The Ice Child Read online

  ‘You’re not the only one who could hang up that painting and fix other things. I know how to use a hammer too. But we’ve had other priorities, such as taking care of our work, and spending time with the kids and each other. What does it matter if that painting is still sitting on the floor?’ She sat down on his lap and put her arms around him. He closed his eyes and breathed in her scent; he never grew tired of it. Of course daily life had taken its toll on the passionate desire they’d felt in the beginning, but in his opinion it had been replaced by something even better. A calm and steady but enduring love. And there were still times when he felt as aroused by his wife as when they’d first met. Just not as often as in the past, which was probably nature’s way of making sure that human beings got things done instead of spending all their days in bed.

  ‘I had some plans for yesterday,’ said Erica, nibbling on his lip. Even though Patrik was dead tired after working so hard the past few days and then tossing and turning last night, he could feel his body responding.

  ‘Hmm … I did too,’ he replied.

  ‘What are you doing?’ said a voice from the doorway, and they both jumped self-consciously. With young children in the house, it was almost impossible to kiss and make out in peace.

  ‘We were just kissing a little,’ said Erica, getting up.

  ‘Blech. That’s disgusting,’ said Maja, and then she ran back to the living room.

  Erica poured herself a cup of coffee. ‘She won’t be saying that ten years from now.’

  ‘I don’t even want to think about that.’ Patrik shuddered. If it had been within his power, he would have stopped time so Maja never became a teenager.

  ‘What are the police going to do now?’ asked Erica, leaning against the worktop. Patrik drank some more of his coffee before answering. The caffeine was having only a marginal impact on the fatigue he felt.

  ‘I just talked to Terese, and Lasse still hasn’t turned up. She was out driving around and looking for him half the night. Now we need to help her.’

  ‘Any theory about what might have happened to him?’

  ‘No, not really. But Terese said Lasse has been acting strangely over the past few months. There’s been something different about him, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.’

  ‘So she doesn’t have a clue? Most people can sense if their spouse is up to something. Maybe a mistress? Or a gambling habit?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, but we’ll be talking to some of his friends today. I’ve also asked Malte at the bank to print out an account statement so we can see if Lasse has made any withdrawals lately, or purchased anything that might explain where he’s gone. Malte was going to run over to the bank, so he should have the information for us soon.’ Patrik glanced at his watch. It was almost nine, and the morning light was finally appearing on the horizon. He hated winter with its eternal nights.

  ‘That’s one of the advantages of living in a small town. The bank manager can just “run over” and take care of things.’

  ‘I know. It makes our job a lot easier. And I hope it will give us a lead. According to Terese, Lasse is the one who handles the family’s finances.’

  ‘I suppose you’ll also check to see if he has paid for something with a credit card or made a withdrawal from a cashpoint machine, right? Maybe he was just fed up and decided to leave. Caught the next plane to Ibiza, or some place like that. You should check with the airlines. It wouldn’t be the first time that an unemployed father of young kids fled the daily drudgery.’

  ‘I’ve had the same thought myself, even though I’m not unemployed,’ said Patrik with a grin. He was rewarded with a light swat on the shoulder.

  ‘Don’t you dare! Don’t even think about going off to Magaluf and drinking shots with some sweet young thing.’

  ‘I’d probably fall asleep after one drink. And then I’d phone her parents to tell them to come and get their daughter.’

  Erica laughed. ‘You have a point there. But you should still check with the airlines. You never know. Not everyone is as tired and ethical as you are.’

  ‘I’ve already asked Gösta to do that. And Malte is going to look at credit card charges and cashpoint withdrawals too. Plus we’re going to check on Lasse’s mobile usage as soon as we can. So I’ve got the situation under control. Thanks.’ He gave her a wink. ‘What are your plans for today?’

  ‘Kristina and Gunnar are coming over later this afternoon. And if you don’t mind, I was thinking of asking them to babysit for a while so I could get some work done. I feel like I need to keep going right now or I’ll never understand why Laila is so interested in those missing girls. If I find a connection, maybe she’ll open up about what happened that day when Vladek was murdered. I’ve always had a feeling she wanted to tell me something, but she just hasn’t known how to do it. Or hasn’t dared.’

  The morning light was now coming through the windows and flooding the whole kitchen. It made Erica’s blond hair shine, and Patrik realized again how much he loved his wife. Especially at moments like this when she was beaming with enthusiasm and passion for her work.

  ‘By the way, the fact that the family car is missing might mean that Lasse has left the area,’ said Erica, abruptly changing the subject.

  ‘That may be true. Terese went out looking for him, but there are lots of places he could have left the car. On a trail in the woods, for example. Or if he parked it in a garage somewhere, it will be hard to find. I’m hoping we’ll get some help from the public. That might make it easier to locate the car, if it’s still here.’

  ‘What kind of car is it?’

  Patrik downed the last of his coffee and stood up. ‘A red Volvo estate car.’

  ‘You mean like that one out there?’ said Erica, pointing towards the big car park down by the water near their house.

  Patrik turned to look where she was pointing. His mouth fell open. There it was. Lasse’s car.

  Gösta ended the call. Malte had phoned to say that he was faxing over the bank documents, so Gösta got up to fetch them. He still thought it was amazing that someone could put a piece of paper in a machine and only minutes later what seemed to be the same paper magically appeared in another machine someplace else.

  He yawned. It would have been nice to sleep later or even to have a free Sunday, but that wasn’t going to happen, not the way things were going right now. He watched the papers slowly spill out of the fax machine. When all of them seemed to have arrived, he gathered them up and went into the kitchen. It was a more pleasant place to read than in his office.

  ‘Would you like some help?’ asked Annika, who was already sitting at the table.

  ‘Sure. That would be great.’ He divided the papers into two piles and gave one to her.

  ‘What did Malte say about any credit card charges?’

  ‘He said Lasse hasn’t used the card since the day before yesterday, and there haven’t been any cashpoint withdrawals either.’

  ‘Okay. I sent a query to the airlines. But it seems so unlikely that he’d go abroad without paying for the ticket with a credit card, unless he decided to use cash.’

  Gösta began leafing through the documents he’d placed on the table. ‘Well, we can take a look at his bank account, to see if he made any large cash withdrawals recently.’

  ‘It seems unlikely they’d have enough in their account for any big withdrawals,’ said Annika.

  ‘I know. Lasse is unemployed, and I can’t imagine that Terese makes much. It’s my guess that money’s tight in that household. But wait a minute …’ he said in surprise as he studied the figures on the statement in front of him.

  ‘What is it?’ Annika leaned forward to see what Gösta was looking at. He turned the page around and pointed at the amount at the bottom.

  ‘My word!’ she said in amazement.

  ‘They’ve got fifty thousand Swedish kronor in their account. How the hell could they have so much money?’ He quickly scanned the rest of the bank statement. ‘There
are a lot of deposits. And it looks like they were cash deposits. Five thousand at a time, once a month.’

  ‘Lasse must have been the one who made the deposits, since he handles the family’s finances.’

  ‘That seems right. But we’ll have to ask Terese.’

  ‘Where do you think he got the money? Gambling?’

  Gösta drummed his fingers on the table. ‘I’ve never heard any gossip about him gambling, so I don’t think so. We can check his computer, in case he’s been gambling online. But if he was, there should have been deposits from the gaming company. Maybe these were payments for some sort of shady jobs he did, and he didn’t want Terese to know.’

  ‘Doesn’t that sound a bit far-fetched?’ Annika frowned.

  ‘Not really, given the fact that he’s now disappeared. Plus Terese said that he seems to have been hiding something from her over the past few months.’

  ‘Well, it’s not going to be easy to find out what those jobs were. We can’t trace where the cash came from.’

  ‘No, we can’t. Unless we turn up a possible employer. Then we can inspect that person’s bank account to see whether comparable sums were withdrawn.’

  Gösta carefully examined each bank transaction again, with his reading glasses perched on the tip of his nose. He didn’t find anything else suspicious. Aside from the cash deposits, it looked as if the family had been having a hard time making ends meet, and he noted that they seemed to have a lot of expenses.

  ‘It’s worrisome that there’s so much money in the account, and yet he disappeared without taking any of it,’ said Annika.

  ‘That’s what I was thinking too. It doesn’t bode well.’

  Gösta’s mobile rang, and he grabbed it from the table. He saw on the display that the call was from Patrik.

  ‘Hi. What? Where? Okay, we’ll be right there.’

  He ended the conversation and got up as he put his mobile in his pocket.

  ‘Lasse’s car is parked at Sälvik. And they’ve found blood at the bathing beach.’

  Annika nodded. She didn’t seem surprised.

  Tyra stood in the kitchen doorway and looked at her mother. Her heart ached to see Terese’s anxious expression. She’d been sitting there at the kitchen table as if paralysed ever since returning from her nighttime search.

  ‘Mamma,’ said Tyra, but there was no response. ‘Mamma?’

  Terese glanced up. ‘What is it, sweetheart?’

  Tyra went over and sat down at the table, taking her mother’s hand. Her skin felt cold.

  ‘Are the boys okay?’ asked Terese.

  ‘They’re fine. They’re playing at Arvid’s house. But, Mamma …’

  ‘Sorry. What did you want to tell me?’ Terese rubbed her face. It looked as if she could hardly keep her eyes open.

  ‘There’s something I want to show you. Come with me.’

  ‘All right.’ Terese got up and followed Tyra into the living room.

  ‘I found this a while ago, but I didn’t know whether … I didn’t know if I should say anything.’

  ‘What is it?’ Terese looked at her daughter. ‘Is it something to do with Lasse? If so, you need to tell me this instant.’

  Tyra reluctantly nodded.

  ‘Lasse has two Bibles, but he reads only one of them. I wondered why, because the second one is right here. So I looked inside.’ She took the Bible from the shelf and opened it. ‘Look.’

  Someone had carved a hole in the pages to make a hiding place.

  ‘What on earth …?’ said Terese.

  ‘I discovered it a few months ago, and I’ve looked inside off and on. Sometimes there was money, and always the same amount. Five thousand kronor.’

  ‘But I don’t understand. Where would Lasse get that kind of money? And why would he hide it?’

  Tyra shook her head. She could feel a knot forming in her stomach.

  ‘I don’t know, but I should have told you about it. What if something has happened to him because of the money? Then it will be all my fault, because if I’d told you before, maybe …’ She couldn’t hold back her tears.

  Terese put her arms around her daughter.

  ‘This is not your fault, and I can understand why you didn’t tell me. I’ve had a feeling that Lasse was hiding something, so this must be it. Nobody could have predicted that anything would happen, and we don’t know yet that it has. Maybe he fell off the wagon and got drunk, and he’s passed out somewhere. I’m sure the police will find him soon.’

  ‘I can tell you don’t believe that,’ sobbed Tyra against her mother’s shoulder.

  ‘Hush now. We don’t know anything, and it would be foolish to try and guess what happened. I’ll phone the police and tell them about the money. Maybe that will be of some help to them. And no one is going to blame you. You were just being loyal to Lasse because you didn’t want to make trouble for him. And I think that was a nice thing for you to do. Okay?’

  Terese stepped back and pressed the palms of her hands against Tyra’s flushed cheeks, kissed her daughter on the forehead and then went off to ring the police. Tyra stayed where she was for a few moments, wiping away her tears. She was just about to join her mother in the kitchen when she heard her scream.

  Mellberg was standing at the end of the dock, staring down at the hole in the ice.

  ‘So, it looks like we’ve found him.’

  ‘We can’t be sure yet,’ Patrik insisted. He was standing a short distance away, waiting for the crime scene technicians to arrive. But he’d been unable to hold Mellberg back.

  ‘Lasse’s car is parked over there. And you can see the blood here. It’s clear as daylight that he was killed and then dumped in the hole in the ice. We won’t see hide nor hair of him again until his body floats up in the spring.’

  Patrik gritted his teeth when he saw Mellberg take a few more steps along the dock. ‘Torbjörn is on his way. It would probably be best if we try not to disturb anything,’ he pleaded.

  ‘No need to tell me that. I know how to deal with a crime scene,’ said Mellberg. ‘You were hardly even born when I handled my first investigation, and you really ought to show a little respect for your elders because—’

  He took a step back. When he noticed that he’d stepped into thin air, his pompous expression changed instantly. With a crash he fell into the hole, taking down with him a huge chunk of ice.

  ‘Bloody hell!’ shouted Patrik, rushing forward.

  He almost panicked when he saw there was no life preserver or any other equipment within reach. Against his better judgement he considered lying down on his stomach on the ice in an attempt to pull Mellberg out. But just as he was about to throw himself on to the ice, Mellberg seized hold of the bathing ladder and hauled himself up.

  ‘Damn, it’s cold!’ Panting hard, he sat down on the snow-covered planks. Patrik gloomily surveyed the havoc all around. Torbjörn would have to work miracles to make any sense of this crime scene after what Mellberg had done to it.

  ‘Come on, Bertil, you need to get someplace warm. I’ll take you over to my house,’ he said, pulling Mellberg to his feet. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Gösta and Martin making their way down to the bathing area. He shoved Mellberg ahead of him.

  ‘What the …?’ Gösta stared in astonishment at his boss, whose hair and clothes were soaking wet. Mellberg huffed and puffed as he hurried past, heading up the steep path towards the car park and Patrik’s house.

  ‘Don’t ask,’ Patrik told his colleagues with a sigh. ‘Just stay here and wait for Torbjörn and his team. And warn them that the crime scene is not in the best of shape. They’ll be lucky to find anything at all.’

  Jonas hesitantly pressed the doorbell. He had never been to Terese’s flat before, and he’d had to look up the address on the Internet.

  ‘Hi, Jonas.’ Tyra peered at him with surprise when she opened the door. Then she stepped aside to let him come in.

  ‘Is your mother home?’

  She nodded and pointed. Jonas
looked around. It was a pleasant and tidy place without anything fussy about it, just the way he’d thought it would look. He went into the kitchen.

  ‘Hi, Terese.’ She too gave him an astonished look. ‘I just wanted to come over and see how you and Tyra are doing. I know it’s been a long time since we last met, but the stable girls told me about Lasse. They said he’s missing.’

  ‘Not any more.’ Terese’s eyes were swollen from crying and she spoke in a monotone, her voice cracking.

  ‘So they found him?’

  ‘No, just the car. But he’s probably dead.’

  ‘What? What are you saying? Do you want me to phone someone to come over here to be with you? A pastor, or a friend?’ He knew that her parents had passed away several years ago, and she had no siblings.

  ‘Thanks, but Tyra is here. The boys are staying with good friends. I haven’t told them anything yet.’

  ‘Okay.’ He seemed at a loss as he stood there in the kitchen. ‘Would you like me to leave? Maybe you’d rather be alone.’

  ‘No, stay.’ Terese nodded towards the coffee machine. ‘There’s coffee. And milk in the fridge. I seem to remember that you take milk in your coffee.’

  Jonas smiled. ‘You’ve got a good memory.’ He poured himself a cup and refilled hers. Then he sat down across from her.

  ‘Do the police know what happened?’

  ‘No. They didn’t want to say much on the phone. Only that they have reason to believe Lasse is dead.’

  ‘Do they usually notify families of a death over the phone?’

  ‘I rang Patrik Hedström about … a different matter. And I could hear from his voice that something had happened, so he felt he had to tell me. But someone from the police department is supposed to come over here in a while.’

  ‘How did Tyra take the news?’

  Terese hesitated before answering.

  ‘She and Lasse were never very close,’ she said. ‘During the years when he was drinking he was always so out of it. When he stopped drinking he found religion. And that often seemed just as alienating.’