“The same man who according to the same profile, correct me if I’m remembering wrong, was not supposed to have had any contact with the mental health system. Who is not a serious abuser of either alcohol or narcotics,” said Johansson. “So it can’t have been Sigge Cedergren in any case, Pettersson’s spigot and official purveyor, whom the perpetrator would visit to buy dope,” said Johansson. “Maybe he was going to the movies after all?”
“I hear what you’re saying,” said Holt. “Ninety percent of this is still about Christer Pettersson, although-”
“Ninety percent? I really wonder about that,” Johansson interrupted. “A person who according to the profile might possibly have committed minor crimes against property, but never killed anyone with a bayonet, never robbed or assaulted or threatened a lot of people. Pettersson was in various jails and nuthouses for over ten years for that very reason. Not to mention all the years he did for drug offenses and all the other shit he was up to. Plus the fact that he’d been drinking and doing drugs on a daily basis practically since he was a little boy.”
“You think this speaks to Christer Pettersson’s advantage,” said Holt with an innocent expression.
“Right here I actually think it does,” said Johansson. “Do you want to know what I personally think about the perpetrator?”
“Gladly,” said Holt. I really do, she thought.
“For one thing, I believe he had help. Nothing remarkable, but I think he had some contact or contacts. Before he went to work.”
“Okay,” said Holt.
“This is a well-organized, alert perpetrator. He is in good physical condition. Strong. He has no criminal record, and he’s not an abuser. He has both authority and presence, and he seizes his opportunity on the wing the moment he gets the chance. He has considerable personal experience where resorting to violence is concerned, and he is a very skilled shot, right-handed. The weapon he uses is probably his own, and in any event he didn’t buy it on the cement down at Sergels Torg. He’s very familiar with the area, has a driver’s license, car, good residence, and good financial and other resources. In short he has all the qualities required for him to be able to disappear without a trace, even though it should be impossible considering the way in which he did it.”
“In other words, he’s the exact opposite of the profile,” Holt summarized.
“No,” said Johansson, shaking his head. “I’ll buy the fact that he hated Palme. That psychological drivel about him and his upbringing leaves me cold. He’s an evil person. Sure. Normal people don’t shoot someone like Palme from behind, regardless of who they vote for.”
“We’re in agreement there,” said Holt.
“Forget about that now,” said Johansson. “Someone like that shouldn’t be running around loose. He should be in prison for life, and if I could choose I would boil the bastard for glue.”
“That last part I won’t sign on to but otherwise we’re in agreement,” said Holt.
“Good,” said Johansson, getting up quickly. “We’ll meet in a week. Same time, same place. Then I want a name.”
“Our boss seems to have taken this case to heart, “ said Lewin as he and Holt left the meeting.
“It’s not his commitment I’m questioning,” said Holt.
“I understand what you mean,” Lewin agreed. “The major problem with this particular case is that it’s completely impossible to just sit down and read your way to the truth. Like I already said, regardless of what you think or believe, you can always find testimony to support it.”
“You’re thinking about that female witness who called the perpetrator a gook bastard,” said Holt. “Careless of me to miss her.”
“No,” said Lewin. “I was actually thinking about a completely different witness. Although she disappeared from the process early on. Removed from the investigation. Her testimony was judged to be uninteresting. I actually saved a copy of it. I have it in my office if you’re interested. I never did anything about it. It never happened,” Lewin observed, sighing.
“I’d be glad to read it,” said Holt.
“Sure,” said Lewin. “You’ll get it. Although perhaps I should warn you ahead of time: This is far from a problem-free witness.”
“She has all the usual problems that witnesses aren’t allowed to have? The kind of witnesses that our boss calls nutcases, glowworms, and bag ladies?” Holt looked inquisitively at Lewin.
“Of course,” said Lewin. “But in this particular case that’s not the problem.”
“So what is it?” said Holt.
“The major problem arises if you get the idea that what she says adds up,” said Lewin as he opened the door to his office. He held it open for Holt and made sure to close it behind them.
“So what do you mean?” Holt repeated.
“You can only hope that she’s mistaken,” said Lewin. “Here it is.”
Lewin opened a binder he’d taken out of his well-organized bookshelf, removed a thin plastic folder with papers, and gave it to Holt.
“You’re welcome to it, Anna. You’re certainly braver than I am,” said Lewin.
“So what happens if what she says is correct?” said Holt while she weighed the thin folder in her hand.
“Then there are problems,” said Lewin, looking at her seriously. “Major problems.”
16
The day after the second meeting, Lisa Mattei concluded her small sociological investigation. She had interviewed thirteen old Palme investigators, all of them men of course, of which six were retired, three were still working in the Palme group, and four had left for other assignments within the agency. Combined, her thirteen older colleagues had devoted almost a hundred years of their professional lives to searching for the perpetrator who just over twenty years earlier had assassinated the prime minister.
None of them seemed to have any problem with her explanation for wanting to talk with them. On the contrary, almost all of them thought it was an excellent idea. That it was high time someone did something about the mountain of papers that nowadays were mostly collecting dust. Several of them had also gone directly to what the actual purpose of her visit was, without her even having to ask.
“It’s an excellent idea. I saw your boss Johansson on TV when he read the riot act to those journalists. That’s a real cop for you. Not one of those paper pushers with a law degree. We’ve known each other since our time in the detective unit down in Stockholm, and if there was anyone who had the right feel for the job it was Lars Martin. Though he was just a young kid at that time. You can tell him from me that he can carry everything that’s not about Christer Pettersson down to the basement, and I guess the simplest thing to do would be just to burn it. You can tell him that too, while you’re at it. He’s never been a coward. I’ll be the first to testify to that…
The Kurds. It was the Kurds who shot Palme. Those terrorists within their so-called revolutionary workers party, PKK. I and many of our colleagues realized that right from the start, so all the piles of paper the group collected later are really not our fault, and now it’s too late to correct that mistake. The really big scandal is that we never got to finish our case. The politicians and the journalists took it away from us, for political reasons. It was the journalists who put the pressure on, and the prosecutors who couldn’t stand up to them, and the politicians just chimed in as usual. Even though Palme was a Social Democrat and we have a Social Democratic government. What they did to our first investigation leader, Hasse Holmér-he was county police chief in Stockholm as I’m sure you know, and I say that mostly because it was before your time-it was a pure scandal if you ask me. He got fired simply because he refused to let a lot of politicians and newspaper people run the investigation…”
“Sounds like an excellent suggestion. Start by subtracting everything that deals with those Kurds. They had nothing to do with the assassination of Palme. It was thanks to him that people like that could come here. Palme was pro-immigrant, and I have nothing to say about that per se. When people got riled up about him it was usually for other reasons that mostly had to do with his personality. I don’t believe someone like Christer Pettersson could have done it either. He was just too mixed up to manage a thing like that. Probably barely even knew who Palme was. Besides he’s been dead now a few years, so that alone is enough to take him out of the Palme case. Then there were all those political speculations about Iran and Iraq and India and the Bofors affair and South Africa and God knows what. I think, even if it were that way, that’s nothing we police can do anything about, is it? Besides, I don’t believe in it. I think the explanation is much simpler. Some ordinary citizen who got tired of Palme and his politics and maybe even believed he was working as a spy for the Russians. Quite a few did at the time, I’ll tell you. Someone who simply took matters into his own hands when he happened to run into him by chance outside the Grand on Sveavägen…”