Unwanted

THE END OF SEPTEMBER

Before summer had ever really arrived, autumn came creeping in. Only then did the rain stop. The sky was high and cloudless above the land, but the evenings grew ever cooler, and the nights were drawing in.

Alex Recht came back to work in the third week of September. He stopped in the doorway of his office and smiled. It was good to be back.

In the staff room, they all celebrated his return with coffee and cake. His boss made a short speech. Alex bowed and thanked him, accepted a bouquet and said thank you again.

Alone in his office a while later, he shed the odd tear. It really did feel great to be back.

His hands had healed better than anyone had expected, the doctors said, and they promised he would get full movement back in both of them.

For probably the thousandth time, Alex inspected the scar tissue decorating the backs and palms of his hands. Thin skin in a haphazard pattern of various shades of pink covered his hands and spread up over his wrists.

Alex was staggered not to be able to recall any pain when his hands were on fire. He remembered the whole course of events: Aron Steen’s kitchen turning into a blazing inferno; Aron just sitting there on the kitchen chair, engulfed in flames, the burning child in his arms. Alex saw himself in his mind’s eye, lunging forward into the fire and tearing the child from Aron’s grip. He could hear his own cries echoing in his head:

‘Out of the fucking way. The boy’s on fire!’

And the boy was indeed on fire. He was so much on fire that Alex didn’t have time to register that he was, too. He dragged the boy down onto the hall floor and rolled on him, over and over again, to put out the flames. Then Peder threw a large bath towel over Alex and tried to trap his thrashing arms. The fire crackled and spat, burned and cursed.

The emergency response squad advanced into the kitchen, armed with a hall rug, a bathmat and more towels to protect themselves against the fire. It proved impossible to reach the kitchen table, at which Aron Steen sat like a flaming brand. Not a sound escaped him as the fire took his life. And that, it later emerged, was what most of those involved in the operation saw in their nightmares. The burning man sitting stock still at the kitchen table.

A neighbour who had heard all the disturbance came running up with a fire extinguisher. With that they were able to contain the fire until the fire engine and ambulance got there, but by then one person was dead and a little child was badly burned. The ambulance crew found Alex in the bathroom, trying to soothe his poor hands under cold running water.

Alex found it harder to remember what had happened after that. He knew they had kept him under sedation for several days. He knew it had hurt like hell when he came round. But once he had embarked on the rehabilitation programme, everything had gone better than he could have hoped.

In the time Alex was on sick leave, the papers did nothing but write about the events of the case. Countless newspaper reports detailed the murders of the children and of Nora in Jönköping. There were timelines, and maps with arrows, and red dots, telling the story over and over again.

Alex read them all. Mainly because he had nothing better to do with his time, or so he claimed.

The fates of Nora and Jelena were recounted in many different versions. The press found so-called relatives of the girls, relatives who had never actually had any contact with either of them, but were keen to see themselves in the papers. Former classmates told strange tales of their schooldays, and the articles had quotes from former teachers and even employers who had been located and interviewed.

The police investigation came under scrutiny. Could the police have acted earlier? Could the perpetrator have been identified sooner? A variety of experts were asked to give their opinion. Several of them thought the police had managed to make a mess of what was basically a ‘very simple investigation’, while others made the reasonable point that it had been right for the police to make Lilian Sebastiansson’s father their main suspect in the initial phase. It had been right, even though it had cost the investigation valuable time.

But the body of experts was unanimous in its criticism of the raid on Aron Steen’s flat in Midsommarkransen. Some thought the police should have pulled out as soon as they smelled the petrol and come back with fire blankets and extinguishers. Others thought they should not have engaged in any kind of dialogue with Aron Steen, but tried to put him out of action with a shot through the window, since he was sitting in full view.

None of the pundits whose views were in print had been present at the raid. But Alex had been. He would maintain until the day he died that the raid could not have been done in any other way. If they had made their presence known at the door and then retreated for firefighting equipment, the boy’s life would have been in dire jeopardy. The moment they went into the block of flats, there was only one way for them to go. Forward.

The articles Alex found less infuriating and more interesting were the big features about the murderer. Here, the newspapers had been more thorough in their research and got access to better background material, which made for more satisfactory reading. For Alex, the features showed that the journalists didn’t really know which leg to stand on. It was impossible to relate Aron Steen’s tragic story without an element of understanding and sympathy creeping in. Not forgiveness, they stressed, but understanding.

Aron was really one of those people who never had a chance, Alex thought grimly. Even as a babe in arms he had been horribly mistreated by his mentally unstable grandmother, who went on to spend years belittling him as a person, distorting his perception of right and wrong, and preventing him from developing even the most basic capacity for empathy. He turned up at school in soiled clothes, looking wild and angry, day after day. He stank of his grandmother’s cigarette smoke. The other children teased him, called him grandma’s little girl. He was so skinny and had such long hair that it was hard to tell if he was a boy or a girl, they said. His worst tormentors were inspired by the smell of smoke and his dirty appearance. They called him Cinderella.

The boy was fifteen before social services finally intervened and he was placed in a foster home. His grandmother made no bones about blaming him for his mother’s, her daughter’s, death, and told social services that she couldn’t for the life of her see that he would ever develop into a normally functioning person.

It seemed at first as though Aron Steen’s grandmother was wrong. He completed his school career, went to university and qualified as a psychologist, and left home. But there were warning signs. His nursery school teacher had reported that even at a very young age he took great pleasure in inflicting pain on animals. He found it hard to make friends and maintain relationships. Yet he was outgoing and good at expressing himself verbally. In adult life he was considered good-looking, which helped him socially.

He found it hard to adapt to new workplaces, and was constantly changing job. He was always on the move, and seen by those around him as a restless soul.

At the time he met Nora, he was back in Umeå where he grew up, working at the hospital. According to the papers, the break-up with Nora must have triggered some kind of psychosis, because that was when he went to his grandmother’s home in the middle of the night and set fire to it, burning her alive in her bed.

The rest was, as they say, history. Alex had recently spoken to the parents of the little boy Aron Steen had taken hostage. The boy was slowly recovering. His injuries were much more extensive than Alex’s, but at least he was alive. His parents were very grateful for that. Only time would tell whether the boy felt the same gratitude.

Though resolute police work had uncovered the identity of the perpetrator, many other questions remained unanswered. It was impossible to establish exactly where Aron had murdered the children. In all probability, Lilian had been killed in Jelena’s flat, and Natalie in Aron’s, but nothing could be proved. Nor had the investigation reached any conclusion about why Nora had been murdered at precisely that point in time. When they interviewed Jelena Scortz, she claimed she knew nothing about it.

As for Jelena, she had been discharged from hospital and was being held on remand in Kronoberg Prison, awaiting trial. She denied all the charges, but there was technical evidence confirming Lilian had been in her flat. Lilian’s panties had been found in a bag in the rubbish collection area in the basement of her block. Jelena refused to say anything about how they came to be there. Alex couldn’t decide if he felt sorry for her or not.

Alex switched on his computer and flicked through his desk diary. He only had a couple of weeks at work before he and Lena were off on their trip to South America to see their son. It was going to be a wonderful and exciting trip, Alex was in no doubt about it.

There was an unobtrusive little knock at Alex’s door.

Fredrika was loitering hesitantly in the doorway.

‘Come in,’ said Alex with real warmth in his voice.

Fredrika smiled as she came in and sat down in the visitor’s chair.

‘I just wanted to see how you were,’ she said. ‘Is everything okay?’

Alex nodded and smiled.

‘Almost everything’s very okay indeed,’ he said. ‘How about you, are you okay?’

It was Fredrika’s turn to nod. Yes, she was fine.

‘Did you have a good holiday?’ asked Alex, sounding genuinely interested.

Fredrika was caught out by the question. The summer and her holiday both felt so very far away.

But his query brought back happy memories of the week she and Spencer had spent at a little guest house in Skagen.

She smiled, but her eyes clouded over.

‘I had a lovely holiday,’ she replied emphatically.

Saying it conjured up the image of Spencer, sitting on the sand, looking out over the sea. The wind in his face and his eyes like narrow slits, protecting themselves from the sun.

‘It won’t get any better than this, Fredrika,’ he said.

‘I know,’ she answered.

‘Just so you don’t feel I’m misleading you.’

‘You don’t need to worry about that. I’ve never felt anything but safe with you.’

Then they sat there on the sand, looking out over the water where the tall waves chased each other back and forth, until Fredrika, agonizing, hesitantly broke the silence.

‘Talking of misleading each other, there’s something else I think we should talk about…’

Alex cleared his throat as Fredrika’s attention drifted away.

‘Thanks for the CD you sent,’ he said. ‘Lena and I both love it. We play it almost every day.’

‘Oh, I’m glad,’ she said. ‘I’m very fond of that one myself.’

Then there was silence.

Alex shifted uneasily in his seat and decided to ask a more urgently topical question, but Fredrika got in first.

‘When’s Peder expected back?’

Alex had to think.

‘The first of November,’ he said. ‘Unless he opts to be a stay-at-home dad.’

Fredrika had to smile.

Peder and Fredrika had joined forces to conclude the investigation that started when Lilian Sebastiansson went missing from a train at Stockholm Central Station. It had been a fruitful collaboration that had given them new respect for each other, and they had parted as good colleagues when Peder went on paternity leave at the start of August.

That was the last they had heard of each other. Fredrika wondered a few times whether to give him a ring, but never got round to it. Perhaps it was because she saw him as just that, a colleague, rather than a friend. And now too much time had passed for it to feel a natural thing to do. There was also quiet but persistent gossip on the corridor about Peder and his wife having a ‘trial separation’, as it was put, though he was also said to have asked a lawyer friend to act for him in the question of divorce proceedings and dividing the joint property.

Tragic, thought Fredrika.

Alex thought the same.

But neither of them put it into words, simply letting it hang there in the air.

In the resulting silence, Alex again tried to ask the question he needed answering.

‘And what about you, Fredrika? Are you going to stay on here with us?’

Fredrika drew herself up and looked Alex straight in the eye.

‘Yes,’ she said with composure. ‘I am.’

Alex smiled at her.

‘I’m glad,’ he said honestly.

More mutual agreement that didn’t need words. Fredrika briefly considered whether this was the time to say that although she wanted to stay with Alex, certain things would have to change. Certain things to do with his assessment of her competence, and how her background was valued. The media had drawn attention to her involvement in the case, which had turned a spotlight on tensions between police and civilian personnel in the force. Fredrika had refused no fewer than two invitations to take part in discussion programmes. But she felt no urge whatsoever to give vent to her personal opinions on television.

Fredrika decided the issue could wait. It was Alex’s first day back at work since the fire; it didn’t feel right to force him into such a major discussion.

And anyway, there was another question she wanted to take up with him.

‘I’ve got to tell you that I shall be on parental leave from the end of April next year.’

Alex gave a start. Fredrika had to bite her bottom lip to stop herself bursting out laughing.

‘Parental leave?’ Alex repeated in amazement.

‘I’m going to be a mother,’ said Fredrika, feeling her cheeks glow with pride.

‘Congratulations!’ Alex said automatically.

He studied her.

‘It doesn’t show yet,’ he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Fredrika simply smiled, leaving Alex free to put his foot in it a second time.

‘Is there going to be a shotgun wedding?’

It was Fredrika’s turn to flinch, and Alex made a defensive gesture with his damaged hands to show he took the comment back. Fredrika found herself giggling, entirely involuntarily. Shotgun wedding. What a phrase.

I owe him this one, thought Fredrika, and answered the question.

‘No, I’m afraid not. The father’s already married, you see.’

Alex stared at Fredrika with a foolish grin, waiting for her to take back what she had just said. But she didn’t.

Alex turned to look out of the window instead.

It’ll do me good to get away to South America, he thought.