'It wasn't an accident at all. Sara was murdered.'
'Murdered? What do you mean? She drowned, didn't she?' Charlotte look confused, and Erica grabbed her hand. Maja was still asleep in Erica's arms, unaware of what was playing out around her.
'She was drowned, but not in the sea. The medical examiner found no seawater in her lungs as he'd expected. It was fresh water, apparently from a bathtub.'
The silence around the table felt explosive. Patrik looked with concern at Charlotte, and Erica fixed her big eyes on her husband's face, obviously alarmed.
Patrik understood that the family was in shock, and he began cautiously asking questions to bring them back to reality. Right now he thought that was the best approach. Or at least he hoped it was. In any case, that was his job, and for the sake of both Sara and her family he had to get on with the interview.
'So now we need to go over in detail the chronology of everything Sara did that morning. Which of you saw her last?'
'I did,' said Lilian. 'I saw her last. Charlotte was lying down in I he basement resting, and Niclas had driven off to work, so I was taking care of Sara for a while. Just after nine she said she was going over to Frida's house. She put on her coat and went out. She waved as she left,' said Lilian in an empty, mechanical tone of voice.
'Could you be more precise than just past nine o'clock? Was it twenty after? Five after? How close to nine was it? Every minute will have to be accounted for,' said Patrik.
Lilian thought it over. 'I suppose it was about ten after nine. But I can't say for sure.'
'Okay, we'll check and see if any of the neighbours saw anything, no maybe we can get the time corroborated.' He made a note in his book and went on: 'And after that no one saw her?'
They shook their heads.
Ernst asked brusquely, 'So what were the rest of you doing at that time?'
Patrik cringed inside and cursed his colleague's less than sensitive interviewing technique.
'What Ernst means is that procedural routine requires us to ask both you and Charlotte the same thing, Niclas. Purely routine, as I said, just to be able to rule you out as suspects as quickly as possible.'
His attempt to dilute the impact of his colleague's question seemed to work. Both Niclas and Charlotte replied without showing great emotional distress, and they seemed to accept Patrik's explanation for this uncomfortable question.
'I was at the clinic,' said Niclas. 'I start work at eight.'
'And you, Charlotte?' Patrik asked.
'As Mother said, I was lying down in the basement, resting. I had a migraine,' she replied in a surprised voice. As if she were shocked that a couple of days earlier she could have viewed that as a big problem in her life.
'Stig was at home too. He was upstairs resting. He's been bedridden for a couple of weeks,' Lilian explained. She seemed annoyed that Patrik and Ernst dared to ask about her family's activities.
'Ah yes, Stig, we'll need to talk to him too eventually, but that can wait a bit,' said Patrik, who had to admit that he had completely forgotten about Lilian's husband.
A long silence followed. There was the shriek of a child from another room, and Lilian got up to go and fetch Albin. Like Maja he had slept through all the commotion. He still looked half asleep and wore his usual serious expression as Lilian carried him into the kitchen. She sat down on her chair again and let her grandson play with the gold chain she wore round her neck.
Ernst took a breath and seemed about to ask some more questions, but a warning glance from Patrik made him stop. Patrik continued instead, cautiously. 'Can you think of anyone at all who you think might have wanted to harm Sara?'
Charlotte gave him an incredulous look and said in her hoarse voice, 'Who would want to hurt Sara? She was only seven years old.' Her voice broke, but she was making an obvious effort to control herself.
'So none of you can think of any motive? Nobody who wanted to hurt you, nothing like that?'
That last question prompted Lilian to speak. The red patches of linger she'd had on her face when they arrived flared up again.
'Somebody who wanted to hurt us? I should say so. There's only one person who fits that description, and that's our neighbour Kaj. He hates our family and has done everything to make our life a living hell for years!'
'Don't be stupid, Mamma,' said Charlotte. 'You and Kaj have been fighting with
'That man is capable of anything. He's a psychopath, I have to tell you. And take a closer look at his son Morgan. He's not right in the head, and people like that are capable of anything. Just look at all those psychos that have been let back out on the streets and what they've done. He'd be locked up if anyone had any sense!'
Niclas put his hand on her arm to calm her down, but it had no effect. Albin whimpered when he heard the tone of their voices.
'Kaj hates me, simply because he's finally met somebody who dares to contradict him. He thinks he's a big shot just because he was the manager of a company and has plenty of money. That's why he and his wife can move here and everyone in town treats them like some sort of royalty. He's totally inconsiderate, so I wouldn't put anything past him.'
'Stop it, Mamma!' Charlotte's voice now had a new sharpness to it, and she glared at her mother. 'Don't go making a scene.'
Her daughter's outburst made Lilian stop talking. She clenched her jaws hard with anger, but she didn't dare contradict her daughter.
'So,' Patrik hesitated, a bit shocked by Lilian's vehement remarks, 'besides your neighbour you can't think of anyone who has anything against your family?'
They all shook their heads. He closed up his notebook.
'Well then, we have no more questions for the time being. Once again, I just want to say that I'm truly sorry for your loss.'
Niclas nodded and got up to show the policemen out. Patrik turned to Erica.
'Are you staying, or would you like a lift home?'
With her eyes fixed on Charlotte, Erica replied, 'I'll be here for a while yet.'
Outside the front door Patrik paused to take a deep breath.
Stig could hear voices rising and falling downstairs. He wondered who had come to visit. As usual nobody bothered to inform him about what was going on. But maybe that was just as well. To be honest he didn't know whether he could handle all the details about what had happened. In a way it was nicer to lie up here in bed, in his private cocoon, and let his mind process in peace and quiet all the feelings that Sara's death had provoked. His illness somehow made it strangely easier for him to deal with the grief. The physical pain was always assaulting his consciousness and pushing away some of the emotional torment.
With an effort Stig turned over in bed and stared blankly at the wall. He had loved the girl as if she were his own granddaughter. Naturally he saw that she could be difficult and moody, but never when she came up to see him. It was as if she instinctively sensed the full extent of the illness that was ravaging his body. She showed respect for both him and his illness. She was probably the only one who knew what a bad state he was in. With the others he made every effort not to show how great the pain was. Both his father and grandfather had died a miserable and humiliating death in a crowded hospital room, and that was a fate he intended to do everything to avoid. So to Lilian and Niclas he always managed to call up his last reserves of
