Eden’s hand was trembling slightly as she stubbed out her cigarette. This wasn’t good news. Karim Sassi’s response when both the Americans and Säpo had contacted him didn’t exactly help matters. He had no intention of violating US airspace as things stood at the moment, but nor did he intend to fly to an alternative destination in order to land. When the fuel ran out, he would call the US authorities and demand permission to carry out an emergency landing.
‘I refuse to disobey the hijackers’ instructions,’ he had said.
‘But you’ll still be disobeying them if you attempt an emergency landing,’ Eden had replied.
‘Yes, but if I’ve run out of fuel, it won’t matter. I’ll have nothing to lose by going against their orders. But as long as I still have fuel, I’m going to do what they want, and stay close to US airspace.’
With that he had ended the call and Eden had returned to her desk to gather her thoughts.
Sebastian came in.
‘Perhaps you should try knocking?’ Eden said.
‘Perhaps you should try giving up smoking?’
‘Did you actually want something, or are you here because you’re too stupid to do anything sensible?’
Eden was ashamed of herself as she spoke, partly because she sounded like a teenager, and partly because she knew Sebastian was right. At the very least she had to stop sneaking a quick smoke in her office.
Sebastian laughed wearily.
‘You really are unbelievable.’
Eden crossed her legs and slid her lighter under a pile of papers.
Sebastian leaned against the wall.
‘Fredrika Bergman is going through the phone records.’
‘What phone records?’
‘The ones that show that Zakaria Khelifi could be telling the truth when he says he’s only owned that mobile for a few months.’
‘Let her carry on. Alex says she’s really good; maybe she’ll find something significant. Whatever that might be.’
‘I had a look at Khelifi’s file myself,’ Sebastian said. ‘Even if we can’t use the phone records, we still have a solid case. We don’t need any historical evidence to prove that he could be involved in activities that constitute a threat to national security.’
Eden went through the key points out loud:
‘We think we’ve come across him in three preliminary investigations. In the case that led to his being charged, we were able to prove that he helped the two main perpetrators by driving them to various locations, and by picking up the package containing the chemicals that were used to make the bomb. In addition, Ellis stated in several interviews that Zakaria had been involved in the preparations.’
‘Allow me to play devil’s advocate,’ Sebastian said. ‘Zakaria says that the phone didn’t belong to him when it came up in our earlier investigations. He also says he didn’t know what was in the package that he collected. And Ellis retracted his statement.’
Their eyes met, and Eden could see that Sebastian was thinking exactly the same as her.
Sebastian looked surprised. His eyebrows shot up and his broad brow furrowed in a way that Eden found quite attractive.
You ought to look surprised more often.
‘We need to speak to Ellis again,’ he said.
‘Indeed we do. He and Hassan are still in the custody block, aren’t they?’
‘Yes – they’re due to be moved tomorrow.’
‘Arrange an interview right away,’ Eden said. Sebastian left the room.
It had been a long day for all of them, and it was going to be even longer. No one on Eden’s team could go home as long as the plane was in the air. She had even made Elina, who worked part-time, stay on.
‘But I have to go home and feed the kids,’ Elina had protested.
‘Don’t you have a partner who can take care of them?’
‘Well, yes, but he’s got his own business, and he’s really busy at the moment.’
‘In that case, I suggest you ring him and tell him that this evening, and any other evening, a threat to national security takes precedence over his little business. And if that’s not perfectly clear to both of you, then you need to find another job. In the very near future.’
Just thinking about the conversation made Eden’s blood boil. Sweden would never achieve equality as long as people continued to pretend that the family was the most important thing in the world. Nor would the country be safe. To think that it took a hijacking to make her realise something so obvious.
Although to be fair, it wasn’t only Elina who had problems with that kind of discussion at home. As she had already discovered, Mikael wasn’t too impressed by his wife’s priorities.
Damn him – if he hadn’t been so wonderful she would have left him and the girls several years ago.
The thought had barely crossed her mind when she was overwhelmed by such a wave of regret that she was afraid she would have to sit down on the floor. Eden hadn’t cried for years, but she felt the tears spring to her eyes.
Good God, where had this come from? Adults didn’t cry. Crying was a sign of weakness, not humanity.
And Eden Lundell was not, in her opinion, weak. Not after everything that had driven her from London. Since then she had chosen the only possible option: invincibility.
Logically speaking, innocent was the opposite of guilty. The only question was, who had the right to make that judgement? The responsibility lay mainly with the court, but to a certain extent with the police, and sometimes, when everything went wrong, the media. Fredrika Bergman had quickly realised that this was one of the cornerstones of the Swedish justice system.
Cleared up by the police.
This meant that the police believed, following an investigation, that they knew who was behind a crime, but were unable to prove it in court, either because the perpetrator was dead, or because there was insufficient evidence. For that reason there were a number of individuals at liberty in society whom the police felt it was particularly important to keep an eye on. They didn’t need a court order to do so, merely well-founded suspicions.
Fredrika didn’t see anything wrong with this in principle, not as long as the system was used correctly – to keep disruptive elements under control and to prevent crimes. It gave the justice system an added dimension of security, and the authorities wouldn’t start looking for another perpetrator if there was no evidence that such a person existed.
But in the case of Zakaria Khelifi, Fredrika didn’t know what to think or say.
And now several hundred people were being held hostage so that he would be released. People who could die before the morning, now the Americans had said that they intended to shoot down the plane. Eden had whispered the news to Fredrika when she came back from Rosenbad.
Which made it all the more urgent to look through Zakaria’s file. If he was innocent, Fredrika couldn’t think of a better time to find out. This wasn’t about giving in to the hijackers’ demands; this was about doing the right thing, and doing it in time.
Eden and Sebastian were heading towards Fredrika’s desk; she had returned to her own workspace after she had finished with Sebastian’s computer. Eden’s blonde hair was caught up in a messy topknot. Fredrika’s hands automatically went to her own dark hair. Every strand seemed to be in place, neatly woven into a thick plait hanging down her back. Spencer had often joked that he would leave her if she ever had her hair cut.
‘Come with us,’ Eden said, beckoning Fredrika.
She didn’t stop, but merely slowed down to give Fredrika time to catch up with them. Fredrika grabbed her notebook and hurried along.
In silence, the little troupe entered a glass cube with the curtains closed. Eden switched on the light and sat down at the desk in the middle of the floor. Sebastian and Fredrika joined her.
‘I heard you checked the phone records. What did you come up with?’ she said.
‘Nothing startling.’