Midwinter Sacrifice

34

The cold eats up the last of the anxiety and fear, and the effects of adrenalin have already worn off. The closer Malin gets to Police Headquarters, the more prepared she feels to face Adam Murvall now, and the other brothers tomorrow. Because however much they may want to live outside society, they have stepped into it now, and after that step there is no return, if there ever was.

When Malin walks past the old fire station, she comes to think of her mum and dad, without knowing quite why. How she gradually realised that her mother was always trying to make their home seem smarter than it was, but that the few trained eyes that set foot over their threshold must have realised that the rugs were of low quality, that the prints on the walls came from vast print-runs, that the whole décor was an attempt to appear significant. Unless it was something else?

Maybe I should ask you next time we meet, Mum? But you’d probably just push my question aside, even if you doubtless understood what I meant.

‘What an idiot,’ Zeke says.

Malin hangs her jacket on the back of the chair behind her desk, and the whole station is breathing expectation, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee is noticeable the way it usually is only in the mornings.

‘Not too smart, was it?’

‘Well, I’m not so sure,’ Malin says.

‘What do you mean?’

‘They’re the ones setting the pace here. Have you thought about that?’

Zeke shakes his head. ‘Don’t make things more complicated than they already are. Are you okay?’

‘Oh, I’ll be fine.’

Two uniformed male officers come in from the staffroom, their cheeks glowing with warm coffee.

‘Martinsson,’ one of them calls. ‘Is your lad going to get a few goals against Modo?’

‘He was bloody good against Färjestad,’ the other one says.

Zeke ignores them, pretending that he’s busy, hasn’t heard.

Karim Akbar comes to Zeke’s rescue. Stops alongside him and Malin.

‘We’re bringing him in,’ Karim says. ‘Sjöman has arranged for the van to pick him up. They ought to be here any minute.’

‘What can we hold him on?’ Malin wonders.

‘Threatening a police officer in her own home.’

‘He rang on my door, and left a note.’

‘Have you got the note?’

‘Of course.’

Malin digs in her jacket pocket, pulls out the folded sheet of paper, holds it out to Karim, who carefully unfolds it and reads.

‘No problem,’ he says. ‘An obvious case of obstructing a criminal investigation, on the verge of threatening behaviour.’

‘It is,’ Zeke says.

‘This is directed at you personally, Malin. Any idea why?’

Malin sighs. ‘Because I’m a woman. I think it’s as simple as that. Have a go at the easily scared woman. Tiresome.’

‘Prejudice is always tiresome,’ Karim says. ‘It couldn’t be anything else?’

‘Not that I can think of.’

‘Where’s Sjöman?’ Zeke asks.

‘On his way in.’

A commotion over in reception.

Are they coming now? No, no flashing lights outside.

Then she sees him: Daniel Högfeldt, gesticulating, talking non-stop, but nothing can be heard through the bulletproof, soundproofed pane of glass between the open-plan office and reception, just a familiar face, a figure in a leather jacket who wants something, knows something, looks serious but who somehow always seems to be playing a game.

Alongside Daniel is the young photographer. She is taking picture after picture of Ebba the receptionist, and Malin wonders if her nose-ring could ever get caught in the camera, if her rasta plaits ever get in the way of the lens. Börje Svärd is trying to calm Daniel down, then he just shakes his head in resignation and walks away.

Daniel glances in Malin’s direction. Self-satisfaction washes across his face. Possibly also longing? Playfulness? Impossible to tell.

Fixed expression, Malin thinks.

‘Meet the press,’ Karim says, smiling at her as the skin on his face seems to change and become entirely new. Then he adds, ‘By the way, Malin. You look like it’s all getting to you. Is everything okay?’

‘Getting to me? You’d never say that to a male colleague,’ Malin says and turns towards her computer, trying to look busy.

Karim smiles again. ‘But Fors, it was just an innocent remark, no harm intended.’

Börje comes over to them. A look of faint amusement on his face, like someone who knows something no one else does, but isn’t telling.

‘The pride of the press corps. He wanted to know if Adam Murvall is suspected of the murder, or if we’re bringing him in for something else. He got angry when I said, “No comment.”’

‘Don’t annoy the press for no reason,’ Karim says. ‘They’re bad enough as it is.’ Then: ‘How does he know we’ve got something going on right now?’

‘Eight police, eight mobile phones,’ Zeke says.

‘Plus ten others,’ Malin says.

‘Plus ridiculously low wages,’ Karim adds, before leaving them and heading off towards Daniel.

‘What was that about?’ Börje says. ‘An attempt to show solidarity with the foot soldiers?’

‘Who knows?’ Zeke says. ‘Maybe he’s had an epiphany that’s gone beyond getting his own face noticed.’

‘He’s okay,’ Malin says. ‘Stop mucking about.’

Then blue lights do start to flash urgently outside the entrance and soon their gym-pumped colleagues are opening the doors of the white police van.

Muscles.

Iron fists on Adam Murvall’s upper arms, bent back and up, the metal of the handcuffs cutting into his wrists, then a jerk, and his body leans forward instinctively to protect itself. His head is bent downwards, and their blue-clad legs, black boots and the magnetic blue light make the snow-covered tarmac look like a star-studded sky. Camera flashes. Automatic doors opening. One sort of cold exchanged for another.

A shrill voice, woman or man?

‘Adam Murvall, do you know why you’ve been arrested?’

Do you think I’m stupid?

Then another door, a blue and beige pattern under his feet, voices, faces, the young girl, a couple of moustaches.

‘Take him into the interview room right away.’

‘Which one?’

‘One.’

‘We’re waiting for Sjöman.’

A firm male voice. He probably thinks his accent can’t be heard. But he’s just a fucking coon.

Through the window of the interview room Malin sees Sven Sjöman turn on the tape recorder, she hears him give the date and time and his own name and the name of the person being questioned and the case number.

She sees Sjöman sit down on the black-lacquered metal chair.

The room.

Four metres by four.

Grey walls covered in perforated acoustic panels. A large mirror that doesn’t fool anyone: behind that mirror I’m being watched. The ceiling is painted black with recessed halogen spots. Confidences are built up, broken, guilt is allocated, admitted. The truth will out, and the truth needs silence and calm.

No one is calmer than Sven.

He has the gift.

The ability to get strangers to feel trust, to make a friend of someone who is an enemy. Briefed: ‘What’s it like where they live? Inside their homes? Details, give me details!’

On the other side of the table: Adam Murvall.

Calm.

Hands in handcuffs in front of him on the polished silver tabletop, the beginnings of bruises just above the metal rings. In the relative gloom the colour of his eyes fades and for the first time Malin notices his nose, how it sticks out tentatively at the root, then juts out in a sharp tip before easing into two flared nostrils.

Not really a peasant’s nose.

Not a tap, as they say on the plain.

‘So, Adam,’ Sven says. ‘You couldn’t help yourself?’

Adam Murvall’s face doesn’t move an inch, he just shifts his hands, making a shrieking sound of metal on metal.

‘We don’t have to talk about that now. And not about your sister either. We can talk about cars, if you’d rather.’

‘We don’t have to talk at all,’ Adam Murvall says.

Sven leans forward over the table. With a voice that is the very essence of friendliness and confidence he says, ‘Come on, tell me a bit about all those cars you’ve got at home in your gardens. I dare say you get quite a bit of money from breaking them apart?’