the officers had noticed. They took it as a sign of weakness, as an opportunity to get at him. They were mistaken. He had everything to win and nothing to lose by keeping silent. For a moment he thought about Erik and Christian. Above all, Christian. He’d been dragged into this even though he was not to blame. Not like Erik. But he couldn’t take the others into consideration. Lisbet was the only one who mattered.
‘We’ve just paid a visit to Cia. We saw a video that was taken at a Midsummer party at their house.’ Patrik seemed to be expecting a reaction, but Kenneth had no idea what he was talking about. His old life, with parties and friends, now seemed so far away.
‘Magnus was drunk, and the two of you slipped away to have a smoke. It seemed that you wanted to make sure no one could hear you.’
He still didn’t understand what Patrik was getting at. Everything was a hazy blur. Nothing was distinct or clear any more.
‘Magnus’s son, Ludvig, filmed the two of you without your knowledge. Magnus was upset. He wanted to talk to you about something that had happened. You got annoyed with him and said that what was done was done. You told him to think about his family. Do you remember any of this?’
Oh yes, Kenneth did remember. It was still a bit vague, but he recalled how he had felt when he saw the panic in Magnus’s eyes. He could never work out why the topic had come up on that particular evening. Magnus had been aching to talk about it, to make amends. And that had scared him. He had thought about Lisbet, about what she would say, how she would look at him. Finally he’d been able to calm Magnus down – that much he remembered. But from that moment on, he had expected something to happen that would make everything crack wide open. And that’s exactly what had happened, only not in the way he’d imagined. Because even in the worst possible scenarios he had pictured in his mind, Lisbet had still been alive to reproach him. Leaving always a slim chance that he’d be able to explain. Now things were different, and justice would have to be done for him to be able to explain. He couldn’t let the police ruin his chances.
So he shook his head, pretending that he was trying to recall.
‘No, I don’t remember that.’
‘We can arrange for you to watch the tape, if that might jog your memory,’ said Paula.
‘Sure, I can look at it. But I can’t imagine that it was anything important, or I would have remembered. It was probably just drunken rambling. Magnus got like that once in a while when he was drinking. Melodramatic and sentimental. Trivial matters got blown all out of proportion.’
He could see that they didn’t believe him, but it didn’t matter because they couldn’t read his mind. The secret would come out sooner or later – he knew that too. The police wouldn’t give up until they found out everything. But that didn’t have to happen until she came to give him what he deserved.
The officers stayed a little while longer, but it was easy to fend off their questions. He wasn’t about to do their job for them; he had to think of himself and Lisbet. Erik and Christian would have to manage on their own as best they could.
Before leaving, Patrik looked at him kindly and said, ‘We also wanted to tell you that we received the report from Lisbet’s post-mortem. She wasn’t murdered. She died of natural causes.’
Kenneth turned his face away. He knew that they were wrong.
Patrik was on the verge of falling asleep as they headed back to Uddevalla. For a moment his eyes actually fell shut and he drove into the oncoming lane.
‘What are you doing!’ cried Paula, grabbing the wheel to steer the car back where it belonged.
Patrik gave a start and gasped.
‘Bloody hell! I don’t know what’s going on. I’m just so tired.’
Paula looked at him with concern. ‘Okay, let’s head over to your house, and I’ll drop you off there. And tomorrow you need to stay home. You don’t look well.’
‘I can’t do that. I’ve got lots of things to do.’ He blinked his eyes, trying to focus on the road.
‘All right, here’s what we’re going to do right now,’ said Paula firmly. ‘Turn in at the next petrol station and we’ll change places. I’ll drive you home, and then I’ll go to the office and pick up all the materials you need and bring them back to Fjallbacka. I’ll also make sure the videocassette is sent to the lab for analysis. But you have to promise to take it easy. You’ve been working too much, and I’m sure it’s been tough at home too. I know how hard it was for Johanna when she was expecting Leo, and I’m sure you’re having to carry an extra heavy load right now.’
Patrik nodded reluctantly and did as she said. He turned in at the petrol station at the Hogstorp exit and got out of the car. He was simply too worn out to argue. It was actually impossible for him to take a day off, or even a couple of hours, but his body refused to cooperate. If he could just get some rest and have time to go through all the documentation, maybe he’d regain some of the energy he needed to proceed with the investigation.
Patrik leaned his head against the window on the passenger side and had almost dozed off even before Paula pulled out on to the motorway. When he opened his eyes, they were parked in front of his house. Feeling groggy, he climbed out.
‘Go on in and lie down. I’ll be back in an hour. Don’t lock the door, so I can leave the papers for you inside,’ said Paula.
‘Okay. Thanks.’ That was all he could manage to say.
Patrik opened the door and went in.
‘Erica!’
No answer. He had phoned her in the afternoon, but hadn’t been able to get hold of her. Maybe she’d gone over to Anna’s house and had ended up staying a while. For safety’s sake, he decided to leave her a note on the bureau in the front hall, just so she wouldn’t get scared if she came home and heard somebody in the house. Then he walked numbly up the stairs and fell into bed. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. But it was not a deep or restful sleep.
Something was about to change. Louise couldn’t say that she liked her life as it had been over the past few years, but at least it was familiar. With the coldness, the indifference, the exchange of caustic and well-rehearsed remarks.
Now she could feel the ground under her feet starting to shake, and the cracks were getting wider. During their last argument, she saw a sense of finality in Erik’s eyes. His disdain wasn’t new, and it no longer really affected her, but this time something was different. And it scared her more than she’d ever imagined was possible. Because deep in her heart she had always believed that they would continue to dance this dance of death with ever greater elegance.
He had reacted strangely when she mentioned Cecilia. Usually he didn’t care if she talked about his mistresses. He just pretended not to hear her. Why had he become so angry this morning? Was it a sign that Cecilia actually meant something to him?
Louise drained her glass. She was already having a hard time gathering her thoughts. Everything was wrapped in a pleasant woolliness, in the warmth spreading through her limbs. She poured herself more wine, looking out of the window across the ice that embraced the islands, while her hand as if of its own accord raised the glass to her lips.
She had to find out what was going on. Whether the cracks beneath her feet were real or imagined. But one thing she knew for sure. If the dance was about to end, it wouldn’t happen with a quiet pirouette. She was planning to dance with stomping feet and flailing arms until there were only crumbs left of their marriage. She didn’t want him, but that didn’t mean she was planning to let him go.
Maja had not come away without protest when Erica went to pick her up at Anna’s house. She was having too much fun playing with her cousins to want to go home willingly. But after a little negotiating, Erica managed to get her daughter into her outdoor garments and settled in the car. She thought it was a bit odd that she hadn’t heard from Patrik, but she hadn’t taken the time to phone him either. She hadn’t yet worked out how she was going to explain her expedition to Goteborg. But she was going to have to say something, because she needed to hand over the drawings to Patrik at once. Something told her that they were important, and that the police should see them. Above all, they needed to talk to Christian about the pictures. She had to admit that she was actually eager to do that herself, but she knew that she’d already gone too far by making the trip to Goteborg. She couldn’t go behind
