Never End

16

Anne arrived at the club at three minutes after midnight. She recognized a few faces in the bar, all of them looking somewhere else- possibly toward the brick wall in the other room. You could see it from one side of the bar.

The music surged through the room, like hawking, she thought, something nasty forcing its way up through your throat. Not something to lie back and enjoy, but the people who came here didn't think like that. Their faces were white and green and violet in the glow from the ceiling lights.

He came out of the office near the bar.

"We wondered where you'd run off to," he said.

"I'm here now."

"You're not really fed up, are you?"

"Yes."

She waited before saying it. Waited. Said it.

"Why don't you say anything about Angelika?"

"What do you mean?"

"You haven't said a word about Angelika since… it happened."

"What am I supposed to say?"

"It would be natural to say something."

"I let other people do the talking."

"But this is your place, isn't it?"

"What are you getting at, Anne?"

"Don't you understand?"

"I assume you know I had nothing to do with it."

"If you had I wouldn't be here now. If I thought you had."

"But that doesn't mean that I don't care."

"Mourn?"

"Yes. Mourn. Of course. She was one of us."

"One of us?"

"You're on. Go."

She could see that the door next to the stage was ajar. The stage, oh yes. He nodded in that direction. She turned around. One of the faces at the bar seemed familiar.

"Oh no. Not him again."

"Does it matter?"

"All you think about is your regular 'customers,' or whatever I'm supposed to call them."

"Well. He's been coming here for a long time."

"You're not the one performing in there. You don't know what it feels like."

"You don't need to be afraid, you know."

"It's easy for you to say that. But, anyway, that's not it."

"What is it, then?"

"I can't explain it."

"Just close your eyes."

She might have laughed as she walked toward the door. The face seemed to move from the bar, big and white and horrible. She entered the dressing room before the face came too near. She got herself ready and went out into the cage, closed her eyes, and moved in time with the music from the loudspeaker. It was a different tune now.

It was raining. Ringmar had shut the window, but after five minutes it was too hot. He opened it again, and there was soon a little pool on the floor under the window. Winter could feel a little breeze. Nice. He was chewing some awful-tasting nicotine gum. His headache had started half an hour after breakfast, exactly as Angela had predicted.

"How long do I have to put up with this?" he'd asked over coffee at breakfast.

"Until you've driven the devil out of your body."

"He's been in there for a long time."

"You'll make it, Erik."

"There are other brands."

"This is your opportunity. Destiny has finally given you a chance," she'd said.

"Swedish Match, more like," he'd replied.

He put another lump of gum in his mouth, chewed, then spat it out again. Images were flitting through his mind. Another investigation, another set of pictures being circulated around the team. Pictures of dead bodies, body parts. Children. Children's drawings. Houses. Cars. Trees. Rocks. Sea. Forest clearings. Several bodies. Dead faces: swollen, shot away, mashed. Year after year. No end to it.

Brick walls. Graduation parties. Living faces that would be dead within a few weeks. They had some sort of key, but what was it? A skeleton key that didn't fit any lock. This had happened, but why and how and when and who and…

"Unlicensed clubs," said Halders. He was back at work, three days after the funeral. He looked leaner, thinner. No banter, no jokes. A new man. No oral wrestling with Aneta Djanali, who was sitting a couple of chairs away. Winter wondered if she might miss that. Maybe they'd all miss the old Haiders. He would never return.

"This reeks of unlicensed clubs," said Halders, looking at the slide currently on the screen. Mollerstrom had drawn the blinds and started the projector. First Beatrice. Then Angelika. The same wall.

"We'll have to check everything," said Ringmar.

"There are people who keep an eye on restaurants," said Bergenhem. "Check up on pubs and bars. Health and Safety people. And the fire department, I assume."

"Yep," said Winter. "Follow up on that. Bring in the uniforms as well."

"Of course."

"Report back with this location."

"I'll find it."

"Unlicensed clubs are springing up like mushrooms wherever you look, all the time," said Halders. "You cut one out, and two new ones grow to replace it."

"Not this one," said Winter. "Assuming it is an unlicensed club." He turned to look at the slide, with Beatrice and the wall behind her. "This picture was taken at least five years ago. It seems to be the same place."

"The wall in the background looks the same," Halders said. "But we don't know that for sure. It could be a different one, couldn't it?" He looked around. "I'll find it," said Bergenhem, turning to look at Halders.

They were in Winter's office. Winter was pacing back and forth between the window and his desk. Ringmar was just sitting there.

"You look like you're on edge," he said.

"Do you see any cigarillos in here?"

"Actually, I don't."

"There's your explanation."

"Have you tried patches?"

Winter pulled up his shirt and displayed his stomach.

"Chewing gum?"

Winter opened his mouth.

"Exercise?"

"No time."

"Work?"

"Yes." He sat down. "Who was pointing that camera?"

"Do you think it's the same person? The same photographer?" Ringmar asked.

"We don't get that kind of luck."

"I take it that it was her own camera? Beatrice's. I assume the pictures were taken with her camera?"

"We're checking with a photography specialist. They might even be able to tell us the make of camera."

"Sounds difficult."

"And then?"

"Who was pointing it," Ringmar said.

"Maybe they were just taking pictures of each other," said Winter.

"Everybody says they didn't know each other."

"But they might have."

He'd shown the photo of Beatrice to Cecilia, Angelika's friend. She hadn't recognized her. Never seen her before.

"I don't claim to be an expert, but these pictures give the impression of having been taken by an amateur," said Ringmar.

They looked at each other. They knew there was no camera at Angelika's place. She'd had one, but they hadn't found it. They didn't know which lab had developed the pictures.

Beatrice's camera was still at her parents' house. In all probability the pictures they'd found there had been taken with that camera. They had the prints and they had the camera.

But who had taken the picture of Beatrice? Who had pointed her camera? Who had taken the picture of Angelika? Who had pointed the camera? What camera was it that time?

Halders and Djanali went to see the Bielkes again. The father looked disapproving but let them in. Jeanette came downstairs and they went out into the garden. Halders was in his shirtsleeves, Djanali was wearing a thin blouse. Jeanette looked as if she were freezing.

She examined the photographs Djanali handed her. The wall behind Angelika, the same wall behind Beatrice.

"I recognize the black girl, but she's been in all the papers," she said. "Is in. They're still writing about it a lot."

Halders nodded.

"Why are you showing me these?"

"Because you might be able to help us to find that club they're at, or whatever it is." Halders took back one of the pictures. "We don't go out clubbing every night."

"Really? I thought you knew all about the clubs and bars in Gothenburg."

"Not this one. We're looking, but we haven't found it yet."

"Keep looking," she said.

"That wall's quite an unusual feature."

"Never seen it before."

"Have you ever been to an unlicensed club, Jeanette?"

"Eh?" She looked at Djanali, who had asked the question. "What did you say?"

"An unlicensed club. There are lots of them in Gothenburg. Have you ever been to one?"

"No."

"But you've heard about places like that?"

"Yes."

"From whom?"

"What do you mean?"

"How have you heard about them?"

"I can read. They write about those places."

"Do you know anybody who's been to one?" Djanali asked.

"No."

"Do you know anybody who's spoken about them?"

"No."

"You've only read about them."

"Yes."

"Do you know any names?" asked Halders.

"How would I know that?"

"That night you were attacked. You hadn't gone to one of those places?"

"What is all this?" she said. "How long are you going to keep at me?"

"I'll be absolutely honest with you, Jeanette." Halders gave her as stern a look as he could manage. "Spell it out. The fact is that when somebody's been through something as awful as you have… they're frightened of appearing in a bad light. After what happened. Some don't want to say they'd been drinking. Or gone off with somebody they shouldn't have gone with. Or been somewhere they shouldn't have been."

"Such as an illegal club."

"Yes."

"But that doesn't apply to me. I wasn't there."

Jeanette caught sight of a sparrow hopping over the lawn. The sun hit the sparrow and made it look like a little flame. It flew up and disappeared.

"Where is that damn boy?" said Ringmar.

"Or his dad," said Winter. "If that is his father in the photo from the graduation party."

"There's been a countrywide appeal," said Ringmar. "Somebody should've turned up by now."

Anne did what she was required to do to the music, then returned to the dressing room. When she came out she noticed that face in the bar. It was looking at her with eyes she couldn't and didn't want to see. There was something insane about those eyes.

There were signs of light in the sky when she left the building, like thin fingers of cloud pointing in the direction she was going. She walked down the steps that smelled just as awful as they always did. There weren't many people in the street. The glow from the streetlights blended with the night.

As she crossed the street she turned around and saw the man with the face coming down the steps. She speeded up and looked around again. He was gone.

Her mobile rang in her handbag.

"Where are you?"

"On my way," she said. "That was the last time."