Irene nodded and stood up to go to the phone. She had a suspicion she knew what the call was about, but she picked up the receiver calmly. “Irene Huss.”
“Hi, Danielsson in Frölunda here. You reported your cell phone missing last Thursday night. Correct?”
“That’s correct.”
“We were investigating an arson near Högsbo Industrial Area that night. You probably heard about the refrigerator truck that was fire bombed.”
“I read about it in the paper.”
“We’d gotten a tip right before the arson broke out. We traced the call. It was made from your phone.”
Irene did her best to sound surprised. “Why … what are you saying? That’s strange.… Can you tell if the phone’s been used for other calls?”
“No. Nothing else.”
“Have you found my phone?”
“No. Do you have any idea who might have taken it?”
“No. It disappeared from my bag when I was grocery shopping near Frölunda Square. I didn’t notice it was gone until later that evening. Then I called right away to report it missing.”
“I see. Well, in any event it was put to good use.” In a pleasant tone, Danielsson added, “By the way, do you have any children who might be vegetarian?”
“No. My husband is a chef, and he’d go crazy if anyone in the family turned vegetarian on him.” Irene also spoke pleasantly and added a light laugh to the end of her statement even as she felt her heart salsa up into her throat.
“Never mind. It was just a thought. Thanks for your time.”
“Bye and thanks.”
Her hand was shaking as she replaced the receiver in the cradle.
• • •
THE FIRST THING she did when she returned to the conference room was ask, “Has anyone checked Linda Svensson’s phone calls yet?”
“Yes. There was a call from her mother and one from a young nurse working in ICU. The one with spiky blond hair. Anna-Karin something … Anna-Karin Arvidsson.” Jonny’s face lit up as he remembered the nurse’s name.
Anna-Karin again. Irene had not had time to follow up with her questioning of Anna-Karin, in spite of her intentions to do so earlier. The young nurse hadn’t mentioned that she’d called Linda that evening. Anna-Karin was priority number two after Carina.
Jonny continued. “We also found a cell-phone number. That call came at six-thirty. We’ve traced it to Sverker Löwander. When we talked to him before, he said he didn’t remember calling her. But then he did remember he’d called Linda about some missing paperwork. She didn’t know where it was. Löwander said he found the papers later that evening.”
That was interesting. Neither Anna-Karin nor Sverker had mentioned that they’d been in contact with Linda only hours before the murder. They’d remembered after being told that the calls had been traced. Linda’s day planner also contained Sverker’s cell-phone number. Priority number three.
“We have to get to the bottom of this,” said the superintendent. “We have to assume that Linda was lured back to Löwander Hospital. But why would it be so important that she’d have to bike over there in the middle of the night?”
“We never found Marianne’s flashlight either,” Irene commented. “The killer must have taken it.”
“And why kill the bird lady, Gunnela Hägg? Nobody should have cared that she was telling ghost stories,” Fredrik said.
“Too many questions. Now get me some answers,” barked the superintendent.
“Tommy and I can go to meet with Carina and Sverker Löwander,” Irene said. “We’ve talked to them quite a bit already.”
• • •
THE LÖWANDERS PROVED hard to reach. Sverker was in the middle of surgery at Källberg Hospital. “It was an absolutely necessary operation, which Dr. Löwander decided to perform at Källberg now that Löwander is closed on Wednesdays,” the nurse told Irene.
Carina Löwander was busy giving a lecture on ergonomics for secretaries, Irene was told. The seminar would be going on all day.
Irene and Tommy decided to catch the Löwanders at home that evening.
Tommy leaned back in his chair. He stretched his arms behind his head and looked curiously at Irene. “So,” he said. “You’ve decided the killer took Tekla’s dress uniform from the suitcase. And we found a letter that seems to confirm the truth in the rumor of a love affair between Tekla Olsson and Hilding Löwander. But you didn’t mention in the meeting that Tekla was Sverker’s real mother.”
Irene sighed. “I really don’t know how we should handle this. It’s not directly connected to the murder. Sverker doesn’t know anything about Hilding’s betrayal of Lovisa. He believes that they are his parents. If a fifty-year-old man finds out that the real woman behind the ghost myth is his mother … how do you think he’d handle it?”
“That’s a tough one. Poor, sensitive little Sverker has to be protected from all possible emotional crises, especially now when he has a bankrupt hospital to deal with, not to mention these horrible murders.”
Sarcasm coming from Tommy was so unusual that Irene looked at him in surprise. Then she became angry.
“It’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it? Then what is it like?”
Irene opened her mouth, but no answer came. She closed her mouth again and thought. What was it like? Really? She swallowed her irritation and said, “It’s just … like pulling a chair out from under someone. Losing an identity. He feels secure as Hilding and Lovisa’s son.”
“But it’s a lie. A lie behind his whole life.”
Irene didn’t have an answer to that. Tommy was right. She was still not going to be the person to tell Sverker the truth about his background.
To change the subject, she said, “I need to have another chat with Anna-Karin Arvidsson. Since surgery is temporarily suspended, she can’t hide behind being too busy. She’ll have to speak to us. She never mentioned her phone call to Linda. I’d like to ask her about that. And much more besides.”
ANNA-KARIN WAS SCRUBBING out the medicine cabinet when the police officers arrived at the tiny ICU, and at first she didn’t notice them watching her from the doorway. She just continued to scrub away with a rag soaked in smelly disinfectant. Irene was ready to put her money on Anna-Karin. The bacteria didn’t stand a chance. As her rag swished around each bottle, Anna-Karin checked the expiration dates and tossed the expired ones into a cardboard box marked pharmaceutical returns. This job shouldn’t be all that stressful, but Anna-Karin’s face was flushed with effort.
Tommy cleared his throat to get the nurse’s attention. Anna-Karin jumped at the noise.
“God, you scared me,” she exclaimed. She stopped the frenetic scrubbing. The rag dangled from her hand.
“Excuse us, we didn’t mean to startle you,” Tommy said. “We just need to talk to you for a moment.”
He smiled and gave Anna-Karin with his best cocker-spaniel-puppy face. Irene had tried this technique herself, but it never worked. People would get nervous or ask her if something was troubling her, so she’d quit attempting it.
“Can’t now. I have a great deal of cleaning to catch up on,” Anna-Karin said.
“The dust bunnies won’t run away,” Irene said.
Tommy looked at Irene with irritation, but she couldn’t help it. This little nutcase wasn’t going to hide behind her jobs anymore. Time for her to spill the beans—right now!
Anna-Karin ground her teeth together. They could see the muscles working in her jaw, but she remained silent. Finally she threw the rag onto the desk. “All right, but I’ve already told you everything.”
“No, you have not,” Irene replied.
The effect of these words on the nurse was electric. All the color fled from her face; her blue eyes widened. Her right hand fumbled for the desk chair, which she drew toward her and sat down in heavily. Her blanched face then turned red, but she still said nothing.