Linda, As in the Linda Murder

98

In April the following year the CPR, committee for personal responsibility, of the National Police Authority finally concluded the case against Detective Superintendent Evert Bäckström. The reason why it had taken so long was that the prosecutor had only been able to drop the complaint against Bäckström for sexual harassment the previous week. Lack of evidence.

It had been a complex inquiry, in part because the evidence was unclear, since Bäckström had stubbornly stuck to his version of events. The complainant had more or less forced her way up to his room even though he had suggested that they meet in the hotel bar after he had taken a much-needed shower and changed into a fresh shirt. Towards the end of the investigation the complainant had also refused to cooperate, because she didn’t think there was any point, and under the circumstances the prosecutor hadn’t had any choice.

Which left the financial irregularities, amounting in total to some twenty thousand kronor. There were numerous mysterious cash withdrawals, one remarkable laundry bill, a strange list of materials detailed on an invoice for conference equipment which included, amongst other things, thirty-one whiteboard erasers at 96 kronor each, an invoice for porn films debited to one of his colleagues’ rooms, and various other things. Most remarkable of all: on the day that the finance department brought all of this to Bäckström’s attention, he had settled all their demands in cash. Considering his reputation, this was probably the biggest mystery of them all.

None the less, he was still reprimanded for a number of transgressions against the rules and regulations governing members of the national police, and his union representative had to work hard to find a compromise solution that Bäckström’s ultimate superior, HNC Lars Martin Johansson, could live with.

Bäckström had had to return to his original posting with regional crime in Stockholm, where they had placed him temporarily in the lost property office. Or Lost & Found, as every proper police officer, including Bäckström himself, called this final resting place for unclaimed bicycles and lost police souls.

He was, however, allowed to keep the rank of superintendent. Johansson wasn’t the sort to bear a grudge, although Bäckström himself would happily have surrendered it if it meant he could escape sharing a workplace with his old brother-in-arms Wiijnbladh, who had worked part time in the same office since trying to poison his now ex-wife fifteen years before. Sadly, he had only succeeded in poisoning himself, which was why he had been transferred out of the forensics division and into the Stockholm Police’s very own gulag archipelago.