where she left off. Two spoonfuls went smoothly, but then Liam decided to demonstrate his car sounds, flubbering his lips so that Patrik's hair and face were sprayed with mush. Just then Mia came back with the shirt. She couldn't help laughing.
'Look at you. I should have warned you, or at least given you a raincoat and a sou'wester. I'm really sorry.'
'No problem,' said Patrik wiping off a little mush from his eyelashes with a smile. 'My baby is just two months old, so it's good for me to get a little practice.'
'Go ahead and practice,' said Mia, who sat down and let him continue the feeding. 'Here's the shirt,' she said, placing it on the table.
Patrik looked at it. The whole front was black and filthy.
'I'd like to take this with me. Do you mind?'
'Not at all. Take it. I'd have just thrown it away anyway. I'll put it in a plastic bag for you.'
Patrik took the bag and got up. 'If you think of anything else, just ring the station,' he said, handing her his card.
'I certainly will. I just don't understand why anyone would do something like this. What do you think the shirt might tell you?'
He just shook his head in reply. Patrik couldn't say anything about the reason for his interest. As yet nothing had leaked out lo the press about the ashes they'd found in connection with Sara's murder. He glanced at Liam. Thank goodness it hadn't gone as far in his case. The question was whether murder had never been the intention; maybe something had interrupted the person who did this. But until they had the ashes on the shirt analysed, they couldn't say whether it was connected to Sara's death or not. Although he was already willing to bet that they would find a connection. This was no coincidence.
When Patrik got back in his car he took his mobile out of his jacket pocket. He hadn't heard from the team that did the search of Kaj's house yesterday, and he thought that was a little strange. He'd had too much on his mind yesterday to worry about it, but now he wondered why they hadn't reported back to him. Swearing, he saw that he'd turned off his phone on his way in to interrogate Kaj and then forgotten to turn it back on. The voicemail icon was flashing. He punched 133 and listened tensely to the message. With a glint of triumph in his eyes he flipped the phone shut and stuffed it back in his pocket.
Patrik had again chosen the kitchen as their meeting place. It was the biggest room in the police station, and he also thought the proximity to freshly brewed coffee would be an asset, given the situation. Annika had dashed off to the bakery down the street and bought a big bag of hazelnut balls, coconut mocha squares and chocolate oatmeal balls. Patrik didn't have to twist anyone's arm; as he stood at the easel with the tablet everyone was munching on some high-calorie treat.
He cleared his throat. 'As you know, yesterday was quite eventful.'
Gosta nodded and reached for another hazelnut ball. But Mellberg was too fast for him. The chief was already well into his third pastry and looked like he'd welcome a fourth. Ernst sat off by himself, and everyone carefully avoided looking at him. Ever since his disastrous mistake had come to light, a sort of doomsday shadow had hovered over him. Nobody knew when the axe would fall. All such matters had to be deferred as long as they were involved in the most intensive phase of the homicide investigation. But everyone knew it was only a matter of time. Including Ernst.
All eyes were directed at Patrik. He went on. 'I think I'll sum up what we have so far. Most of this you already know, but it might be good to get an overview of where we stand.'
He cleared his throat one more time, took his pen and began writing notes on the big tablet as he talked.
'First of all, we brought in the father, Niclas, for questioning and asked him about his alibi. We still don't know where he was on Monday morning, and the question is, why did he try to concoct a fake alibi? We also suspect child abuse, based on the information we received from the clinic about the injuries that his son Albin had sustained. The question is whether Sara was also subjected to abuse and whether it could have escalated to murder.'
He drew a point on the tablet, wrote 'Niclas' next to it, and then drew lines to the two words 'alibi' and 'suspected abuse'. Then he turned back to his colleagues.
'Then Sara's playmate Frida came in yesterday with her mother, and the girl reported that someone she called a 'nasty old man' had given Sara a real fright the day before she died. He had behaved In a threatening manner towards her and also called her 'double pawn'. Is there anyone who can explain what that might mean?'
Patrik looked inquiringly at the group. At first no one answered. They sat quietly and seemed to be making an effort to work out what such an odd phrase could mean.
Annika looked at them, shook her head at their obtuseness, and then said, 'He probably said 'Devil's spawn'.'
It was so obvious that they all looked as if they wanted to slap their foreheads.
'Yes, of course,' said Patrik, also cursing his stupidity. 'That makes it sound like we're dealing with some religious fanatic. And Frida described the individual as an older man with grey hair. Martin, could you check with Sara's mother and see whether that matches anyone they know?'
Martin nodded.
'Then we got an interesting report yesterday. A young mother parked a pram behind Jarnboden with her sleeping son inside. Then she went into the shop to buy something. When she came out she started screaming, because the inside of the pram was covered with some black substance that the boy also had in his mouth. It seemed as though someone had tried to force him to swallow the stuff. I drove over and talked with the boy's mother this morning, and she gave me the shirt that the boy was wearing.
The whole front of it is covered with something that could well be ashes.'
Silence descended over the table. No one chewed, no one slurped coffee. Patrik continued, 'I've already sent it off for analysis, and something tells me it's the same type of ashes we found in Sara's stomach. We have a very precise time for when this… assault occurred, so it might be worthwhile to check alibis. Gosta, you and I will handle that.'
Gosta nodded and picked the last shreds of coconut from his plate.
The tablet was now covered with notes and arrows, and Patrik paused for a second with his pen hovering. Then he made one more point and wrote 'Kaj' next to it. It was obvious to all that he'd now reached the part of the summation that he judged the most important.
'After we talked with our colleagues in Goteborg, it came to our attention that Kaj Wiberg is implicated in an investigation of a paedophile ring.'
They all made an even greater effort not to look at Ernst, and he squirmed a bit in his seat.
'We brought Kaj in for questioning yesterday and also conducted a search of his home, with the help of our colleagues from Uddevalla. The interview produced nothing concrete, but we view it as a first step and will continue our talks with Kaj. Using the material we're getting from Goteborg we'll also see whether we can identify any victims locally. Kaj, as you know, has taken an active role for many years in working with youths in Fjallbacka, so it's not entirely farfetched to believe that assaults occurred during his years here.'
'Is there anything to indicate that he might be linked to Sara's murder?' Gosta asked.
'I'll get to that in a moment,' replied Patrik evasively, and Martin shot him an astonished look. They hadn't had any luck developing any connection during the interrogation.
'The search of Kaj's house may have given us our first big breakthrough in the investigation.'
The tension increased palpably, and Patrik couldn't resist drawing it out a bit for the sake of effect. Then he said, 'When they searched Kaj's house yesterday, the officers found Sara's jacket.'
