You never know for sure, you really don’t.
‘We’d like to talk to you about Zakaria’s sister,’ Fredrika said. She couldn’t stop herself from acting as if she actually was a police officer.
‘About Sofi?’ Maria’s anger was replaced by surprise.
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘Perhaps we could go somewhere else and have a chat?’
Zakaria’s girlfriend gave the suggestion some thought, then she said: ‘No. I’m fine here.’
Fredrika and her colleague exchanged glances, then without a word they sat down on either side of Maria.
‘Do you know where we can get hold of Sofi?’ Fredrika asked.
‘No.’
It was impossible to tell if she was lying, but Fredrika thought she probably was.
‘This is important,’ the investigator said. ‘We need to speak to her as a matter of urgency.’
‘What about?’
‘We can’t go into that right now,’ Fredrika said.
The truth was that she didn’t know exactly why they wanted to speak to Sofi; perhaps because she was the only person close to Zakaria that they hadn’t yet interviewed. Perhaps that was the very thing that made her interesting.
‘But it would help Zakaria, as I’ve already said,’ the Säpo investigator reiterated; Fredrika thought there was a hint of pleading in his voice.
She decided to try a different tack.
‘Maybe Sofi doesn’t live in Stockholm?’
Maria looked tired as she picked at a fingernail.
‘She lives a different kind of life from me and Zakaria,’ she said eventually. ‘Sometimes she’s here and she comes to see us, the rest of the time she’s all over the place.’
‘Have you seen her recently?’ Fredrika asked.
Maria stiffened.
‘No,’ she said, and, this time, Fredrika could see that she was lying.
‘Does she usually stay with you when she’s around?’
‘Sometimes.’
‘But she has other friends in Stockholm too?’
‘Not many.’
‘Does she speak Swedish?
More hesitation.
‘Yes, she’s one of the most talented linguists I know.’
‘What other languages does she speak?’ the investigator asked.
Good question.
‘English, French and German. And Arabic, of course.’
And there it was again. Another connection with Germany.
‘German?’
Fredrika tried not to sound too interested; she didn’t want Maria to realise how important this could be.
‘Yes.’
‘How come Sofi speaks German?’
At that point, Maria refused to answer, obviously aware that the situation had slipped from her grasp, in spite of her efforts to prevent that from happening.
‘That’s where she lives, isn’t it?’ Fredrika said.
Zakaria’s girlfriend nodded. ‘That’s where she has her apartment and her base. In Berlin.’
‘Have you been over to visit her?’ Fredrika asked.
‘Only a couple of times.’
So, Zakaria had a sister who lived in Germany. The country from which the information about the hijacking had come. The country with which Adam Mortaji, who had previously owned Zakaria’s mobile phone, had close links.
The net was closing in. And now, Fredrika had even more questions for Maria.
‘Karim Sassi?’ she said, even though she knew that someone had already spoken to Maria about him. ‘Do you know him?’
‘I’ve already answered that question.’
‘I know, but now I’m asking you again.’
‘In that case, my answer is the same as before. I have no recollection of ever meeting someone by that name. Nor do I have any recollection of Zakaria ever mentioning someone called Karim Sassi.’
Fredrika believed her. With a thousand simultaneous thoughts whirling around in her brain, she tried to piece together the various fragments of information. Germany kept on coming up, over and over again, but they had been unable to find a link with either Zakaria or Karim. The link was only through Zakaria’s phone, and only during the period when it had belonged to Adam Mortaji.
‘Do you know a man called Adam Mortaji?’ Fredrika said.
There.
A reaction so strong that Fredrika thought she would have picked up on it even if she had had her eyes closed and her hands covering her ears.
The words struck Maria like a slap in the face.
‘No.’
‘You’re lying,’ Fredrika said.
Maria’s face went bright red, and it looked as if she had tears in her eyes. Her mouth was compressed into a straight line, and she didn’t say a word.
Not one word.
Who was this man who provoked such a determined silence?
Fredrika changed tack.
‘Do you know if Zakaria ever bought a phone from Sofi, or was given a phone by her?’
Maria stared at her.
‘I don’t think so.’
‘How did he get hold of the phone he’s using now?’ the investigator said.
‘I’ve no idea. Before that he mostly used his work mobile. And my phone, of course.’
She looked exhausted.
Fredrika decided to take another look at the list of calls. They were onto something, she was sure of it.
‘Do you have a number for Sofi?’ she said.
One last shot.
To her surprise, Maria reached into her pocket and took out her mobile.
‘I think so.’
Then she read out a number.
‘This is the only one I have. It’s Sofi’s phone in Germany, but it’s an old number – she doesn’t use it any more. And I haven’t got the new one; Zakaria and Sofi usually Skype one another these days.’
Fredrika saw Maria smile for the first time. She thought she had disappointed them with an old number.
On the contrary.
They ended the interview and went back to Säpo’s offices. Fredrika headed straight for Sebastian and asked him to bring up the list of calls. It took them less than two minutes to find Sofi’s number. During the period when the mobile had probably belonged to Adam Mortaji, it had been in regular contact with Sofi’s phone in Germany.
‘Mortaji,’ Fredrika said to Sebastian. ‘We have to find out who he is. He’s important.’
‘I thought that if the phone really had belonged to someone else, it would have been the sister; I thought he was protecting her,’ Sebastian said.
‘Me too. But it obviously belonged to someone who had been in touch with her.’
‘Why did the contact with Sofi stop when Zakaria acquired the phone?’
‘First of all, Maria said that Sofi had changed her number, and secondly, they usually communicated via Skype. We also know that Zakaria was in the habit of using several phones at the same time.’
The stress came flooding back, ruled by forces as implacable as those that govern the movement of the tide.
Four hundred people at thirty thousand feet.
A man who was due to be deported, suppressing the only piece of information that could save him.
A captain taking his passengers and crew to their deaths while refusing to say why he was doing so.
A secret detention facility that no one was prepared to talk about.
The almost tangible silence from all directions was driving Fredrika mad. So many secrets, so little time, so many victims.
But now they had something to work on: Adam Mortaji, who presumably also knew Zakaria’s sister Sofi.
The only question was how they were going to find either of them.
58 21:50
There was nothing worse than silence.
Alex Recht hadn’t let go of his mobile for a second. But it didn’t ring. Not once. Hours had passed since he spoke to Erik.
What the hell had happened?
In despair, he went along to Eden’s office, where he found her working on the computer.
‘We have to do something,’ he said. ‘I think we ought to contact the plane. Confront Karim, tell him we know everything.’
Eden stopped typing.
‘Sit down, Alex.’
He perched on one of the chairs next to her desk.