Stalker

121

Grit flies up behind them as they set off again. The car fills with a thunderous, jolting wind.

As Joona pushes the car as hard as it will go, he tries to get a picture of the serial killer clear in his mind. After they had sex following her father’s funeral, Nelly transferred her affections to Rocky. She stalked him, followed him, made herself part of his life, tried to control him with drugs, and killed the women who threatened their union. She created an impossible life for Rocky by making sure he was the main suspect for the murder of Rebecka Hansson. In the end she kept him in a cage, was supplying him with heroin and thought she owned him completely, when he managed to escape. He stole a car in Finsta and crashed on his way to Arlanda. The accident left him with serious brain damage, he lost all appeal to her and ended up being sentenced to secure psychiatric care.

Maybe Nelly caught sight of Erik when he was called in as an expert witness during Rocky Kyrklund’s trial.

Joona shudders at the thought that Nelly probably started stalking Erik as long ago as that, slowly and systematically getting closer to him.

She studied and got her qualifications, got a job at the same place as him, married Martin and supported Erik during his separation from Simone.

After the divorce her assumption of ownership grew stronger, and she started to keep watch on him, couldn’t bear any sign of competition, and became pathologically jealous. She probably wanted him to choose her of his own accord, that he would have eyes for no one but her, but when that didn’t happen something snapped inside her and she had to act in order to stop herself falling apart.

When Erik embarked on an affair with Maria Carlsson, she probably thought everything would be fine if she could just get rid of her rival.

A stalker always develops a relationship with their victim in their imagination, a relationship that they convince themselves is real and reciprocated.

In her head Nelly may have believed that she was married to Erik, and when she saw him betraying her with Maria Carlsson, attracted by Sandra Lundgren, flirting with Susanna Kern and maybe just smiling at Katryna Youssef, a vicious beast woke up.

Joona turns off towards Malmköping, stops in the car park outside Lindholm’s Floor and Building Services and switches to a better car.

They’re driving along the E20 motorway at 190 kilometres an hour when Margot calls from her private phone.

‘There’s a warrant out for your arrest, did you know that?’ she asks.

‘I know, but…’

‘You’re going to end up in prison for this,’ she cuts him off.

‘It was worth it,’ he replies quietly.

A few seconds of silence follow.

‘Now I realise why you’re a better detective than me,’ Margot says in a subdued voice.

Joona overtakes a black Corvette on the inside and pulls out again just in time to overtake an articulated lorry with a mustard-yellow trailer.

‘Our forensics team have found strands of Erik’s hair in Sandra Lundgren’s bath, we’ve already got his fingerprints on the deer’s head, he’s connected to all the victims, he’s got thousands of hours of video-recordings in his basement, and-’

‘It’s too much,’ Joona says.

‘And the analysis of the blood in Erik’s car showed that it was Susanna Kern’s… and now it’s getting too much even for me,’ she says heavily.

‘Good,’ Joona says.

‘Erik’s a doctor… this doesn’t make sense, because all four murders show clear signs of forensic awareness… And someone like that doesn’t end up with blood in their own car… Someone left those traces of blood on the back seat to frame him.’

‘You’ve met the real killer,’ Joona says.

‘Is it Nestor?’

‘It’s Nelly Brandt… she’s the preacher.’

‘You sound sure,’ Margot says.

‘It’s Erik she’s after, he’s the one she’s been stalking, the victims are just rivals in her own head.’

‘If you’re certain about this, I’ll get an operation organised at once,’ Margot says. ‘We’ll hit her home and workplace at the same time.’

Joona drives on towards Stockholm as he thinks of how Nelly has stalked Erik for years, mapping the lives of any women he showed an interest in, trying to understand what they had that she couldn’t offer. She saw them flashing their jewellery, their painted lips, beautiful nails, and wanted to take that away from them, punish them, and then emphasise their bare ears or ugly hands.

But when that wasn’t enough she tried to take the whole world away from him. Like Artemis with her hounds, she organised a hunt, Joona thinks. She’s a skilful huntress, she isolates her prey, wounds it, and harries it towards capture until there’s only one way out.

Her intention was for Erik to realise that everything pointed at him, and go on the run before the police caught him. Everyone would shun him, until in the end he turned to the only person who was still prepared to let him in.

If he hasn’t been caught by the police by now, he must have sought protection from Nelly.