has a birthday.'
'I know,' Monica said patiently. 'But today we have to make an exception.'
He pondered this for a moment and then decided that there was logic in what she said.
As they walked towards the car Monica saw out of the corner of her eye the curtain drawn aside in the Florins' kitchen. Lilian stood in the window watching them. She was smiling.
'So, Kaj. This is certainly not a pleasant situation.' Patrik sat facing him, with Martin next to him and Mellberg sitting discreetly on a chair in the corner. To Patrik's great relief he had voluntarily offered to play a passive role in the interrogation. Patrik would have preferred not to have him there, but he was the chief, after all.
Kaj didn't answer. He dropped his chin to his chest, giving Patrik and Martin a close-up view of the top of his head. His hair had thinned over the years so that his pink scalp shone through the wisps of black hair.
'Do you have any explanation for why your name appears on an order list for child pornography? And don't give me that old story that it must be a mistake. Your name and address are both on the list, so there's no question that you were the one who placed the order.'
'Somebody must be trying to frame me,' Kaj muttered into his lap.
'Oh, really?' said Patrik, his voice dripping with sarcasm. 'Then perhaps you can tell us why anyone would go to the trouble of trying to put you in jail. What sort of arch-enemies have you made over the years?'
Kaj didn't answer. Martin slammed the palm of his hand on the table to get his attention, which made Kaj jump.
'Didn't you hear the question? Who would be interested in sending you to jail?'
Still no reply, so Martin continued. 'That's not so easy to answer, is it? Because there isn't anyone.'
There were a number of printouts in front of Patrik and Martin. Patrik leafed through them for a moment in silence, pulling out a few pages and gathering them into a pile.
'You must realize that we have plenty of material about you. We have names of others who…' he searched for the right term – 'share the same interest and who you've been in contact with. We have information on when you ordered material from them, we know that you've submitted material yourself, and we also have records of chat sessions that our colleagues in Goteborg have been skilled enough to get their hands on. There are a number of talented computer guys over there, you understand. And they weren't stopped by the elaborate firewalls that you all set up so that no one could hack into your little group and eavesdrop on the cheery topics that you discuss. Nothing is foolproof, you know.'
Now Kaj looked up and his eyes flitted restlessly from Patrik to the printouts in front of him. His whole world was tumbling down as the second hand ticked on the wall clock behind him. Patrik saw that he was shaken by the revelation that someone had been able to get into files they had thought were completely protected. Now Kaj was clearly wondering exactly how much they knew. It was just the right time to press him further.
'At this very moment we're going through your whole house. And our colleagues aren't amateurs. There is no hiding place they haven't seen before. No brilliant secret cubby-holes that they can't find. And your computer will be sent to Uddevalla to be examined by some guys who are real hackers. You know, guys who could get into banks on the Internet and move a little money around if they felt like it and if they didn't happen to be on the side of the law.'
Patrik thought he might be exaggerating the skills of his colleagues a bit, but Kaj didn't know that. And he could see that the tactic was working. Little beads of sweat had begun to appear on Kaj's brow, and he could feel rather than see Kaj's legs start to shake uncontrollably.
'And even though you may be an amateur when it comes to computers, perhaps Morgan has told you that just because you've deleted a file, that doesn't mean it's gone. Our computer guys can restore most of everything, as long as there hasn't been damage to the hard drive.'
Martin took up where Patrik had left off. 'As soon as they've had a chance to go through your computer, we'll have a little talk.
Then we'll know precisely what you've been up to. Goteborg and our own staff are working full speed to try and identify the children who appear in the material the police confiscated. The information we have so far indicates that your favourite victims are young boys. Is that correct? Well, is it true, Kaj? Do you prefer boys with no hair on their chest – young, innocent lads?'
Kaj's lower lip was quivering, but he still said nothing.
Patrik leaned forward and lowered his voice. Now he had reached the moment that was the real point of the interrogation.
'But what about girls? Does it work with little girls too? Pretty tempting with one living so close by, right next door in the neighbours' house. Must have been almost irresistible. Especially since it would be a chance to get back at Lilian. What a feeling. Right under her nose, to avenge all those years of injustice. But something went wrong, didn't it? How did it happen? Did the girl start to struggle, say that she was going to tell her mamma, so you had to drown her to make her shut up?'
Mouth agape, Kaj looked first at Patrik, then at Martin. His eyes were big and shiny. He shook his head.
'No, I had nothing to do with that. I never touched her, I swear!'
The last words came out like a shriek, and Kaj looked as though he would have a heart attack at any moment. Patrik wondered if he ought to interrupt the questioning, but decided to continue a bit longer.
'And why should we believe you? We have proof that you have a sexual interest in children, and we'll soon know if there's evidence that you've actually assaulted anyone. A seven-year-old girl living in the house next door to yours was found drowned. That's an odd coincidence, don't you think?'
He didn't mention that no trace of sexual assault had been found on Sara. But as Pedersen had said, that didn't necessarily mean that one hadn't taken place.
'But I swear I had nothing to do with the girl's death! She's never been inside our house, I swear it!'
'That remains to be seen,' said Martin grimly, casting a glance at Patrik. He saw the same 'bloody hell' expression in his eyes that he felt in his own. Patrik gave a slight nod and Martin got up to go make a phone call. They had forgotten to order a team of techs to check the bathroom. When that mistake was corrected and he'd been promised an immediate response, he went back in the interrogation room. Patrik was still asking about Sara.
'So you really expect us to believe it when you say that you were never once tempted to… take an interest in the neighbour's girl. She was a sweet girl, too.'
'I didn't touch her, I told you. And I wouldn't call her sweet. A bloody child of Satan is what she was. Sneaking into the garden in the summertime and pulling up all Monica's flowers. No doubt her fucking grandmother put her up to it.'
Patrik was shocked at how fast Kaj's nervousness vanished and his hatred of Lilian Florin took over. Even under these circumstances the feelings were so ingrained that for a moment they made Kaj forget why he was sitting there. Then Patrik saw reality sink in again, and his shoulders slumped as he hunched over the table.
'I didn't kill the little girl,' said Kaj quietly. 'And I never touched her, I swear.'
Patrik again exchanged a look with Martin and then made a decision. They probably weren't going to get much further right now. Hopefully they'd have more material once the search was completed of Kaj's house and computer. And if they were really lucky, the techs would find something when they examined the bathroom.
Martin took Kaj back to his cell, and Mellberg left right after that. Patrik remained
