Echoes From the Dead

25

“I’m not the one who’s going to be talking to Anders Hagman,” said Lennart to Julia as they were on their way to Borgholm in the police car. “An inspector from Kalmar is coming; he’s trained in this sort of thing.”

“Will it be a long interrogation?” said Julia, looking at Lennart behind the wheel.

He was wearing a new uniform jacket, a padded winter jacket with the police badge on the shoulder. Dressed for town.

“I don’t think we’ll call it an interrogation,” said Lennart hastily. “It’s just a chat, a conversation. He hasn’t been arrested or held on suspicion or anything like that. There’s no evidence for that. But if Anders admits that he’s the one who broke into Vera Kant’s house, and saved those old newspaper cuttings, then I’m sure they’ll talk about your son too. And then we can see what Anders has to say about all that.”

“I’ve tried to remember if he... if he showed an interest in Jens in any way,” said Julia. “But I don’t recall anything like that.”

“That’s good. You shouldn’t start suspecting people of all kinds of stuff.”

Lennart had called her as she was sitting drinking coffee with Astrid. He had passed on the news that Anders Hagman had been found in Kalmar and taken to Borgholm. Half an hour or so later he had come to pick her up in the police car. Julia was grateful that Lennart had allowed her to be involved in this investigation, or whatever it was, right from the start, but at the same time she was nervous about what was waiting for her.

“I won’t have to sit in the same room, will I?” she said. “I don’t think...”

“No, no,” said Lennart. “It’ll just be Anders and Niklas Bergman, the inspector from Kalmar.”

“Do you have two-way mirrors... or anything?”

She regretted the question when Lennart began to smile.

“No, nothing like that,” he answered. “They’re mostly in American TV series, when you have witness confrontations and exciting stuff like that. Sometimes we use video, but that doesn’t happen all that often either. I expect they have situations in Stockholm where they confront witnesses, but it doesn’t happen here.”

“Do you think it was him?” asked Julia when they were stopped at the first set of traffic lights in Borgholm.

Lennart shook his head. “I don’t know. But we need to talk to him.”

The police station in Borgholm was on one of the streets cutting across the main road into town. Lennart pulled up in the parking lot and opened the glove compartment. Julia watched him rummaging around among papers, business cards, and packets of gum.

“Mustn’t forget this,” he said. “Not that I’ll need it, but I’m not allowed to leave it behind.”

He took out his gun, which was in a black holster with the word GLOCK etched into the leather. Lennart quickly clipped it to his hip and waited until Julia had got out of the car and balanced on her crutches before he showed her into the Borgholm police station. She had to wait in the off-duty room. It looked just like any other room of its kind, but there was a television in one corner, and she found herself sitting in front of the same American TV shopping channel she usually watched at home in her apartment in Gothenburg in the daytime.

Now, this seemed completely incomprehensible. How could she ever have thought TV shopping was an interesting thing to watch?

Just before two o’clock, Lennart came back into the room.

“That’s it, then,” he said. “For now. Would you like to go for something to eat?”

Julia nodded, not wanting to reveal how curious she was. Lennart was sure to tell her at the appropriate moment. She followed him out of the station on her crutches.

“Is Anders still there?” she asked as they came out into the cold on Storgatan.

Lennart shook his head. “He’s been allowed to go back to his apartment here in Borgholm.”

He walked slowly along the sidewalk, adopting the same pace as Julia. The wind was icy cold and was making her fingers go numb on the crutches.

Lennart added, “Or it might be his mother’s apartment, I’m not really sure. But he’s promised not to disappear, in case we need to talk to him again.... How about Chinese? I’ve had enough of pizza.”

“As long as it’s not far,” said Julia, and let Lennart lead her to a Chinese restaurant next to Borgholm church.

There were only a few customers left in the restaurant, and Lennart and Julia hung up their jackets before sitting down at a window table. Julia looked at the white church building outside and remembered the hot summer when she had been confirmed there; she’d been in love with a boy in the confirmation class called... What was he called? It had been so important then, but now she couldn’t remember.

“But what was Anders doing in the house?” she asked quietly when they had ordered their food, five small dishes to share. “Did he say?”

“Yes... He says he was digging for diamonds,” said Lennart.

“Diamonds?”

Lennart nodded and looked out of the window. “It’s an old rumor... I’ve heard it too: the Germans Nils Kant killed are supposed to have had some kind of stolen treasure with them from the Baltic. Precious stones of some sort, so people say. Anders got it into his head that Nils had buried them in the cellar before he took off. So he dug and dug... but he never found them,” said Lennart, then added, “So he says, anyway. He’s a bit odd.”

“And the newspaper articles?” asked Julia.

“They were hidden in a cupboard; he found them and put them up. Anders thinks it was Vera who saved them.” Lennart looked at her. “Do you know what else he says? He says he’s felt Vera Kant’s presence in there. Ghosts...”

“I see” was all Julia said.

She didn’t want to tell him she’d suspected the same thing. She didn’t want to think about that night in Vera’s house for one single moment.

Julia had one more question, but didn’t know if she wanted to ask it. Just before their food arrived at the table, Lennart gave her the answer anyway:

“Anders swears he didn’t see your son that autumn day. He said he didn’t know anything about Jens. He stayed inside that day, it was too foggy and raw outside, and he heard what had happened when we asked for help with the search parties.” He added, “Niklas Bergman got the feeling Anders was telling the truth. He was just as open about that as he was about breaking into Vera Kant’s house.”

Julia just nodded.

“So I don’t think we’re going to get much further with this,” Lennart went on. “Not unless something new turns up.”

Julia nodded again. She looked down at her hands and said:

“I’ve tried to move on... not to bury myself in the past. It hasn’t gone too well before, but this autumn it’s felt better. A bit better. I’ve been able to grieve... I couldn’t do that before.” She looked up at Lennart. “So I think it’s been good for me to come to Öland... and to meet Dad again. And you.”

“I’m really glad to hear that,” said Lennart. “I was stuck in the past too, for a very long time... And I felt really bad sometimes, until I realized taking revenge on people doesn’t make you happy. You have to move on. It’s difficult to see the way forward, but I think you have to do it.”

“Yes,” said Julia quietly. “You have to let the dead rest in peace.”