'Dorotea Adelcrona,' Annika said, and Lena nodded.
'Dorotea was the widow of some old timber magnate outside the city of Sundsvall. She was swimming in money, and Carl managed it well. The old cow died after only a year, and Carl became the richest widower in Norrland. He instituted a grand scholarship for some kind of idiotic achievement in the timber industry.'
Annika nodded. 'Right. It's still awarded every year.'
'Anyway, Mother didn't get a cent. Socially, she was given the cold shoulder, of course. A destitute, divorced single mother wasn't exactly the flavor of the month with high society in the 1950s. She'd done some sort of bookkeeping course at the boarding school, so she moved to Malmo and got a job as private secretary for some director in the scrap metal industry. She placed Olle with an old couple in Tungelsta, outside Stockholm.'
Annika looked up from her notes.
'She gave him up?'
'Yep. He was five years old. I don't know if she ever saw him again.'
'But why?' Annika said, somewhat shocked. The mere thought of giving up her own son made her feel sick.
'He was difficult, that's what she said. But the real reason was of course that she wanted to work and not have a kid weighing her down. She was getting a career, remember?'
'Yes, and she certainly succeeded,' Annika muttered.
'I think she had a really tough time to begin with. Her first boss harassed her sexually and made her pregnant, at least that's what she said. She went to Poland for an abortion and got really sick as a result. The doctors thought she'd never be able to have another child. She was sacked, of course, but got a new job at a bank in Skara. She kept at it, and eventually got a job at the head office in Stockholm. She climbed up the hierarchy, and somewhere along the way she met Dad. He fell madly in love with her. They married after a couple of years, and Dad started nagging her about having a child. Mom said no but stopped taking the pill to humor him. She knew she probably couldn't get pregnant again.'
'But she did,' Annika said.
Lena nodded.
'She was over forty. You can imagine how incredibly pissed off she was. Abortion was legal by then, but for once Dad stood his ground. He refused to agree to an abortion, threatening to leave her. She swallowed the bitter pill and had me.'
The young woman made a face and drank some beer.
'Who told you all this?' Annika asked.
'My mother, of course. She never tried to hide what she thought about me. She always said she detested me. My first memory is of her pushing me away so that I fell over and hurt myself. Dad loved me but never dared be fully open with it. He was totally scared of her.'
She thought this over for a while, and then continued: 'I think most people were afraid of her. She terrified people. Everyone who ever came anywhere close to her had to sign an agreement of complete secrecy. They could never speak publicly about Christina without her permission.'
'Is an agreement like that valid?' Annika wondered.
Lena Milander shrugged. 'Didn't matter, people believed it and were frightened into shutting up.'
'No wonder we haven't been able to find anything out,' Annika said.
'Mom was afraid of only two people- me and Olle.'
How sad, Annika thought.
'She was always worried about me setting fire to her,' Lena said with a wry smile. 'Ever since that day when I burned the parquet floor, she was on alert when it came to me and matches. She sent me to a treatment center for disturbed youths, but after I burned that down, I was allowed back home again. That's what happens to kids no one can cope with. When the social services can't manage any longer, the little bastards are sent back to their parents.'
She lit her new, knobbly cigarette.
'Once I experimented with a homemade explosive charge in the garage. It went off early and sent the garage door flying, and I got shrapnel in my leg. Mom got it into her head that I was going to blow her up in the car, so after that she was hysterically afraid of car bombs.'
She laughed without any mirth.
'How did you know how to make an explosive device?' Annika asked.
'There are plans on the Internet. It's not hard; do you want me to show you?'
'Thanks, that won't be necessary. But why was she afraid of Olof?'
'I don't know, actually, she never told me. All she said was that I should beware of Olle, that he was dangerous. He must have threatened her in some way or other.'
'Have you ever met him?'
The woman shook her head, her eyes turning blank. She blew out the smoke and tapped off nonexisting ash against the edge of the plate.
'I don't know where he is,' she said.
'But you think he's alive?'
Lena took a deep drag on the cigarette and looked at Annika.
'Why else should Mother have been so scared?' she said. 'If Olle was dead, we wouldn't have had to have secret identities.'
True, Annika thought. She hesitated for a moment but then asked an unpleasant question.
'Do you think your mother ever met anyone else that she may have fallen in love with?'
Lena shrugged. 'I don't give a shit,' she said. 'But I doubt it. Mom hated men. Sometimes I think she hated Dad as well.'
Annika dropped the subject.
'As you see, she was hardly an 'ideal woman',' Lena said.
'No, she wasn't,' Annika agreed.
'Will you ever write that again?'
'I hope we can avoid it,' Annika said. 'But to me it sounds as if your mother also was a victim.'
'What do you mean?' Lena said, immediately wary.
'She was sent away, just like Olof.'
'That was different. Gran actually couldn't take care of her, there was a war on, and Gran really loved her. Gran's great sorrow in life was that Christina couldn't grow up with her.'
'Is your Gran alive?'
'No, she died last year. My mother actually went to the funeral, anything else would have looked bad, she said. But they were together on all holidays when Mom was little, and they always celebrated Mom's birthdays together.'
'It sounds like you can forgive your gran but not your mother,' Annika said.
'And when did you become a fucking psychologist?'
Annika held up her hands in an apologetic gesture. 'Sorry.'
Lena watched her warily.
'Okay,' she said in the end, finishing her beer. 'I'm going to stay here and get drunk. Do you want to join me, into the mist and down the river?'
Annika smiled wanly. 'I'm afraid not,' she said and started collecting her things. She put on her coat and scarf, hanging the bag over her shoulder. Then she stopped suddenly and said:
'Who do you think killed her?'
Lena's eyes narrowed. 'All I know is, it wasn't me.'
'Did she know a man named Stefan Bjurling?'
'The new victim? Haven't got a clue. I just want you to stop writing crap,' Lena Milander said and demonstratively turned in the other direction.
Annika took the hint, went over to the waitress and paid for her and Lena's orders, and left the restaurant.
