Stalker

78

Joona’s just had another cortisone injection, and is in Erik’s back garden practising combat techniques with a long wooden pole.

Nils Åhlén is trying to track down the colleague who signed Tina’s death certificate while they wait for the translation of the engraving on the watch, to find out if it can help them make progress.

Erik is sitting at the grand piano, watching his friend’s repetitive pattern of blocks and attacks as shadows cross the thin linen curtain.

Like a Chinese shadow-theatre, he thinks, then looks down at the piano keys in front of him.

He was planning to practise his étude, but can’t bring himself to try. His mind is too unfocused. He still hasn’t got hold of Jackie, and Nelly called him from work an hour ago to ask if she could come over.

Slowly he puts his little finger on a key and strikes it, making the first note echo as his phone starts to ring.

‘Erik Maria Bark,’ he answers.

‘Hello,’ a high voice says. ‘My name is Madeleine Federer, and…’

‘Maddy?’ Erik gasps. ‘How are you?’

‘Fine,’ she says quietly. ‘I’ve borrowed Rosita’s phone… I just wanted to say it was nice when you were here with us.’

‘I loved spending time with you and your mum,’ Erik says.

‘Mum misses you, but she’s silly and pretends that-’

‘You need to listen to her, and-’

‘Maddy,’ someone calls in the background. ‘What are you doing with my phone?’

‘Sorry I ruined everything,’ the girl says quickly, then the call ends.

Erik slips off his piano stool and just sits on the floor with his hands over his face. After a while he lies back and stares up at the ceiling, thinking that it’s time to get a grip on things again and stop taking pills.

He’s used to helping patients move on.

When everything is at it darkest, it can only get brighter, he usually says.

He gets up with a sigh, goes and rinses his face, then sits down on the steps outside the glass door.

Joona groans as he turns round, strikes low with the stick, then jabs behind him before he stops and looks into Erik’s face.

His face is wet with sweat, his muscles are pumped with blood and he’s breathing hard, but isn’t exactly out of breath.

‘Have you had time to look into your old patients?’

‘I’ve found a few who were the children of priests,’ Erik says. Then he hears a car pull in and stop at the front of the house.

‘Give their names to Margot.’

‘But I’ve only just started going through the archive,’ he says.

Nelly walks round the house, waves, and comes over to them. She’s wearing a fitted riding jacket and tight black trousers.

‘We ought to be at Rachel Yehuda’s lecture,’ she says, sitting down next to Erik.

‘Is that today?’

Joona’s phone rings and he walks over towards the shed before answering.

It strikes Erik that Nelly seems tired and subdued. The thin skin below her eyes is grey and she’s frowning.

‘Can’t you report yourself?’ she asks.

‘I’ve thought about it.’

She just shakes her head and looks wearily at him.

‘Do you think my mouth is ugly?’ she asks. ‘Your lips get thinner as you get older. And Martin… he’s very sensitive when it comes to mouths.’

‘So how does Martin look, then? Hasn’t he got older?’

‘Don’t laugh, but I’m thinking of having surgery… I’m not prepared to get older, I don’t want anyone thinking he’s being kind by sleeping with me.’

‘You’re very attractive, Nelly.’

‘I’m not fishing for compliments, but that’s not the way it feels, not any more…’

She falls silent as her chin starts to tremble.

‘What’s happened?’

‘Nothing,’ she says, gently rubbing beneath her eyes before looking up.

‘You need to talk to Martin about those porn films if it’s upsetting you.’

‘It isn’t,’ she says.

Joona has finished his call and is heading towards them with his phone in his hand.

‘The Slavic Institute have managed to decipher the lettering on that watch. The writing’s Belarusian, apparently.’

‘What does it say?’ Erik asks.

‘In honour of Andrej Kaliov’s great achievements, Military Faculty, Yanka Kupala University.’

They follow Joona into the study and listen to him as he tracks the name down in less than five minutes. Interpol has one hundred and ninety member countries, and he is put through by the unit for international police cooperation to the office of the National Central Bureau in Minsk.

He finds out that there’s no indication that Andrej Kaliov is missing, but that a woman by the name of Natalia Kaliova from Gomel has been reported missing.

In British-accented English the woman on the phone explains that Natalia – the woman Rocky called Tina – was believed to have been a victim of human trafficking.

‘Her family say that a friend of hers called from Sweden and encouraged her to go there via Finland, without a residence permit.’

‘Is that everything?’ Joona asks.

‘You could try talking to her sister,’ the woman says.

‘Her sister?’

‘She went to Sweden to look for her big sister, and is evidently still there. It says here that she calls us regularly to find out if there’s any news.’

‘What’s the sister’s name?’

‘Irina Kaliova.’