The Find, page 27
She turned around and looked at the space where the other ambulance had stood. Isa and Alexander Nordin... somehow, she wasn’t surprised. There had always been a tension between them, a chemistry she had rarely witnessed between two people.
She walked to one of the cars, parked closest to the gate, and asked to take her back to the station. She called Magnus Wieland and told him about the arrest of Mats Norman. Afterward, she called Ingrid. Isa would need all the support she could get from her best friend.
***
The ride to the hospital was only fifteen minutes, but it seemed like they had been driving for hours. Isa, sitting next to the gurney, looked at Alex. The medics had stripped off the coat and shirt to expose the gunshot wound. Wires were attached to his chest, monitoring his vital signs, and the medic was taking his blood pressure.
“He is not stable,” the paramedic said, who had noticed her looking at the monitor. The heartbeat was irregular, and the blood pressure was jumping up and down.
She said nothing. It was like her brain had shut down, and she was only an observer. They had said goodbye that morning. He was so happy... for the first time. She had to believe that it was because of her. It was the first time in a long time that life had not been so complicated. Now, there was no telling how it would all end. She took his hand, hoping that he would notice it, hoping that he would fight to keep alive. Their time together had been so brief, she hadn’t told him he was important to her. She wanted to say it out loud, but at that moment, the monitor beeps changed into a nauseating flatline sound, alerting the EMTs. As they started CPR, she let go of his hand. The only thing she could hear was the continuous sound of the heart monitor, while they frantically tried to revive him.
The ambulance arrived almost ten minutes later at the hospital. By then, they were still trying to get his heart started.
“Stop,” Isa said quietly, but they didn’t hear it.
“Stop,” she repeated, “stop... he is gone.”
They were almost out of breath by the intense attempts to save the life of the man lying on the gurney. The young paramedic who had been busy with handling the defibrillator stopped and stared at her, disappointed and defeated.
“Let him go... it’s okay,” Isa said and put her hand on his arm in a way to comfort him.
Alex was dead. She got up and kissed his forehead. So many wires and tubes were hanging around him, but he looked peaceful and so beautiful.
“I am so sorry,” she whispered and kissed him again.
Her breathing was superficial, and she started to sweat. Where was this coming from? The breathing became difficult, very difficult. A few more seconds and she would faint. The cold air flushed in as she opened the door. Outside doctors and nurses were standing around the ambulance. They would take him away from her. Forever. She couldn’t move. She didn’t want to move, as they removed the stretcher from the ambulance. It was as if he were asleep, so peaceful. She did not see the blood and the gunshot wound anymore. She wanted to crawl next to him and tell him that everything would be all right. Hold him, kiss him. But he was no longer there. Death. It was so final.
Ingrid was standing close to the entrance of the ER, and when she saw her friend sitting in the ambulance, she approached.
“Isa, what...,” she asked.
“He is dead,” Isa said and to her surprise, she heard how her voice was trembling and how suddenly nothing else came out besides those three words.
Shocked by her friend’s announcement, Ingrid said: “Isa, I am sorry... so sorry. Is there anything I can do? Isa?”
She cramped on to one of the metal bars in the ambulance. She could no longer stop the flood of emotions and thoughts.
“The book, where is the book?”
Frantically Isa looked around and moved things as if she were searching for something.
“What book? What are you talking about?”
She hadn’t heard her friend and as in a flurry of panic, she kept on moving about in the ambulance while shouting: “His book... the book he gave me. Where is the book?”
Outside the paramedics were waiting to claim their vehicle, but Ingrid signaled them to be patient.
“Is, stop,” Ingrid yelled and touched her friend’s arm.
She turned around, the face all red and covered with tears. Never in her life, she had experienced such a dramatic downfall.
“Let’s get out of the ambulance,” Ingrid said and offered her hand, which she took. The crowd around the car had grown to about ten people who had witnessed her breakdown. They looked at her with pity. In other circumstances, she would have been embarrassed, and she would have told them to back off and leave her alone, but now she didn’t have the courage to pay any attention to them.
“Isa, let me help you.”
“Ingrid, can you take care of him please?” Isa said, in between the moments of silence where she tried not to fall back in a flood of panic and painful thoughts. Ingrid had never seen her friend so distraught. She didn’t know what to say.
“Of course. But you know we have to do an autopsy in this case.”
Still struggling to find the words, Isa nodded yes.
“Thank you... I need to go to the police station,” Isa breathed.
“No, Isa, you are in shock. You are in no condition to go anywhere. Let me call Magnus.”
“No, no, I don’t want to talk to him. He...”
And then she noticed the big red stain on the white blouse she was wearing. It was Alex’s blood. She had Alex’s blood on her. She kept staring at it.
“Isa, you need to go home. I am sorry to say it but when Anders finds out you had a relationship with Alexander Nordin, he will suspend you.”
“That is why I need to be there,” she was determined and closed her jacket so she could no longer see the bloodstain. It was like he was still with her that way.
She needed to concentrate on the job. It would be fine. She would be fine.
“I’ll call Magnus,“ Isa said, ”but I need him to drive me to the station.”
“Okay, if that is what you want. I still don’t think it is a good idea.”
Isa took out her phone and called Magnus, who was on his way back from Sandviken. Ingrid, knowing she could not change Isa’s mind, went back inside.
It took Magnus thirty minutes to pick her up at the hospital and drive her to the police station.
Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea. She wanted to see Alex. Maybe he wasn’t dead. Maybe they had made a mistake. She stood in front of the entrance, about to go in and then she refrained. No, he was dead and seeing him like that would make it all worse.
***
“They brought him to P2. I told Anders we will join as soon as we’ll arrive. I heard there was one dead and one person wounded,” Magnus said as he drove off with Isa next to him.
“Two... two people were killed,” she said.
Looking straight ahead at the road, his mind only occupied with the investigation, he hadn’t noticed how quiet she was.
“Oh, I must have been misinformed. Who?”
“Annette Norman...,” she said, “and Alex.”
His head suddenly turned toward her. She looked pale and tired, and she was, almost frantically, holding the two ends of her jacket closed over her chest.
“Isa... I didn’t...”
“Say nothing. I just want to concentrate on the investigation.”
She looked outside. She couldn’t and wouldn’t work up the courage and effort to keep the conversation going. The speed of the car, the sight of the trees, houses, and cars as they drove past them, was soothing, but it was not enough to distract her. Angry, in despair and confused. So many emotions. Too many of them. She went over the events in her head. If she had only listened to his message earlier, she could have saved him. Why had he gone there? She could only guess he wanted to have answers, answers to questions he had been struggling with. It all made little sense. How could she have misjudged Mats’ intentions? She wanted to look him straight in the eyes and ask him why he had killed his son. Was it a mistake or was it a calculated murder?
CHAPTER
23
W
HEN MAGNUS PARKED THE CAR at the Uppsala police station, they hadn’t spoken a word during the entire trip. He had never seen her so defeated. She was running on emotional autopilot, oblivious about the world around her, and dulling every sense and glimpse of the pain that would soon overtake her.
Building P2 at the opposite side of the road was old and grizzled. The renovation of the police station, over five years ago, hadn’t been extended to this part of the complex. But this was the place where they brought the high-profile criminals for questioning, mostly to keep them away from any press or public attention.
The murders had been the subject of much debate and criticism over the last months. The public opinion had been harsh for the inspectors, accusing them of incompetence and laxity. Superintendent Anders had always defended his team, but it had come at a price. The constant pressure had affected his social life and health. When he met his chief inspectors in the hallway of building P2, he was a relieved man. Proud that they had finally solved the case.
“We have been waiting for you,” he said and looked at Magnus and Isa.
“I’ll do the interview, Isa can observe from behind the one-way glass,” Magnus blurted and turned to her.
She said nothing. It was his way of protecting her, and at all cost, he wanted to avoid that Mats Norman would use her indiscretion to go for the nullification of his indictment.
“Are you sure?” Anders asked.
“I can handle it. I think Isa can do with some rest after the intervention. Where is Nina?’
“We can handle it,” a deep voice said.
Inspector Finn Heimersson joined them in the hallway. He was an impressive figure, almost two meters in height, towering above the Gävle police officers. Middle-aged, but physically in top shape, with clever eyes and a somewhat mischievous smile hanging around his mouth.
“But this is still our case,” Magnus stammered.
“And you’re on my turf now. Don’t forget my team’s valuable contribution in solving this case. Without them...”
“Look, let’s argue about who’s taking credit for what later. Right now, there is a serial murderer in that room, and we need to get him talking. As fast as possible.”
Finn, roughly interrupted by Magnus, kept on staring at him for a while, before the sternness turned into a faint smirk. Why were these small-town inspectors always so aggressive, so arrogant? As if they had to prove something all the time.
“Okay then. Give it your best shot!”
Nina, standing outside the interrogation room, had been waiting for her superiors. When Magnus finally joined her, she was unaware of the quarrel with inspector Heimersson.
“I will do the interview with you,” Magnus told her.
“How is she?” she whispered and pointed at Isa.
“She’ll be fine, but you know she cannot be leading this interview,” he said softly, “I won’t risk compromising the investigation.”
“I know. Mr. Norman is inside. Forensics have screened him. They have taken his clothes for examination. But he refuses a lawyer.”
“Okay, let’s go in,” Magnus said and before he entered the room, he quickly glanced at his partner, who looked so fragile and beaten, far from the strong, passionate and ambitious woman she was. Why did it affect her so much? Would she have reacted differently if it had been him lying in the morgue? He couldn’t help her. He could only be there for her and hope it was enough.
The man sitting at the table in the room looked as beaten as Isa, and so much older than Magnus remembered from the visit a few months earlier, when the flamboyant and lively professor had talked about his family and the summers at Sandviken.
“Mr. Norman, before starting the interview, let me remind you that you are entitled to be represented by a lawyer,” Magnus started the conversation while Nina switched on the recorder.
“Are you sure you want to continue the interview without your lawyer present?”
“Yes.”
“Right. Professor Norman, you are charged with the abduction and murder of Clara Persson, Anna Falk, Ida Nilsson, Anna Berg, Katrien Jans, Lise Ekström, Ella Nyman, Elin Dahlberg, and Stina Jonasson. The abduction of Sara Norberg and the murders of Josip Radić, Annette Norman-Peterson, and Alexander Nordin. How do you plead?”
The old man kept staring at his hands, cuffed and resting on the table. The oversized plastic overall partially covered his wrists. He had listened almost emotionless to the accusations.
“You forgot a few,” he said calmly.
“What? Do you mean there are more?”
Watching behind the glass wall, Isa touched the pocket of her jacket. The black booklet Alex had given her in the morning was still there.
“Four more bodies...,” she whispered and took out the booklet, being closely watched by Anders.
“Inspector Lindström, what is this?” he asked and pointed at the object she was holding in her hand.
She sighed. It was time to tell him about Alex.
“Alex Nordin gave me the book.”
“Alex Nordin? Why? What is it about?”
“This is Peter Nordin’s diary. It contains dates and places. Several of them correspond to the dates when girls went missing. Six, but there are seven more entries which I believe are significant. Seven more, in total thirteen.”
“Thirteen...,” Anders repeated and turned his head toward the glass.
“Professor Norman, are there more?” Magnus asked again.
“Yes, but it is all irrelevant,” Mats answered and stared at him.
His attitude had changed. Instead of the defeated and insecure look he had displayed at the beginning of the interview he had adopted a more controlled and superior poise. It was the glance of a predator, not the demeanor of an esteemed professor who had been admired by so many.
“Who are the girls and where are they buried?”
“I buried them in the area behind the cabin, close to the bunker... but it doesn’t matter.”
“Mr. Norman, who were the girls?”
“It is irrelevant,” Mats shouted, and in his rage, he jumped up, alerting the policeman near the door who ran toward the table.
Magnus stopped him and gestured the officer to go back.
“Why,” Magnus said, while Mats calmed down and sat down again.
“Only one matters... my Clara,” he sighed, and his posture changed again from arrogant to sad.
The emotions, taking him to highs and lows, were hard to control. He realized he had lost his temper. They had finally seen a glimpse of his other side. A side that was irascible and violent.
“Your Clara? Clara Persson?”
“Inspector, have you ever loved someone to the extent that it entirely consumed you, that you could only breathe them, that the longing is so... so maddening that you lose yourself completely?”
Isa, behind the glass, had been observing the whole scene. But the memory of a grand love was too much to bear and she left the room, with Anders going after her.
“Inspector Lindström, what is going on?”
She wanted to tell him; she tried to find the words, but no sound came out.
“Oh, I see... how long has this been going on,” he said.
More than disappointment his entire attitude radiated compassion.
“Not long..., but long enough,” she stammered.
“I understand now why Magnus didn’t want you in that room. It can jeopardize everything. Isa, I really hope this doesn’t come out. It can damage both our careers. You’re lucky that Finn Heimersson is not here to witness this.”
“But I need to be in that room. This is my case. I need to end it,” she pleaded.
“You are too emotional and if he suspects any conflict of interest from your side, the case is done. He can go for a mistrial and everything will be lost. You’d better go home and take time to grieve. Go home, right now!”
There was no point in arguing. But she couldn’t go home. She was afraid to be alone, with her thoughts about Alex, with the what-ifs, the things she thought she could have done differently, things that could have saved him.
Anders went back inside and left her in the hallway. Five minutes later, inspector Heimersson joined him.
***
“What happened to Clara?” Magnus asked. “How did she die?”
“I don’t know... she just died. I guess I killed her.”
“You guess you killed her? Can you explain that?”
“Okay, I killed her,” he sighed, “yes, I killed her because she told me to.”
“She? Who is she?”
Slowly Mats lifted his finger and pointed to his head: “She is there all the time... in my head. She doesn’t like the girls... she doesn’t like Alexander. There is nothing I can do.”
“Are you telling me you are hearing things? That you need to obey the voice in your head?”
Mats said nothing but just stared at the inspectors.
“Stop the interview, we will take a break,” Magnus yelled and rushed outside the room.
He was angry and disappointed.
“Seriously?! He is hearing voices. Do we really believe that? He is not getting away with this.”
Anders and Finn met him in the hallway.
“Inspector Wieland, calm down! We’ll request a psychiatric evaluation.”
Inspector Heimersson’s deep voice echoed through the almost empty hallway.
“We need to go back in,” Nina suggested.
Magnus ignored her and paced around.
“He will give us no information,” he shouted.
“Magnus, go back and find out what happened to those girls. There are four more out there. They are still being missed by their father and mother. We need to find them.”
“You need to talk to Marian Bergqvist and Michael Norman,” Isa interrupted the conversation.
