Linda, As in the Linda Murder

83

‘What about the third time you met?’ Holt said. Just as curious, still the same friendly interest as when she had started the interview more than an hour before. ‘Tell me, how did that come about?’

According to Månsson, Linda had called him on the number he had given her. She had turned eighteen the day before, and her father had arranged a big party for her and all her friends out at his manor house. And now she was thinking of carrying on the party alone with Bengt Månsson.

‘So what did you think?’ Holt asked.

‘To be honest, I was genuinely very surprised,’ Månsson said. ‘It had never even crossed my mind to call her, so the fact that she was calling me came as something of a shock.’

‘What did she say?’

‘That was one of the strangest things. She asked if she could take me to dinner. To celebrate the fact that she was now an adult.’

‘How did you take that?’

‘Well, I actually suggested that we could split the bill,’ Månsson said.

‘And what did she say?’

‘That I didn’t have to think about that at all, seeing as it wasn’t her mother I would be going out with. That was what she was like. Very straightforward.’

‘You were surprised?’ Holt said.

‘Well, it was a bit blunt, really,’ Månsson said. ‘Although of course I knew about her dad and all the money. Lotta had told me. So I knew about that already. And I’d seen where they lived, so I dare say I would have worked it out for myself.’

Then they had met. Had dinner at a restaurant in Växjö, chatting and joking.

‘So who paid in the end?’ Holt asked, maintaining the interested expression, though it was taking more and more effort on her part.

‘Well, she did, of course,’ Månsson said, still seeming surprised. ‘I did actually offer to split it, but she had already made up her mind. It was like that was her thing, that she was a grown woman now and was perfectly entitled to invite someone like me to a meal if she felt like it. Besides, she said she thought she probably had more money than me, which of course was true, so I could only agree. And we’re talking about a girl who’d just turned eighteen.’

‘And then you went back to yours and spent some time together?’ Holt said, not about to miss an open goal.

‘Yes,’ Månsson said. ‘We went back to mine and made love, actually.’

‘So tell me about the first time you were together,’ Holt said.

Making love was exactly what they had done. Not just sex. They had made love to each other. Then Månsson had offered some wine, and they talked and slept together and had breakfast the next day. That was exactly how it had been, and the very thought that he was sitting here now, in a place like this, having to talk about it in this way, made him feel terrible. He had ended up in an inexplicable situation. He had never hurt Linda, and would never have dreamed of doing so.

‘Do you know what?’ Anna Holt said, looking at the time. ‘I suggest we stop here and carry on tomorrow.’

‘So he admits that he had sex with her?’ the prosecutor said over lunch.

‘He’s not stupid,’ Holt said.

‘What about the rest? The memory loss covering Friday the fourth? He didn’t try to talk about that?’

‘He made a half-hearted attempt towards the end, but luckily I managed to stop him,’ Holt said.

‘You’re going to wait with that?’

‘I’m thinking of leaving it until I’ve got him to admit he was in the flat when it happened,’ Holt said. ‘When I know all about what else he got up to on the day he strangled her.’

‘That’s when it’ll be time?’

‘That’s when it’ll be time, and I was thinking you could sit in on that.’

‘Have you any idea how this is going to end, then?’

‘Sure,’ Holt said. ‘I know exactly how it’s going to end.’

‘Anything you feel like sharing?’

‘I can write it down for you, if you promise not to read it before I’m finished with him.’

‘It’s probably best that you don’t. I’d never manage that. I’m the sort who sneaks a look at the things people leave on their desks the minute they go out of the room.’

‘Me too,’ Anna Holt said. ‘I reckon all proper police officers do. Nice to meet a prosecutor who does the same thing at last.’