her parents at Arjeplog over the Christmas holidays, as he suspected that he himself would not have much spare time for celebrating Christmas this year.
Having seen his wife off on the train, he drove home again and sat down at the kitchen table with paper and pen. He laid Nordin's report and his own notebook in front of him, put on his glasses and began to write.
Nils Erik Goransson.
Born in the Finnish parish, Stockholm, 4.10.1929.
Parents: Algot Erik Goransson, electrician, and Benita Rantanen.
Parents divorced 1935, mother moved to Helsinki and father given custody of the child.
G. lived with father at Sundbyberg till 1945.
Went to school for 7 years, thereafter 2 years at trade school learning house-painting.
1947 moved to Gothenburg, where he worked as painter's apprentice. Married Gudrun Maria Svensson in Gothenburg 1.12.1948. Divorced 13.5.1949.
From June 1949 to March 1950 deckhand on boats of the Svea Steamship Company. Baltic coastal trade. Moved in the summer of 1950 to Stockholm. Employed by the painting firm of Amandus Gustavsson until November 1950, when he was dismissed for being drunk at work. From then on he seems to have gone downhill. He got odd jobs, as night porter, errand boy, porter, warehouseman etc., but probably made a living mainly out of petty thieving and other minor crimes. Was never apprehended, however, as suspected of any crime but on several occasions was charged with being drunk and disorderly. For a time he called himself by his mother's maiden name, Rantanen. Father died 1958 and between 1958 and 1964 he lived in father's apartment at Sundbyberg. Evicted 1964 because he was three months in arrears with rent.
He seems to have started using narcotics some time during 1964. From that year until his death he had no fixed residence. In January 1965, he moved in with Gurli Lofgren, Skeppar Karlsgrand 3, and lived with her until the spring of 1966. During this time neither he nor Lofgren had any regular work. Lofgren was registered with the vice squad but considering her age and appearance, she cannot have earned much from prostitution during this time. Lofgren too was addicted to drugs. Gurli Lofgren died of cancer at the age of 47 on Christmas Day, 1966. At the beginning of March 1967 he met Magdalena Rosen (Blonde Malin) and lived with her at Arbetargatan 3 until 29.8.1967. From beginning of September until middle of October this year he had a temporary domicile with Sune Bjork.
Was treated for venereal disease (gonorrhea) twice during October-November at St Goran's Hospital
The mother has remarried. She still lives in Helsinki and has been notified by letter of her son's death.
Rosen says that Goransson was never without money and that she doesn't know where this money came from. To her knowledge, he was not a pusher and did not carry on any other form of business.
Ronn read through what he had written. His handwriting was so microscopic that it all fitted on to less than one sheet of legal-sized paper. Putting the paper in his briefcase and the notebook in his pocket, he went off to see Sune Bjork. The girl from the barge was waiting for him by the newspaper kiosk on Mariatorget
'I'm not coming with you,' she said. 'But I've talked to Sune, so he knows you're coming. Hope I haven't done anything stupid.'
She gave him an address on Tavastgatan and made off down towards Slussen.
Sune Bjork was younger than Ronn had expected, he couldn't have been more than twenty-five. He had a blond beard and seemed nice enough. There was nothing about him to indicate that he was an addict, and Ronn wondered what he could have had in common with the much older and seedier Goransson.
