Anita phoned Chief Inspector Moberg as soon as she was outside the hospital. It was still warm, and she stood happily in the sunshine away from the shadow of the large, circular building. She gave him a précised account of Danny Foster’s story. After listening, he said that he would put out an all-points alert on Mark McNaught. He said he’d want the whole team in by seven the next morning. He was expecting the ballistics report first thing on whether the bullet used to kill Leif Andersson matched the one that was taken out of Foster’s shoulder. He was confident now that that would be the case. And he wanted Anita to be in charge of looking into the backgrounds of Mark McNaught and Tyrone Cassidy.
After a pause: ‘Well done, Anita.’ That was high, if unexpected, praise indeed.
‘By the way, it might be an idea to put a couple of constables on Danny Foster’s door tonight. McNaught doesn’t seem fazed about where he attacks. Hyllie was very public.’
‘Do you really think he’ll try again? He must be aware that we’re looking for him.’
‘Danny thinks he’ll stop at nothing.’
‘Very well.’ Moberg sounded doubtful. ‘But it’ll take time to drum up an extra officer on a summer Sunday. Half the polishus are still on holiday.’
‘Lucky them!’ She should have been sitting in a Lakeland pub with Kevin at this very moment. ‘I’ll tell you what. I’ve got a couple of things on today, but I’ll call back later to make sure there are two officers on the door. If not, I’ll hang around until someone turns up. I’d feel better.’
‘That’s up to you, Anita.’
Anita squinted at the sun. ‘It might be useful, too. I’ll see if Danny knows where Cassidy is based, or anything else about McNaught. It might narrow the field.’
The gathering was in full swing. They were in the communal garden of Lasse and Jazmin’s apartment block. The quadrilateral area was surrounded by the backs of other blocks of differing heights and colours, each with their own outside space. Lasse and Jazmin’s was the most sizeable and had its own permanent brick barbecue in the corner. Lasse was doing the cooking, Jazmin was putting salads out on a table and Björn was dispensing the drinks in a strange assortment of glasses. Hakim and Liv were playing with Leyla. She was finding the grass more difficult to totter on and kept collapsing on her bottom. But she was a determined little thing, and would be up again in no time.
Anita hugged each of them in turn before scooping Leyla up, babbling baby talk at her. Leyla wrinkled up her nose in that now familiar grin. Anita took her round the garden as the others chatted away. She felt a sudden surge of happiness. Apart from Björn, these were the most important people in her life right now. There was Kevin, of course, and she wished he could be here too. But he wasn’t family.
She returned to the throng and released Leyla, who was now impatient to be back on the ground. Anita noticed a couple of bottles of champagne on the table. ‘That’s generous of you, Björn.’
He had a large tumbler in his hand, full of white wine. ‘Not mine. Hakim brought it.’
Anita turned to Hakim with a puzzled expression. ‘Champagne, Hakim? But you don’t drink.’
‘No,’ he smiled, and he shared a conspiratorial wink with Liv, who was wearing a pretty blue summer dress with large white spots. ‘Can you open it please, Björn?’
‘I never need to be asked twice.’
A couple of minutes later, everybody except Hakim had a tumbler of frothing champagne. Hakim’s contained Coke. He took centre stage.
‘I’d like to make an announcement.’ Liv blushed joyfully. ‘The beautiful Liv Fogelström, the best constable in the Skåne County Police Force, so arrested my attention...’ he waited for appropriate groans. ‘...that I decided to ask her to be handcuffed to me for the rest of her life. And she said “yes”, as long as she got time off occasionally for good behaviour.’
Jazmin gave a delighted scream and rushed over and hugged Liv, nearly knocking her champagne out of her hand. Then everybody raised their glasses and toasted the couple. Anita knew that Hakim must have spent ages working on his mini-speech – it wasn’t typical Hakim humour. But she was so pleased for him; for them both, though she couldn’t help but harbour worries for Liv. It was noticeable that Uday and Amira were not there. She suspected that their reaction to the news would not be quite as enthusiastic.
‘Where’s the ring?’ asked Jazmin.
Liv held up her ring finger, round which was wrapped a blue rubber band. ‘He didn’t buy one in case I said “no”.’
‘He always was mean.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll make him pay. We’re going out to choose one this coming week.’
The general congratulations were interrupted by Björn saying: ‘I think something’s burning.’
‘Oh, shit!’ shouted Lasse, who had deserted his cooking station to join in the toast.
Later on, Anita managed to catch Liv on her own. ‘So, you’ve taken the plunge.’
Liv’s rounded cheeks were flushed with girlish excitement. ‘I know it’s not going to be plain sailing. We’ll have to tell Hakim’s parents soon. But not today. We’re enjoying our moment.’
‘Good for you. You take care of Hakim.’
‘Oh, I will. I know how much he respects you. And I can see that you’re fond of him. I’ll make him a good wife.’
‘Just don’t let him get away with anything. Remember, he’s been pampered by his mamma for years.’
Liv pulled a serious face. ‘No. He’ll have to pull his weight or he’s out!’
‘Out of what?’ asked Hakim, who had come over with a plate of food for Liv.
‘Women’s talk,’ replied Anita. Liv giggled.
‘Are you not having any more to drink?’ Hakim asked Anita.
‘No. I’ve got to see someone this afternoon. I’ll need my wits about me. By the way, you’d better have an early night. Moberg wants us in at seven tomorrow.’
‘Seven?’
‘There have been developments with Danny Foster. I’ll tell you tomorrow. This is your special day.’
Anita reluctantly left an hour later, but she had an appointment to keep. She said farewell to all, leaving Björn till last: ‘Don’t get too drunk.’
‘Or I might try and...’
‘Don’t even think about it. That’s never going to happen. Oh, by the way, you’ve haven’t by any chance been onto your contact at Lund about Ivar Hagblom’s dissertation, have you?’
Björn smacked his forehead. ‘Went clean out of my head. I’ll follow it up. I promise.’
Nothing new then. Björn was still letting her down.
Ex-Prosecutor Renmarker’s most distinguishing feature was his teeth. He seemed to have too many for his mouth, giving him a permanently pained smile which Anita found as disconcerting now as she had twenty-one years before. Of course he was older now, and his hair was a pleasing silvery grey. He was immaculately dressed in a crisp casual shirt and trousers. He was courteous to a fault, but his eyes were as sharp as ever. He was a man who missed nothing. He was now retired, and Anita had tracked him down to his modest home in the countryside outside Lund.
The afternoon was pleasantly warm, and Renmarker suggested they sit in his garden. As Anita waited for him to produce a cup of coffee, she watched a dog (some kind of terrier) ferreting among the shrubs and bushes bordering the large, neatly trimmed lawn. A line of trees at the bottom of the garden obscured the road that she’d driven along minutes before. Anita was sure that Renmarker had been married, but there had been no sign of any wife when he had greeted her at his front door.
Renmarker came out and placed a tray on a black metal table, the centrepiece of a matching set of four chairs. Anita wondered how often they were all filled. She took her cup, but ignored the biscuits.
He took the seat opposite and grinned. Well, she thought it was a grin. ‘I remember you now, Inspector. A pretty little thing back then.’ His stare was disconcerting, and she pretended to be distracted by the dog that was now running around with a toy bone in its mouth. ‘Caused quite a stir among your male colleagues.’ It came back to her. Renmarker had a roving eye. Or at least that’s what she’d heard from a friend who’d worked in the prosecutor’s office at the time.
‘You know that the Göran Gösta case has been reopened?’
‘Well, I wondered if it might be about that after you phoned me. You must be the only officer from that case who’s still serving, I should imagine. Funny that you’re working on it again after all this time.’
Anita avoided eye contact, this time by concentrating on sipping from her cup. She knew he wouldn’t talk to her if he thought that she wasn’t officially involved.
‘Fresh evidence has appeared. Of course, we’re keeping quiet about it at this stage.’
‘Oh, I understand. Sure you won’t have a biscuit? I made them myself. I’ve learned to bake since my wife passed away.’ He gave a winsome sigh.
‘I’m sorry to hear that. But I still won’t have a biscuit.’ She patted her tummy, and then immediately regretted the gesture as it reminded her that it was chubbier than she liked. ‘Just eaten with the family not long ago.’
‘So, how can I help?’
Until now she hadn’t been entirely sure what she was going to talk to him about. It was really on an impulse that she had contacted him. Yet he was the only person that she could talk to who was fully conversant with all the facts of the original investigation. And, yes, there was one nagging question that she did want to pose, though she had no idea how to phrase it without causing offence. She would have to lead up to it.
‘The murder weapon has been found.’
‘Ah, the skewer from the barbecue.’ It was clear that he remembered the case.
‘And the young witness, Kurt Jeppsson, has changed his story.’
‘Has he?’ Renmarker sounded intrigued. ‘Does it make a difference?’
‘Might do,’ she said guardedly. ‘Enough to question the guilt of our original chief suspect.’
‘Yes. Henrik Nordlund was very keen on that homosexual partner of the deceased. I was horrified to hear about Nordlund’s death, by the way’
‘I miss him. But you’re right. We were convinced that it was Linus Svärd who was the perpetrator.’
‘If I remember correctly, it was you that leaked your suspicions to the press.’ The sudden ferocity of the accusatory, gimlet stare wasn’t lessened any by the toothiness of the features.
‘A misjudgement.’ Anita wasn’t going to offer more of an explanation to the man whom she felt had forced her to take such a course by his own inaction. In fact, his comment riled her. ‘At the time, you wouldn’t let us arrest him.’ It came out more vehemently than she’d expected.
Renmarker steepled his figures thoughtfully, which temporarily blotted out his teeth. Eventually he spoke: ‘I felt you didn’t have enough evidence. It was all circumstantial. I needed more solid facts, which Nordlund failed to produce.’
‘We had enough to arrest him. The whole team agreed on that.’
‘I didn’t,’ he stated firmly.
‘Why didn’t you?’ she demanded. ‘It made no sense. Even if we hadn’t found him guilty, at least we could have had a go at him to find out the truth. You stopped that.’
‘Inspector, if you’re going to take this high-handed tone with me, you are no longer welcome in my home.’
Anita stood up. The dog disappeared into the trees. ‘I don’t know what prevented you from helping us back then, but I’m here because the most decent detective I ever worked with is probably going to get his reputation trashed by the scheming woman running this case. Henrik Nordlund spent the last years of his life tortured by the thought that we had failed to bring a killer to justice. And you were responsible. That’s something for your conscience to deal with. I hope you can sleep nights.’
Anita had run out of steam, but even in her fury she realized the last bit sounded as though it had come straight out of some melodrama. She shook her head and walked towards the house.
‘Inspector Sundström!’ she heard Renmarker call. She halted at the back door and swung round to face him. He was now standing up. ‘I deliberately blocked the investigation.’