By exploiting her informal contacts with SePo Anna Holt found a woman who was alleged to have been involved with Claes Waltin at the time of the Palme murder. Jeanette Eriksson, born in 1958, assistant detective with SePo.
A co-worker of Waltin’s thirteen years his junior who quit the police the year after the Palme murder to work as an investigator for an insurance company. She was still there, now head of the department, and she did not sound happy when Holt called her. The day after the meeting with Berg they met at Eriksson’s office.
“I don’t really want to talk about Claes Waltin,” said Jeanette Eriksson.
“Not even a little girl talk?” said Holt. “No tape recorder, no papers, no report. Just you and me, in confidence.”
“In that case then,” said Jeanette Eriksson, smiling despite herself.
Claes Waltin had been her boss at the secret police. In the fall of 1985 they had started a relationship. In March of 1986 she ended the relationship.
“Though by then he was already tired of me, for otherwise he probably wouldn’t have let me go. He already had another woman.”
“I know what you mean,” said Holt. “He seems to have been a full-fledged sadist according to people I’ve talked with.”
“That’s what was so strange,” said Jeanette Eriksson. “Because I don’t have that tendency at all. I’ve never been the least bit sadomasochistic. And yet I ended up with him. To start with I thought it was some kind of role-playing he was involved in, and when I understood how it really was it was too late to back out. He was horrible. Claes Waltin was a horrible person. If he was drinking he could be downright dangerous. There were several times I thought he was going to kill me. But I never had a single bruise that I could show to be believed.”
“You were involved with him for six months?”
“Involved? I was his prisoner for five months and eleven days,” said Jeanette Eriksson. “Before I could get myself free. I hated him. When I was finally rid of him I would sit outside his apartment and spy on him and wonder how I could get revenge on him.”
“But you never did anything,” said Holt.
“I did do one thing,” said Jeanette Eriksson. “When I realized he’d acquired a new woman. When I saw her together with him the second time in a week. Then I found out who she was so I could warn her.”
“You talked with her?” asked Holt.
“Yes, just the two of us. She worked at the post office. When she left work one evening I approached her. Told her who I was and asked if I could talk with her.
“It went fine. We sat at a café in the neighborhood and talked.”
“So how did she take it?” said Holt.
“She didn’t understand what I meant,” said Jeanette Eriksson. “She seemed almost shocked when I told her what he’d done to me. Actually asked if I was still in love with Claes. Thought that that’s what it was really about. After that not much was said. Not that we argued. We just went our separate ways. Since then I’ve never talked with her.”
“Do you know what her name is?” asked Holt.
“Yes,” said Jeanette Eriksson.
“So what’s her name?” said Holt.
“Now it gets a little complicated,” said Jeanette Eriksson. “I’m assuming it’s not for her sake that you’ve come here?”
“No,” said Holt. “I had no idea about this woman’s existence until you mentioned her.”
“May I ask a question myself?” said Jeanette Eriksson.
“Sure,” said Holt.
“You work at the national bureau, you said. Isn’t that where Lars Johansson is the boss? That big Norrlander who’s always on TV?”
“Yes,” said Holt.
“That’s what makes this a little strange,” said Jeanette Eriksson. “You see, he’s married to the woman I talked with. Then her name was Pia Hedin. Today her name is evidently Pia Hedin Johansson.”
“Are you sure of that?” said Holt.
“Quite sure,” said Jeanette Eriksson. “I saw them together at a party at SEB a few years later, when I started working here at the insurance company. Then they were newlyweds. Must have been sometime in the early nineties.”
“You’re quite sure?” asked Holt.
“Quite sure,” said Jeanette Eriksson. “She’s a very beautiful woman. Pia Hedin is not someone you forget or confuse with someone else.”
“I know,” said Holt. “I’ve met her.” What do I do now? she thought.