Buried Angels (19 page)

‘Rune’s children were roughly the same age as you back then. Did you spend any time with them?’

Holm shook his head. ‘Rune wouldn’t have stood for that. Although we did see quite a lot of his oldest son because he was a kind of assistant at the school. A real shithead.’

‘It sounds as if you had rather strong feelings about some of the family members.’

‘I detested them. All the boys at the school did. But not enough to kill them, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s part of being a teenager to rebel against authority.’

‘What about the other Elvander children?’

‘They mostly kept to themselves, else they’d have been in trouble. Same for Inez. She was in charge of all the cleaning, laundry, and cooking. Rune’s daughter, Annelie, also helped out a lot. But as I said, we weren’t allowed to interact with them, and there may have been a reason for that. Lots of the boys were real jerks, pampered and spoiled all their lives. I assume that’s why they ended up at that school. Their parents finally realized that they’d raised lazy, useless individuals, so they tried to rectify the situation by sending their sons to Rune.’

‘Your own parents weren’t exactly destitute.’

‘They had money,’ said Holm, with emphasis on the word ‘had’. Then he fell silent to show that he had no intention of discussing this subject. Patrik let it go, but he made a note to follow up with a check on Holm’s family background.

‘How is she?’ Holm asked suddenly.

It took a second for Patrik to understand who he meant. ‘Ebba? She seems fine. As I said, she’s fixing up the house.’

Again Holm gazed out at Valö. Patrik wished he could read the man’s thoughts.

‘Well, thank you for your time,’ Patrik said, standing up. Clearly Holm had told them all he was going to for the time being, but that had been enough to make Patrik more curious than ever about what had gone on at the boarding school.

‘Yes, thanks. I realize that you’re a very busy man,’ said Mellberg. ‘And by the way, I wanted to say hello on behalf of the woman I live with. She’s from Chile. Emigrated here in the seventies.’

Patrik tugged at Mellberg’s arm to get him to leave. With a strained smile, Holm closed the gate after them.

Gösta was planning to slip unnoticed into the station, but he didn’t get far.

‘Did you oversleep? That’s not like you,’ said Annika.

‘The alarm didn’t go off,’ he said, not daring to meet her eye. Annika could see right through lies, and he wasn’t comfortable keeping secrets from her. ‘Where is everybody?’

Not a sound could be heard from the corridor, and Annika seemed to be all alone at the station. Only Ernst emerged from the hall when he heard Gösta’s voice.

‘Patrik and Mellberg went out to have a talk with John Holm, so Ernst and I are holding down the fort. Aren’t we, old fellow?’ she said, scratching the big dog behind the ear. ‘Patrik was wondering where you were. So you’d better practise that story about the alarm clock a little more before he gets back.’

She gave him a long look. ‘Maybe if you tell me what you’ve been up to, I can help so you won’t get caught.’

‘I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about,’ said Gösta, but he knew he was defeated. ‘Well, okay, but first I need a cup of coffee.’

He headed for the kitchen, and Annika followed.

‘All right, tell me,’ said Annika once they were both sitting down.

Reluctantly Gösta told her about his agreement with Erica. Annika laughed.

‘You’ve certainly got yourself into a mess this time. You know what Erica’s like – give her an inch and she’ll take a mile! Patrik is going to be furious when he finds out.’

‘I know,’ said Gösta, squirming. He knew she was right, but at the same time, this was important to him. And he was smart enough to understand why. It was for her sake that he was doing it – the girl that he and Maj-Britt had failed.

Annika had stopped laughing and was studying him with a serious expression.

‘This means a lot to you, doesn’t it?’

‘Yes, it does. And Erica can help. She has a mind like a steel trap. I know that Patrik won’t approve of me getting her mixed up in the case, but it’s her job to dig out facts from the past, and that’s exactly the skill that we need right now.’

Annika didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she took a deep breath.

‘Okay. I won’t tell Patrik. On one condition.’

‘What’s that?’

‘You keep me informed about what the two of you come up with, and I get to help where I can. I’m not bad at digging for facts myself.’

Gösta looked at her in surprise. This was not at all what he’d expected.

‘Agreed. But as you said, there’ll be hell to pay if Patrik finds out.’

‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. So how far have you got? What can I do?’

Relieved, Gösta told her about his conversation with Erica that morning.

‘We need contact details for all of the pupils and teachers at the school. I’ve got an old list, but by now a lot of it is out of date. We can use it as a starting point though. And some of the individuals had unusual surnames, so it’s possible somebody at their old address will know where to find them.’

Annika raised her eyebrows.

‘You mean you don’t have their state identity numbers?’

He stared at her, feeling like a complete idiot for not having thought of it himself.

‘Am I to understand from your expression that you do have their ID numbers? All right then. I can have an updated list ready for you by this afternoon, or tomorrow morning at the latest. Is that soon enough?’

She smiled, and Gösta said, ‘That would be great. For my part, I was thinking of going with Patrik to have a talk with Leon Kreutz.’

‘Why start with him?’

‘No particular reason, but he was one of the boys I remember best. I had the impression that he was the leader of the group. Besides, I’ve heard that he and his wife just bought that big house up on the hill. In Fjällbacka, you know.’

‘The white mansion? The asking price was ten million kronor!’ said Annika.

The prices of houses with a sea view was a source of constant fascination to the locals, who kept a keen eye on asking prices and what the properties actually sold for. But ten million was enough to make the most blasé observer sit up and take notice.

‘From what I understand, they can afford it.’ Gösta thought of the boy with the dark eyes and handsome face. Even back then he had radiated wealth and something else that Gösta couldn’t define. A sort of innate self-confidence was the closest he could come to describing it.

‘All right, let’s get to work,’ said Annika. She put her coffee cup in the dishwasher and after giving Gösta a look, he followed suit. ‘By the way, I forgot that you had an appointment with the dentist this morning.’

‘A dental appointment? But I didn’t …’ Gösta stopped abruptly and smiled. ‘Oh, right. I told you yesterday that I had to go to the dentist. See: no cavities.’ He pointed to his mouth and winked.

‘Don’t complicate a good lie by adding too many details,’ said Annika, wagging her finger reproachfully before heading for her computer.

They had nearly been thrown off the train. The conductor took the bottle away from her and shouted that she was too drunk to travel. Of course she wasn’t. She just needed a little pick-me-up now and then to be able to go on with life, which anyone should be able to understand. She was constantly forced to beg for money and perform the most degrading tasks that were tossed her way, out of charity and ‘for the girl’s sake’, and usually she ended up having to put up with those panting, hypocritical whoremongers paying visits to her room.

It was for the girl’s sake that the conductor had taken pity on her and allowed them to stay on the train all the way to Stockholm. And that was lucky, because if he’d thrown them off halfway there, Dagmar had no idea how they would have made it back home. It had taken her two months to save up for a one-way ticket to Stockholm, and now she hadn’t so much as an öre to her name. But that didn’t matter, because once they got there and had a chance to talk to Hermann, they would never need to worry about money again. He would take care of them. When they met and he realized what she’d been through, he would immediately leave that deceitful woman he’d married.

Dagmar stopped at a shop window to study her reflection in the glass. It was true that she’d aged a bit since they last saw each other. Her hair was not as thick, and now that she came to think about it, she hadn’t washed it in a while. Her dress, which she’d stolen from a clothesline before they left, hung like a sack on her thin frame. Whenever she had money she chose booze over food, but that wouldn’t happen any more. Soon she would look as she once had. Hermann would feel such tenderness for her when he heard how hard her life had been after he left her.

She took Laura’s hand and started walking again. The girl resisted so much that Dagmar had to drag her along.

‘Get moving!’ she snarled. Why did the child always have to be so slow?

They had to keep stopping to ask the way, but eventually they found the right door. Tracing his address had turned out to be easy, because it was listed in the phone book: Odengatan 23. The building was as big and impressive as she had imagined. She tugged on the handle, but the door was locked. As she stood frowning, a gentleman came towards them, took out a key, and unlocked the door.

‘Who did you want to see?’

She pulled herself up and announced proudly, ‘The Görings.’

‘Ah, well, I can see why you might need some help,’ he said and let them into the building.

For a moment Dagmar wondered what he meant by that, but then she reminded herself that it didn’t matter. They were here now. She studied the names listed on the board in the lobby, took note of which floor the Görings lived on, and began dragging Laura up the stairs. With a trembling hand Dagmar rang the bell. Soon they would be together again. She and Hermann. And Laura. His daughter.

Hard to believe it was so easy, thought Anna as she stood at the tiller of the boat that she and Dan owned. When she’d phoned Tobias, he had suggested that she come out to Valö as soon as she had time, and ever since she’d thought of nothing else. The whole family had noticed how her mood had changed for the better, and last night the house had been filled with an air of hope.

But in reality it wasn’t that easy. This was her first step towards a new independence. All her life she’d been dependent on others. When she was little, Erica had been the one that she leaned on. After that she was dependent on Lucas, which had led to the disaster that she and the children still carried with them. And then Dan. Warm, safe Dan, who had taken both her and her wounded children under his wing. It had felt so wonderful to be allowed once again to be like a child and trust that someone else would take care of everything.

But the accident had taught her that not even Dan could handle everything. To be honest, that was probably what had affected her most. The loss of their baby had been an unfathomable sorrow, but her feeling of loneliness and vulnerability had almost been worse.

If she and Dan were going to continue to live together, she needed to learn to stand on her own two feet. Despite the fact she was a late developer in this regard, deep down she knew that she had the necessary strength. Landing this interior design commission would mark a new beginning for her. It remained to be seen whether she had the necessary talent; the first hurdle would be to promote herself well enough to land the job.

With a pounding heart she knocked on the front door. She heard footsteps approaching, and the door opened. A man of about her own age stood there, dressed like a carpenter, with protective glasses pushed up on his forehead. His friendly face took on an enquiring expression, but for a moment Anna could only stand there, lost for words.

‘Hi,’ she said at last. ‘I’m Anna. We spoke on the phone yesterday.’

‘Anna! Of course! Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude. I get so involved in the work that I forget about everything else. Please come in. Welcome to our chaos.’

He moved aside to allow her to enter. He wasn’t wrong about the chaos within, but Anna could immediately see the potential. She’d always been gifted that way; it was as if she had a pair of magic glasses that allowed her to foresee the finished result.

Tobias followed her gaze. ‘As you can tell, we’ve got some work ahead of us.’

She was about to reply when a thin, blonde woman came down the stairs. ‘Hi. I’m Ebba,’ she said, wiping her fingers on a rag. Splotches of white paint covered her hands and her clothes, and she had tiny specks of paint on her face and hair. The strong smell of turpentine brought tears to Anna’s eyes.

‘Sorry, I’m in a terrible mess,’ Ebba added, holding up her hands. ‘We’d better skip the handshake.’

‘Don’t worry. I know you’re in the middle of renovating. I’m more concerned about … well, about everything else you’re having to deal with right now.’

‘So Erica told you what happened?’ asked Ebba, although it was more of a statement than a question.