“After I paid it. There was a wastebasket in that room you walk through before you get to the section with the service windows. I threw it away in there.”
“Why did you throw it away? You had another rent to pay.”
Jakobsson exhaled and gazed at the smoke rising to the ceiling.
“Why did you throw it away?” Winter repeated.
“Okay, okay. I didn’t have to pay any more rents.”
“You didn’t have to pay any more rents?”
“I said, no. You were right before, although you didn’t know it. I only had to pay two rents.”
“Are you telling me the truth now?”
“Yes.”
“Why should we believe you now?”
Jakobsson shrugged his shoulders.
“I guess ’cause of what you told me,” he said. “That’s some heavy shit. That’s not something you want to be involved in, hell no.” He looked around for an ashtray, and when Cohen nodded to a plate where some buns had been, Jakobsson flicked off a long pillar of ash. “I’m not involved. I haven’t done anything.”
“Why are you lying about this woman, then?”
“What the fuck is this now? I’m not lying, am I?”
“You told us that she came up to you when you got out of your car. Is that right?”
“Yeah.”
“You stood there facing each other, and she handed you the envelope and made you this offer?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“Oh for Chri-How many times do I have to tell you? She asked if I wanted to make some cash and do them a favor at the same time.”
“Them?”
“What?”
“You said ‘them’ now. What do you mean by that?”
“I did? I don’t mean anything.”
“You don’t want to help us, Oskar. Should we break it off here and continue when you’ve had a chance to think it over?”
“I don’t need to think it over.”
“You want to continue?”
“You’re asking and I’m answering. That’s how it always is. Ask me a good question and I’ll give you a good answer.”
“This isn’t a game,” Winter said. “There’s a four-year-old girl somewhere out there who may still be alive, and we’ve already wasted a lot of time.”
She wasn’t five. They’d been able to establish that Jennie was four and a half.
Jakobsson was silent. The cigarette butt lay crumpled in the dish. Winter held his extinguished cigarillo in his hand.
“How this ends might depend on you,” Winter said. “You understand what I’m saying?”
“Can I have another cigarette?”
Winter handed Jakobsson the pack and let him light one himself.
“Everybody knows that I would never have anything to do with murder,” Jakobsson said. “Everybody knows.”
“Did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Kill the woman?”
“What the fu-”
“Just tell us and you’ll be doing us both a favor.”
“Oskar Jakobsson a murderer? People would laugh-”
“Where did you meet this woman?”
“What?”
“The woman you say made you the offer. Where did you meet her?”
“Christ, you guys are too much. I told you, the parking lot.”
“I don’t think you’re telling the truth. Unless you tell us where it was, I can’t believe anything else you say.”
Jakobsson looked at Cohen, who nodded encouragingly.
“Okay, okay.
“A call? A phone call?”
“Yes.”
“From whom?”
“From her. The woman I met later in the coffee shop.”
“She called you?”
“Yes.”
“Where were you then?”
“Where was I? At home, of course. I don’t have a cell phone.”
“Were you alone at home?”
“When I got the call? Well, my brother may have been out. I can’t remember.”
“What did she say?”
“That she had a proposal and that I could do her a favor and… For Christ’s sake, we’ve been over this a thousand times.”
“What do you mean?”
“She said what I said she said, only it was someplace else. At the coffee shop.”
“Which coffee shop?”
“Jacky’s Pub.”
“That’s a coffee shop?”
“To me it’s a coffee shop. Coffee’s the only thing I drink there. The beer’s too damn expensive, and anyways I’ve quit.”
“Who suggested that you meet there?”
“I did.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Nah. Maybe it was her. It’s so… Can we take that break soon? This is tiring me out.”
“We’ll break soon,” Winter said. “Try to remember who suggested that you meet there.”
“It was her.”
“What was the first thing she said?”
“I can’t remember a damn thing anymore.”
“What’s her name?”
“No idea. I told you several times before we sat down here. I’d never seen her before.”
“You know her.”
“No way.”
“Why else would she get in touch with you?”
“Fuck if I know.”
“You said before that you’re happy to lend a hand.”
“I said that? Well, maybe that’s why she got in touch.”
“Are you known for lending a hand?”
“Don’t ask me. But that could be the reason, like I said. She heard from somebody that I’m a good guy and she called me.”
“Who might she have heard that from?”
