He took out the drawing that she’d given him and placed it on the table in front of them. A big sun at the top, green grass with flowers at the bottom. Two figures: one big and one small, happily holding hands.
‘She loved Christian,’ he repeated.
‘Does she even remember him? It was so many years ago that they last saw each other,’ Paula pointed out.
Ragnar didn’t reply. He just motioned towards the drawing. The two figures. Alice and Christian.
‘Go ahead and ask the staff here if you don’t believe me. But Alice is not the woman you’re looking for. I don’t know who would want to harm Christian. He disappeared out of our lives when he was eighteen. A lot must have happened since then, but Alice was the one who loved him. She still does.’
Patrik looked at the little old man. He knew that he would have to do as Ragnar had suggested. He needed to question the staff here. Yet he was convinced that Alice’s father had spoken the truth. She was not the woman they were looking for. They were back to square one.
‘I have something important to report,’ Mellberg interrupted Patrik just as he was about to present the new information. ‘I’m going to cut back my work hours to part-time for a while. I’ve realized that my leadership has been so successful here at the station that I can now entrust all of you with certain tasks. My knowledge and experience can be put to better use elsewhere.’
Everyone stared at him in surprise.
‘It’s time for me to devote myself to the most important resource in our society: the next generation. The ones who will carry us into the future,’ said Mellberg, hooking his thumbs under his braces.
‘Is he going to be working at the youth centre?’ Martin whispered to Gosta, who merely shrugged in reply.
‘Besides, it’s also important to give the women a chance. As well as the immigrant minorities.’ He glanced at Paula. ‘I know that you and Johanna are having a hard time working out how to juggle the maternity leave you’re both entitled to so you can care for Leo. And the boy needs a strong male role model right from the start. So I’m going to be working here part-time; it’s already been approved by the top brass. The rest of the time I’ll be spending with the boy.’
Mellberg looked around at his colleagues, apparently expecting them to applaud. But an astonished silence had fallen over the room. Most surprised of all was Paula. This was news to her, but the more she thought about the idea, the better she liked it. It meant that Johanna could start working again, while she could combine her work schedule with hours of maternity leave. And she couldn’t deny that Mellberg took good care of Leo. So far he’d proven to be an excellent babysitter, except maybe for the incident with the taped nappy.
After the initial surprise had worn off, Patrik could only agree with the plan. From a practical standpoint, it meant that Mellberg’s hours at the station would be reduced by at least half. And that might not be such a bad thing.
‘I commend your initiative, Mellberg. I wish that more people shared your point of view,’ Patrik said. ‘And now I think we’d better get back to the investigation. A lot has happened today.’
He reported on the second trip to Trollhattan that he and Paula had made, about their conversation with Ragnar Lissander and their visit with Alice.
‘So you have no doubt in your mind that she’s innocent?’ asked Gosta.
‘I’m positive she’s not the one. I talked to the staff, and her mental capabilities are at the level of a child.’
‘I can’t imagine how Christian could live with the knowledge of what he’d done to his sister,’ said Annika.
‘And the fact that she adored him couldn’t have made it any easier,’ added Paula. ‘It must have been a heavy burden for him to bear. Provided that he knew what he’d done.’
‘We also have something to report.’ Gosta cleared his throat and cast a glance at Martin. ‘I thought I recognized the name Lissander, but I couldn’t recall where I’d heard it before. And I wasn’t one hundred per cent positive. The old grey matter isn’t as reliable as it once was,’ he said, pointing at his head.
‘And?’ said Patrik impatiently.
Gosta again glanced at Martin. ‘Well, first we had a talk with Kenneth Bengtsson, but he claims to know nothing. He also says that he never heard of the name Lissander. But I kept wondering why our former colleague Ernst kept popping into my head every time I thought about that name. So we went to see him.’
‘You drove over to Ernst’s house?’ said Patrik. ‘But why?’
‘Just listen to what Gosta has to say,’ Martin said, and Patrik fell silent.
‘Okay, well, I told Ernst about what I’d been thinking. And he worked it out.’
‘What did he work out?’ Patrik leaned forward.
‘He was able to tell me where I’d heard the name Lissander before,’ said Gosta. ‘It was because they lived here in Fjallbacka for a while.’
‘Who?’ Patrik asked in bewilderment.
‘Mr and Mrs Lissander, Irene and Ragnar. With their children Christian and Alice.’
‘But that’s impossible,’ said Patrik, shaking his head. ‘If that was true, why didn’t anyone ever recognize Christian? Ernst must be mistaken.’
‘No, it’s true,’ said Martin. ‘Evidently Christian took after his biological mother, and he was terribly overweight when he was growing up. Take away one hundred and thirty pounds and add on twenty years and a pair of specs, and it would be hard to believe he was the same person.’
‘How did Ernst happen to know the family? And you too?’ asked Patrik.
‘Ernst was infatuated with Irene. Apparently they got to know each other at some party, and after that Ernst always wanted to drive past their house as often as we could. So we took a lot of drives past the Lissander home.’
‘Where did they live?’ asked Paula.
‘In one of the houses right near the Coast Guard dock.’
‘You mean near Badholmen?’ asked Patrik.
‘Yes, very close. It was Irene’s mother who originally owned the house. She was a real bitch, from what I heard. For many years she and her daughter had no contact whatsoever, but when the old lady died, Irene inherited the place, so the Lissanders moved here from Trollhattan.’
‘Did Ernst know why they moved away from Fjallbacka?’ asked Paula.
‘No, he had no idea. But apparently it was quite sudden.’
‘So it seems that Ragnar didn’t tell us everything,’ said Patrik. He was really getting sick and tired of all the people who apparently had secrets that they refused to divulge. If everyone had been willing to cooperate, they probably would have solved this case long ago.
‘Good work,’ he said, nodding to Gosta and Martin. ‘I’m going to have another talk with Ragnar Lissander. There must be some reason why he never mentioned that they had once lived in Fjallbacka. He ought to have realized that it was just a matter of time before we found out anyway.’
‘But that still doesn’t tell us who the woman is that we’re looking for. It seems she should be someone that Christian knew when he was living in Goteborg. After he moved away from home and before he came back to Fjallbacka with Sanna.’ Martin was thinking out loud.
‘I wonder why he came back here,’ Annika interjected.
‘We need to find out more about the years that Christian spent in Goteborg,’ said Patrik. ‘So far we know of only three women who have figured in Christian’s life: Irene, Alice, and his biological mother.’
‘Could it be Irene? She would have a motive for seeking revenge, considering what Christian did to Alice,’ said Martin.
Patrik paused to think for a moment, but then shook his head.
‘I’ve also been thinking about her, and we can’t rule her out. But I don’t think so. According to Ragnar, she never found out what had happened. And even if she did know, why would she also target Magnus and the others?’
In his mind he pictured the disagreeable woman they had encountered at the house in Trollhattan. He heard again her contemptuous remarks about Christian and his mother. And suddenly a thought occurred to him. It was something that had been hovering in the back of his mind ever since they’d met with Ragnar for the second time. It was the one thing that didn’t seem to fit. Patrik picked up his mobile and quickly tapped in a number. Everyone sitting at the table looked at him in surprise, but he held up one finger as a sign that they shouldn’t speak.
