Black Lies, Red Blood

Fifty

“Give up, damn it!”

Håkan Malmberg sat straddle-legged on his cot, with his back toward the wall and his arms crossed on his chest. He smiled, showing a perfect row of teeth.

Ann Lindell looked at him, trying to find the slightest hint of a crack in the scornful attitude, but, on the contrary, Malmberg showed nothing to make her optimistic.

She looked down at the floor, closed her eyes for a moment, and made another attempt. She coaxed, shifted perspective somewhat, but once again found herself stuck in the same meaningless repetition. He obviously had no empathy she could appeal to, and if he did he was hiding it very well. Maybe he was innocent? Lindell had gone back and forth on that question. No, he had murdered Klara Lovisa. No one had leaked the information that the girl had been buried, Lindell was sure of that.

Now he was smiling again, this time not scornfully, but more sympathetically, as if he was sorry that she was on the wrong track.

She happened to think of Anders Brant. Why, she did not understand, because there was no connection between them, other than that they were both men.

“You’re wasting your time,” said Håkan Malmberg, interrupting her train of thought.

“I guess I am,” said Lindell. “But that’s nothing compared to what you’ll be doing the next few decades.”

He laughed.

“Decades may be pushing it.”

“You’ll get life,” said Lindell. “Raping and strangling a young girl does not give you any credits in court. The only thing that can help the situation at all is if you cooperate.”

Malmberg shook his head dejectedly.

“Lay off,” he said.

Ann Lindell was overwhelmed with disgust, and not only about Malmberg. It was the whole atmosphere, the institutional shabbiness of the jail and the musty odor that clung to her skin.

Håkan Malmberg smiled again, which made Lindell stand up quickly. She really wanted to spit on him, strike him, see him tortured. Never before had the feeling of hatred and revenge overcome her so.

“Take a vacation,” he said in a derisive tone.

“That’s none of your damn business!”

Lindell turned toward the door and waited for the guard to open and let her out. She felt Malmberg’s eyes on her back. For a fleeting moment she had the idea that he was going to knock her down from behind.

“You need a dick,” Håkan Malmberg whispered just as the door opened.

Ann Lindell left the jail without a word, her body bathed in sweat and her face bright red.