Night Rounds

Chapter 4

FOR THE REST of the morning, the police interviewed the day-shift staff, one by one. Then there was a break for the officers to grab a quick lunch. It wouldn’t be until two o’clock in the afternoon when the evening shift arrived.

Superintendent Andersson and Irene found a pizza place on Virginsgatan. They sat at a tiny table at the back, grateful that they didn’t have to eat their pizza and near beer in the car. In low voices they went over what they’d gotten from that morning’s work. Obviously Nurse Siv’s tale of a ghost nurse was more than odd. Irene had no idea whom or what the nurse had actually seen, but she hypothesized that the “ghost” had really been the murderer. Perhaps, in the old nurse’s frightened state and overactive imagination, the figure she’d seen had been coupled with the ghost story. That seemed the most likely.

Irene’s boss nodded and grunted, his mouth full. He attacked his pizza vigorously, snapping the flimsy plastic fork in half. He turned around to ask the pizza baker behind the counter for another and realized that the man had been leaning over the counter and listening, enthralled, to their conversation. The superintendent swallowed his rage and his opinions of eavesdroppers. It had been his own fault; the pizza parlor was much too small for this type of discussion. “Let’s go!” Andersson barked, his face flaming red as he stared into the pizza baker’s friendly smile. But he stopped halfway in his march out to turn back and snatch up the rest of his pizza.

• • •

THEY DROVE TO Härlanda Lake. Irene hoped that a dose of fresh air would clear their thoughts and a nice walk would settle the pizza in their stomachs.

They parked the car and walked into a nature scene covered with ice crystals. Irene stomped on the rock-hard ground. “This cold snap gives us a big problem. It was thirty below last night. The ground around the hospital is frozen solid and won’t leave any footprints or traces. And there’s no snow either.”

“True. I wonder if Malm has found anything inside the building. He’s due in tomorrow morning at roll call.”

“Perhaps Stridner will find something in the autopsy this afternoon.”

Andersson’s face darkened reflexively. He was unaware, as always, that this happened whenever Yvonne Stridner’s name was mentioned.

“I’ll call her. No rest for the wicked.” He sighed.

They walked in silence along the perimeter of the iced-over lake. A weak sun managed to get a few meager rays through the thin clouds, sending a cascade of glitter across the icy surface. The chill bit at their noses and cheeks. Irene took a deep breath. For a moment she imagined that the crisp, sharp air she drew into her lungs was totally pure and clean, like the air near her parents-in-laws’ summer cabin deep in the forests of Värmland. But she was jolted away from her daydream by the superintendent’s voice.

“Time to go back. The evening shift will be in soon.”

THE EVENING SHIFT worked the care ward and the ICU only until nine-thirty, when the night shift took over.

“Will Siv Persson be working tonight?” the superintendent asked.

“No,” Nurse Ellen said. “Before she went home today, she asked for time off. We’ve found a substitute. But it looks like there’s no one to take over from me.” Her voice was tired and worried.

“What about Linda?” asked Irene.

“Yes, she was supposed to come in at two. Now it’s almost two-thirty. I’ve just called her place, but no one’s picking up.”

“What’s Linda’s last name?”

“Svensson.”

“Does she have a family?”

“She lives with a guy, but he doesn’t seem to be home. I just hope there hasn’t been some kind of accident. Linda always bikes to work.”

“Even at thirty below?”

“Oh, yes.”

“I see. I guess we will just have to wait until she comes in. We can probably talk to the nurse on duty at the ICU for now,” Irene suggested to her boss.

“You go do that,” was the chief inspector’s immediate reply. “I’ll wait for Linda here. And I also want another chat with Nurse Ellen. If that’s all right with you, Nurse Ellen?”

“Well … sure. It’ll be no trouble at all if Linda shows up. But right now I’m the only one on the care ward and there’s a lot to do.”

“Are there any other doctors at this hospital, or is Löwander the only one?”

Nurse Ellen had stood up to unlock the medicine cabinet. She drew some fluid into a syringe and tapped it with her fingernail to clear the air bubbles. “We have an internist at the polyclinic who serves also as a consultant on more complicated surgery,” she answered. Then there’s a consulting X-ray specialist as well as a full-time anesthesiologist. You know, the doctor who puts you under before an operation. His name is Konrad Henriksson. And of course we have Dr. Bünzler, who is our plastic surgeon. He’s very good.”

“Isn’t Dr. Löwander a plastic surgeon?”

Nurse Ellen looked at the superintendent with her bright brown eyes. Irene noticed that her boss began to blush.

“No, he’s a general surgeon. But since there is less call for general surgery, he’s started to do some minor plastic procedures as well.” Nurse Ellen held the needle up to the light to inspect for any remaining air bubbles.

Masking a grin, Irene followed up, “So he doesn’t do rhinoplasty?”

Nurse Ellen glanced at Irene. She said with a slight smile, “No. If you’ll excuse me?”

The nurse swept out of the room brandishing the syringe. The chief inspector frowned. “What the hell? Rhino what?”

“Rhinoplasty,” Irene said.

“What’s that?”

“Something that should not be done on a day like this,” recited Irene in a singsong voice. “According to Anna-Karin at the ICU.”

Andersson took a deep breath. “And weren’t you supposed to be there already?”

Irene gave a flip salute. “Aye-aye! But there’s one more thing first.”

She went to the bookshelf mounted on brackets above the desk. She’d seen the title Medical Terminology in faded gold letters on a green linen spine. She pulled down the book and searched under rh. “Aha! Rhinoplasty is a nose job!” She shut the book with a bang, turned on her heel, and marched through the office door.

Sighing, the superintendent looked at his watch, which showed 2:47. Nurse Linda was long overdue.

THE ICU WAS chaotic. Nurse Anna-Karin was arguing with someone on the phone. “If there’s no more O-positive, you have to send O-negative! The patient is hemorrhaging! Last hemo was eighty-three!”

Her cheeks were bright red from urgency. Her short hair stuck out in all directions. The fact that she kept running her fingers through it wasn’t helping.

“All right, then! Send it by taxi!”

The receiver banged down. Irene could hear Anna-Karin’s quick breaths. The nurse lifted her head and spied Irene. She jerked up her palm and said, “Stop! We don’t have time for questions! The rhino’s turned into an emergency!”

Irene glanced at the same bed where Nils Peterzén’s body had rested a short time before. A man in green scrubs and a middle-aged nurse were bent over the patient who now occupied the bed. Irene assumed that the man in scrubs was a doctor, but he wasn’t Dr. Löwander. Irene walked to Anna-Karin and said in a low voice, “Linda hasn’t come in for her evening shift. Do you know where she might be?”

It took a second for Anna-Karin to realize the implication of the inspector’s words. She showed real surprise. “She’s not here?”

“No. And there’s no answer at her place.”

The nurse’s surprise turned to worry. “That’s strange! Linda’s never late. Maybe she had a bike accident? Maybe she’s hurt?”

“We don’t know, but we’ll have to find out. Do you know where we can find her partner?”

Anne-Karin stiffened and pressed her lips together. What a perfect witness, Irene thought. This girl can’t hide anything. Since it looked like she wasn’t going to answer, Irene pressed on more firmly. “It would save time if you tell us now. We’ll find out anyway. And after what happened here last night, it looks strange that you’re not helping us.”

The nurse shrugged. “They broke up. He moved out last Saturday.”

“They separated?”

“Yep.”

Irene felt a real sense of worry regarding the nurse’s whereabouts. It had hardly been twenty-four hours since her colleague had been murdered.

“What’s the guy’s name, and where does he live now?”

“Pontus … Pontus Olofsson. I have no idea where he’s living now. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Linda much since they broke up.”

“Anna-Karin! More cyclosporine! Same dose!”

The doctor’s command cut their conversation short. Anna-Karin hurried to the medicine cabinet. At the same moment, the older nurse looked up from the bed and ordered, Call surgery and have them send Bünzler down here at once!

Now was not the time to question Anna-Karin further, Irene realized. She’d have to come back later.

OUT ON THE floor, there was palpable worry in the air. Nurse Ellen spoke for everyone: “I wouldn’t normally be worried, but after last night … and Linda’s never late to work. There must be some explanation for all this!”

She’s right, Irene thought. We have to find Linda Svensson. “Where does Linda live?” she asked.

“Let me think.… Kärralundsgatan. The building number is in the department address book.”

The nurse pulled open the top drawer of the desk. She shuffled through a few papers until she found a black address book, paged through it, and then wrote down an address on a slip of paper. “Are you going right over? I mean, maybe she’s sick or something.”

Irene nodded.

Superintendent Andersson cleared his throat. “Yes, you go check on her. I’ll remain here in case she shows up. And all emergency rooms should be contacted.” He looked at the nurse.

Nurse Ellen smiled gently at the superintendent. “Then I hope that you can make those calls yourself. I have a mountain of extra paperwork.”

Before Andersson had a chance to reply, Nurse Ellen whisked out the door. Irene grinned slyly as she, too, waved good-bye and headed off.