Irene thought it was time to get down to the real business at hand. “We’re here today mostly to listen to your version of what happened when the doctor’s mansion burned down. We know that Barbro accused you of setting the fire and that there was an investigation.”
A shadow of rage passed swiftly over Carina’s face but disappeared just as fast. Her voice did not even hint at irritation, but rather at deep sorrow.
“Unfortunately, this was at the same time that Barbro was at her worst. Of course we all felt sorry for her. Jealousy made her paranoid, and it spilled over. She wanted me in jail for arson. She even suggested Sverker had a hand in it so that he could get the insurance money.”
“What were her reasons for suspecting you of arson?”
“Supposedly I set fire to the house because I didn’t want to live there. Sverker was supposed to have wanted the insurance money so that we could buy this house for ourselves.”
“Did she make it up out of thin air?”
“Completely! Sverker had just inherited a great deal of money from his father. Almost three million crowns. He didn’t need insurance money. He would have been better off if he’d just sold the mansion outright. The profit from its sale would have been more than insurance, let me tell you.”
“And the idea that you didn’t want to live there?”
Carina’s face had turned an indignant red. It intensified the blue of her eyes. “I was only twenty-four. I thought the mansion was too old and too big. Barbro and Sverker had begun renovations, but they hadn’t gotten very far. The expense weighed on them. The entire place was run-down, and nothing had been done to it since the end of the nineteenth century. For me it was mostly because Barbro had lived there and set her stamp on the house. She has no taste. But I would have accepted living there as long as I was with Sverker.”
“So you’re saying that Barbro’s accusations are without merit,” Irene summarized in her most neutral voice.
“That’s right. And if I didn’t want to move into the mansion, I just would have refused to do so.”
“But you were pregnant,” Tommy said.
“That wouldn’t have changed anything. I wanted to live with Sverker, even in the mansion if that’s what he wanted. But he didn’t want to either. Before we’d decided what to do, the place burned down.”
“Was anyone at home when it caught fire?” Tommy asked.
“No. The fire started around ten in the morning. Both Sverker and I were at work. Of course, it’s just a stone’s throw away, but neither one of us was at home.”
Irene pondered this for a minute. Then she asked, “Could Barbro have set the fire?”
Carina sighed again. “They investigated everything at the time. There was never any proof of arson. The final decision was that there had been a short in the electrical system. The house was really extremely old.”
The police officers drank the last of their coffee, stood up, and thanked Carina for her time.
Carina walked them to the doorway and waved good-bye.
Reflexively, Irene waved back.
“SHE WAS NICE. And boy, she’s a beauty,” Tommy said.
Irene was not able to stop herself, but to her dismay she heard herself say, “Not to mention thin.”
Tommy laughed out loud, and she was relieved that he thought she was joking.
He glanced sideways at her and said, “And her husband’s not that bad either. Kind of like Pierce Brosnan—you know, the guy who played James Bond.”
Irene did her best to appear indifferent. Tommy continued, “Speaking of Dr. Löwander, don’t you think it’s time to pay him another visit?”
OF COURSE ALL surgery was canceled at Löwander Hospital. They found Sverker Löwander in the office, flipping through sheets of paper. He’d had the chance to take a shower since they’d last seen him. He was no longer wearing a white coat, and his outfit, a royal blue polo shirt and jeans, should have given him a more relaxed look. The tired lines in his face told Irene he wasn’t relaxed at all.
“Excuse us, may we come in and talk to you for a moment?” Tommy asked.
“Sure. Come on in. One of you can take that chair and the other the armchair.”
Irene walked over to the armchair and let herself sink in. It was surprisingly comfortable. Tommy started his line of questioning at once.
“We’ve been following up a number of rumors regarding the house fire eleven years ago.”
Sverker Löwander said sharply, “Why?”
“Honestly speaking, there’s no clear answer to that. We’ve got to follow every rumor or idea that comes up in order to find this murderer. Sometimes there are red herrings, of course, but that’s the way it goes in an investigation.”
The doctor didn’t seem convinced. Finally he shrugged. “So what do you want to know?”
“Your first wife, Barbro, accused Carina of arson. Why would she do that?”
Löwander took his time answering the question. “She’s mentally unstable, and she took our divorce fairly hard.”
“Did she have psychological problems before?”
“No … well … when Julia was born, she suffered from preeclampsia. That’s a poisoning of the system due to pregnancy. Then after she had the baby, she suffered from postpartum depression for a few weeks. But it passed without further treatment.”
“No other signs of depression before the divorce?”
Löwander appeared both surprised and irritated as he answered, “No, and what does this have to do with the murders of Linda and Marianne?”
“Investigation technicalities.”
Tommy then went through the events at the time of the fire and the testimony that Barbro had given. Sverker agreed with everything Carina had said. Finally Tommy asked, “Could Barbro have set the fire to take revenge on you and Carina?”
The doctor rubbed his eyes tiredly before he answered, with great conviction, “That was brought up in the previous investigation. I am absolutely sure that the answer is no. Barbro loved that old mansion. More than I did, in fact. Even though it was my childhood home.”
“A few old suitcases were saved. They were stored in the hospital attic. Were you aware of that?”
Löwander’s surprise was absolutely genuine. “Suitcases? I had no idea that they’d been saved. It would be—” He stopped himself and looked straight into nothingness before slowly beginning to speak again. “That’s right. I remember. I was cleaning the basement the weekend before the fire broke out. I’d put some old suitcases I was going to throw away right next to the door. Were those the ones that were saved?”
“I don’t know. Probably. What did they contain?”
“Old stuff that belonged to Mama and Papa. Papers, old clothes … nothing important.”
“Who decided they should be stored in the hospital attic?”
“That could have been me.… Things were so crazy back then. I don’t remember. And I’ve never set foot in the attic. When I was young, the door was always locked, and once I was grown, I had no reason to go there.”
Irene decided it was time for her to chime in, even though it was not a pleasant question she had to ask. “Another rumor has cropped up. It also doesn’t seem relevant to our investigation. But since the murderer was dressed as Nurse Tekla, I have to ask.… What do you know about Nurse Tekla?”
Sverker lifted an eyebrow, and a hint of a smile played across his lips. “That came out of the blue. Of course, I’ve heard about the hospital ghost. She was fired or she chose to leave and went to Stockholm to work there. For some reason she returned and decided to commit suicide in the attic. I asked Papa once why she chose our attic and not Stockholm. He said she was mentally ill.”
“Was that the only time you asked about Nurse Tekla?”