Unknown

MONDAY, JULY 12

The theft from the Antiquities Room meant that Johan was forced to leave Emma and Elin on Faro and hastily return to Visby. He had filed a report on the news story for the Sunday broadcast of Regional News.

Now on Monday morning his editor had made it clear that he wanted a follow-up about the shock and dismay, from the angle: How could it have happened? All ready-packed in his editor's skull, thought Johan sarcastically, even though he agreed that a follow-up on the story would be natural. He himself wondered most about the fact that the thief had been able to disconnect the alarm system. Did that mean it was an inside job? If so, how many similar thefts might have been committed previously? He had requested news clippings from the press archives pertaining to the theft of artifacts on Gotland, and they had arrived by fax. Most of them had to do with individuals from abroad who had brought in metal detectors and plundered the island's silver treasures.

In a copy of Gotlands Tidningar from six months earlier, he found an article that caught his interest: suspected theft at regional museum warehouse.

None of the people he had interviewed in connection with the current theft had mentioned that objects had disappeared at any previous time. This article dealt with thefts from a warehouse located in a different part of the city, so maybe it wasn't so strange that they hadn't said anything. Naturally they wouldn't want to advertise the thefts any more than necessary.

The article said that several coins were missing from the warehouse in which all artifacts not on display were stored; the Antiquities Room only had space to show a small portion of everything that had been dug up on the island. Interviewed in the article was the person in charge of the warehouse, Eskil Rondahl, who took the matter of the missing coins very seriously.

Johan found the phone number for the warehouse and asked to speak with Rondahl.

He heard a voice, dry as dust, on the other end of the line say, "Hello?"

"Hi. My name is Johan Berg, and I'm calling from Regional News, Swedish TV."

Silence. Johan went on.

"I'm calling about an article in Gotlands Tidningar from six months ago. It has to do with the theft of some Arabic coins from the warehouse."

"Yes?"

"Do you know what I'm talking about? You were the one who was interviewed in the article."

"Yes, I know. The theft was solved."

"What happened?"

"It turned out that no theft had actually taken place after all. The missing coins were found. They had just been misplaced. That's all."

"How did that happen?"

"It was a matter of negligence, and I can only blame myself. When coins are received here, they're put in the special security section of the warehouse, where we keep everything that is particularly valuable and might be enticing to steal. In this instance, a box of coins was misplaced, but we found it later. It was quite embarrassing for me, so it's something that I'd prefer to forget."

"I understand. Have you had any other thefts?"

"Nothing that we can pinpoint with certainty, but of course things do disappear sometimes."

"But surely that's a serious matter. People can't very well just walk off with objects that are thousands of years old, can they? What do the police say about it?"

"They don't really care. There's no one on the police force who wants to get involved with the theft of ancient relics. Those kinds of things are way down on their list of priorities," said Rondahl with a snort. "I'm afraid I don't have any more time right now."

Johan thanked him and hung up.

He was puzzled by the conversation. Were thefts occurring and no one cared about the matter?

He called the college and asked to speak with an archaeologist. The only person available was the theory teacher Aron Bjarke.

Johan told him about the article he had read and what Eskil Rondahl had said.

Bjarke partly confirmed what Johan had heard. "It's possible that individual objects have been stolen without anyone noticing, but the worst part isn't that a few things disappear here or there. The big problem is the fortune hunters who come to Gotland to search for silver treasure. Some years ago a new law was instituted to put a stop to the plundering. Nowadays it's illegal to use metal detectors on Gotland without special permission from the county council. Last year the police caught two Englishmen red-handed as they were using metal detectors to search for treasure."

"What happens to the stolen goods?"

"There are collectors all over the world who will pay considerable sums for silver jewelry or coins from the eleventh century, for example. Not to mention all the beautiful jewelry we find from the Viking Age. Naturally there's a big market and plenty of money involved."

"Do thefts still occur?"

"Without a doubt. It's just that the police aren't interested."

"Can you cite a specific theft that you happen to know about?"

Bjarke was silent for a few seconds.

"No, actually I can't. Not at the moment."