The Shadow Woman

GB: No.

EW: You left your car with a friend, Jonas Svensk.

GB: He’s not a friend.

EW: What is he, then?

GB: He’s a mechanic. A Ford mechanic. He fixes cars.

EW: We spoke about your car before. It was seen in the early hours of the morning on the eighteenth.

GB: Like hell it was. Where?

EW: You deny that your car was seen on the morning of the eighteenth?

GB: I was at home, asleep in bed. If my car was seen, then somebody stole it and put it back again before I woke up.

EW: Witnesses saw your car out on the road on the night in question.

GB: What witnesses? Must be you guys in that case. The police become witnesses whenever necessary.

EW: What do you mean by that?

GB: I mean that you’re trying to frame me.

EW: Have you had any visitors to your home in the past three months?

GB: Three months? Maybe I have.

EW: Who’s visited you?

GB: Some neighbor passing by. That happens on occasion.

EW: The closest farm is a mile and a half away.

GB: Well, it doesn’t happen often.

EW: So who have you invited inside?

GB: No one. I haven’t invited anyone inside.

EW: Witnesses say they saw you driving home with a woman and a child in the car with you.

GB: That’s a lie. That never happened.

EW: We have people who claim that it did.

GB: Would that be neighbors claiming that? What did you say yourself just now? That the closest neighbor is a mile and a half away? They must have very good eyesight in that case.

EW: There are houses close to the road.

GB: None that anybody lives in.

EW: There are people living in houses close to the road.

GB: Oh yeah? Well, I’ve never seen any.

EW: You were seen.

Bremer had been seen. Halders and Djanali had started by tracking down everyone who had a house or a vacation home around Bremer’s. Mostly, the houses lay south and west of there.

“I’ve seen the old guy drive past a few times. A couple of times with people in the car.” The man was recently divorced and had been allowed to rent the shed for a cheap price, and he had sat there and thought about how grief affects you. He’d had a bit to drink and staggered around in wide circles through the forest in a nervous and hungover state of mind that sharpened his powers of perception. “You can’t see the road from my place, but it’s no more than a few hundred yards away. Once I was up at his house. It must have been his, because I recognized the car parked outside.”

“Did you see anyone else there?”

“No, not then. But a few times I saw the car pass by with people in it. I know that one of the passengers was a child and maybe a woman. Could have been a guy. The hair was pretty long and fair.”

“Do you remember approximately when this was?”

“Last summer, but I don’t know exactly. I’m divorced-bah, fuck it. It was warm anyway. July, August. A ways into August. Before the rains came.”

“Are you still living in the cabin?”

“Sometimes, but not often.”

“Have you seen this man since the summer? Say, after August.”

“Sure.”

“Has he had any people there with him? Any visitors?”

“There have been people in there. Not often, but people have driven there. Cars, motorbikes.”

“Motorbikes too?”

“Well, he owns a motorbike. Right? Seen him driving on one at some point anyway. A couple of times. There have been people up there on motorcycles.”

“Would you recognize any of the riders if you saw them again?”

“Not a chance. I ran off as soon as I saw the gang.”

“How about this child you saw and that person who may have been a woman-when did you last see them?”

“It was a long time ago. Last summer, like I said.”

“When it was hot?”

“When it was hot as hell.”

Winter met Vennerhag at a nondescript location. They could see ships and hear the sounds from the bridge above the car they were sitting in.

“Don’t come to my house anymore,” Vennerhag said. “It doesn’t look good.”