Thirty-eight

“You’ve had a visitor,” the professor said when Laura got out of the car.

It almost seemed as if he had been waiting for her.

“A woman,” the neighbor continued. “She seemed very anxious to get ahold of you.”

Laura gave him a look of indifference.

“She even walked around the garden as if you were there.”

Laura shut the car door. On account of all the garbage bags in the driveway, half of the car was on the sidewalk. She opened the trunk. The pipe wrench lay in full view. Laura picked it up and weighed it in her hand.

The professor’s smile faded.

“Don’t go poking around in my life,” Laura said menacingly.

Her neighbor stared at the pipe wrench and took a couple of steps back. Laura followed.

“Don’t poke around in my life.”

The professor backed up a couple more meters, looked around quickly as if to find help, but the street was quiet as usual. There was no one to be seen.

“Are you scared, you little professor-shit?”

“Calm down,” he managed. “I haven’t done anything to you, have I?”

“Not done anything?” Laura said furiously and charged at him. “You have talked behind our backs and spied on us all these years. Shouldn’t that count?”

The professor fled while Laura laughed heartily.

“Hi Laura,” a voice said behind her and she spun around.

Laura lowered the pipe wrench and concealed it behind her legs.

“He was threatening me,” she said.

Ann Lindell nodded.

“Could we talk?” she said.

“Not today,” Laura said quickly, “I don’t have time.”

“This will only take a few minutes.”

“I don’t have time!” Laura shouted.

The professor, who had been following this exchange from his front steps, suddenly became brave, ran down the steps, and stopped on the lawn with only the slim hedge between him and Laura.

“I’m calling the police,” he said. “This can’t go on. She’s an embarass-ment to this whole neigborhood.”

“It’s not necessary,” Lindell said.

“Necessary! If you only knew how we have suffered, year after year, with this crazy family.”

“You old bastard!” Laura screamed. “You damned freak!”

“That’s enough,” Lindell said.

Laura’s face was distorted with anger.

“I am a police officer. I’m here to talk about Ulrik Hindersten’s disappearance. It’s perhaps understandable that Laura is upset right now,” she said and turned to the man.

“You’re from the police?”

“Did you think she was from your illegal cleaning service?” Laura said. “She’s here to talk to me and not to be accosted by some impotent professor.”

“No, this is going too far! Did you hear what that Neanderthal said?”

“We’re going in,” Lindell said, and took Laura by the shoulders and led her like a hapless child toward the house. As they passed the car Laura tossed the pipe wrench into the trunk.

Lindell heard the neighbor yelling behind them, that he was going to report Laura to the police for unlawful threats and Lindell for incompetency.

“He employs an illegal cleaning service?” Lindell asked.

“The whole street does,” Laura said flatly “I’m the only one who does my own cleaning.”

“And you do that with gusto,” Lindell said.

Laura smiled at her. The tics in her face had stopped and her hand was steady as she put the key in the lock.

“You can sit in the kitchen for now,” she said. “I just have to pee.”

Lindell heard splashing from the bathroom. She looked around the kitchen with interest. The old cabinets with stainless steel handles and the low countertops bore witness to the fact that nothing had been renovated for decades.

There were newspapers, bundles of paper, and a dirty pair of panties on the kitchen table and up against the wall a dozen wine bottles arranged in double rows. Lindell thought they looked like a platoon of infantry soldiers on a march.

She picked up a pile of papers and read. The text was in German.

“This is from work,” Laura said, who had snuck back in without a sound and was standing by the door.

“I’m sorry, it wasn’t my intention to . . .”

“It’s not secret. It’s really boring.”

Lindell was amazed that she could switch moods so quickly.

“I see that you keep to Italian labels,” she said, indicating the bottles.

“Would you like a glass? We can celebrate a little.”

“What’s the occasion?’

“That I’ll be free soon,” Laura said and smiled. “I’ve met a man.”

“Is that freedom?” Lindell said with a little laugh.

“His name is Stig and he is absolutely wonderful,” Laura went on, ignoring Lindell’s comment. “He’s a colleague. We fuck. No, we don’t fuck. We make love to each other. If you only knew.”

Laura didn’t look at Lindell. It seemed as if she was talking to herself. She walked over to the window and looked out. She grew silent but Lindell saw her lips still moving.

“He’s mine,” she said after a while.

“Congratulations,” Lindell said.

“He’s married but that doesn’t matter. That can be solved. The essence of freedom lies in solving problems as they arise, don’t you think? If you accept the fact that the problems are unsolvable then you become half a person. An impoverished person. Isn’t that right?”

She turned to Lindell and looked at her for confirmation. Lindell nodded.

“For thirty-five years I have believed that everything was my fault. But it wasn’t! Jessica is her name. She’s no good for Stig. Jessica is no good. She . . . when everything . . . I’ve lived shut up here. Now I’ve paid all the debts.”

“Are they getting a divorce?”

“Yes, I’m the person who’s going to separate them. That has become my task. Stig is too weak for such things. He doesn’t even dare talk to her. He says he has but I can see that he’s lying. He is so scared! Just as I was. If you only knew how much he loved me. He’s loved me for a long time. Maybe several years.”

Laura smiled. Her features softened.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like some wine?”

Laura picked up a half full bottle from the counter. Lindell shook her head and at the same moment took out the picture of Alice Hindersten.

“This is you mother, isn’t it?”

If Laura was taken aback she didn’t show it. She didn’t move a muscle.

“Yes, it is. My mother, Alice Henrietta.”

“I found this photograph in Petrus Blomgren’s house. He was murdered a couple of days ago. Why do you think he had a picture of your mother?”

“I’ve no idea,” Laura said and sat down across from Lindell.

“I asked you earlier if you knew Blomgren but at that time you denied it.”

The phone in Lindell’s pocket rang but she ignored it.

Laura studied the photo.

“Wasn’t she beautiful?” she said in a soft voice voice. “My mother.”

“Did you know Petrus Blomgren?”

“No,” Laura said.

“I think Alice and Petrus had a relationship.”

Laura swallowed.

“I don’t think so,” she said, and Lindell could barely make out the words. “My mother was faithful. The letters!” she cried out suddenly.

She stood up and left the kitchen. Lindell heard the front door open and Laura ran down the steps.

She returned quickly with her handbag.

“Excuse me,” she said. “I was just given some old letters.”

“From your mother?”

“Yes, I visited a cousin and he had some old papers.”

“Have you read the letters?”

“Yes, it was just family gossip but it was fun anyway. It was sweet of Lars-Erik to think of me.”

“If we could return to Petrus. I think he and Alice went to Mallorca together. Do you remember that trip?”

“Of course, that was my mother’s own little excursion, as my father called it. She had been operated on for something that spring and needed cheering up.”

“What kind of an operation?”

“Something to do with her gall bladder, I think.”

“But you didn’t hear of anyone named Petrus?”

Laura shook her head again.

“How do you explain the picture?”

“Is he from Skyttorp or Örbyhus, this Blomgren?”

“No, why?”

“I was thinking perhaps he was a childhood friend of my mother’s.”

“But why would he have such a recent picture of her?”

“Maybe he was in love with her,” Laura said simply and lightly, as if it were a trivial matter.

“If I can speak frankly,” Lindell said, “then—”

“One should be frank,” Laura broke in.

“. . . I don’t believe it. I am convinced that Alice and Petrus had a relationship. That you didn’t know about it is one thing but do you think your father knew?”

Laura didn’t answer. Lindell waited for a while before continuing.

“Your mother died shortly after she returned from Mallorca.”

“My mother’s death is personal and has nothing to do with anyone else. It is my grief. You can’t sully it.”

“I don’t want to upset you but I need to clear this up. Do you think that Ulrik knew of Blomgren’s existence?”

“In that case he never mentioned it,” Laura said gruffly.

“No hints? No word after you had grown up? Some parents love to tar the other just to have the advantage or win the sympathy of the child.”

“Ulrik isn’t like that.”

“How is he?”

“I don’t know why you would be interested in that. Wouldn’t it be better if you found him?”

“We’re trying to, or rather, we have done everything. Your mother seemed very interested in gardening. You can still see that your garden was very beautiful once. While I was waiting for you I walked around in it. There is—for me at least—an unusual tree in your garden. It must be old, at least twenty or thirty years. It has several trunks. Do you know which one I mean? It has a striped bark.”

Laura nodded.

“Who planted it?”

“My mother most likely,” Laura said.

“I saw an identical tree outside Blomgren’s house. Not quite as large, but it grows better here.”

“You ask a lot of questions.”

“That’s my job.”

“I also have a job,” Laura said and gave a nod to the pile of papers on the table.

“Aren’t you on sick leave?”

“Are you an insurance officer?”

Lindell smiled.

“Where did your mother die?”

“Are we going to dig her up as well?”

“No, I just want to understand how she died.”

“I live with that knowledge every day.”

“I know,” Lindell said and wriggled out of her jacket.

She felt the tension and warmth rising in the kitchen. She couldn’t figure Laura out. She was lying about Petrus Blomgren, Lindell was convinced of it. Behind the secure, swift replies there was a person who was on her guard.

“You don’t understand anything about my family,” Laura said. “My mother died. I was left alone.”

“And your father?”

“He lived in another world. He simply happened to live here. There was a summer when I . . . was always swinging. I did lots of childish things, ran around barefoot, tied dandelions together, and everything I had never had time for. Ulrik read his books. It was a beautiful summer. He sat in a wicker chair and read. Sometimes he stood up and gave speed to the swing again. I was almost afraid I would go over the top but he just laughed. In the evenings we sat up late, played games, and listened to Verdi. Should we go down?”

“Go down?” Lindell asked.

“Into the basement. That was where she died.”

Laura smiled sadly and for a moment Lindell hesitated. Something about this woman didn’t add up. Lindell had seen it before, an unpredictable rage lurking behind the controlled surface.

She pushed aside her doubts and followed Laura into the hall.

“You’ll have to excuse the mess,” she said. “I can’t afford an illegal Polish cleaning lady.”

“That’s allright,” Lindell said. “I won’t remark on the dust.”

Laura pulled the door open and was about to walk down the stairs when she turned around.

“Wait a minute, I need to get a flashlight. The light down there isn’t working.”

Lindell peeked down into the darkness.

“Take this,” Laura said and held a flashlight out to Lindell. “I’ll get one more. It’s probably in the kitchen,” she said and left.

Lindell turned on the light. The battery was low and in the faint light she saw the contours of the steps and the little area at the bottom. There was the gleam of a large number of wine bottles. Most of the remaining space was taken up by cardboard boxes.

Lindell leaned forward to get a better view. On both sides there were openings that led to dark recesses. It smelled musty.

Laura returned.

“I can’t find the other flashlight, but why don’t you go ahead. Be careful, the third step is a little treacherous.”

Lindell looked down. Laura nodded and smiled. Lindell took another step and let the flashlight illuminate her way. The third step swayed.

“Careful,” Laura said behind her back. “It was that exact step that became my mother’s death.”

“Was she on her way up or down?”

“Up, I think, because she was carrying a jar of lingonberries.”

Laura giggled and Lindell turned her head.

“Now you die,” Laura said tonelessly and gave Lindell a shove in the small of her back so she fell headlong down the steep stairs.