The devil can stick it up his you-know-what, thought a contented Lisa Mattei as she drove onto the highway toward Stockholm three hours later. At the same moment her cell phone rang.
“My office in half an hour,” said Johansson, sounding like he meant it.
“You have to give me at least an hour, boss,” said Mattei. Goodness, she thought.
“For Christ’s sake, it doesn’t take an hour to drive from Vaxholm,” said Johansson.
Goodness, goodness, thought Mattei.
“There’s a lot of traffic, actually, and driving is not exactly my strong suit,” Mattei lied.
“My office,” said Johansson. “As soon as you set foot in the building go straight to my office,” he repeated, whereupon he hung up without further ado.
We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, thought Mattei, giving it a little extra gas to manage what she intended to do before she met her top boss.
It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him furious, she thought a little more than an hour later when she sat down in the visitor’s chair in front of his large desk.
“How did you know I was out in Vaxholm, boss?” she asked.
“Our colleague Wiklander happened to see you down in the garage. Don’t come in here and say you don’t know we have GPS and tracking equipment nowadays in almost all our vehicles. I know to the last inch what you’ve been up to.”
Didn’t think of that, thought Mattei, shaking her head strenuously to stop the attack of the giggles she felt was on its way.
“You’ve been parked for over five hours outside Båtmansvägen 3 in Vaxholm, and I assume it’s pure chance that Kjell Göran Hedberg’s old homeroom teacher—that light-haired little bastard who looks like his pupils in that photo I was stupid enough to send you—has lived at the same address his whole life.”
“I actually had no idea about that,” said Lisa Mattei. That he’d lived there his whole life, that is.
“Forget about that now,” said Johansson, glaring at her acidly. “Despite what both I and Wiklander said to you, you’ve been sitting chatting with him for hours. Despite the most obvious risk of a leak. What do you know about him and Hedberg? Maybe they’ve been involved since they met in junior high?”
“I don’t think they’ve spoken to each other, actually. Not since Hedberg finished school.”
“No,” said Johansson. “And why do you think that?”
“I talked with one of Hedberg’s classmates too. She was pretty convinced it was that way.”
“You did what?” said Johansson, looking at her in amazement. She’s sitting here fucking with me, he thought.
“I talked with one of his classmates,” Mattei repeated. “She lived right in the vicinity, so I left my car and walked to her house. In case Wiklander wonders,” she clarified.
“I hope,” said Johansson. “I hope…that you have an extremely good explanation,” he repeated, leaning heavily on his elbows.
“It’s actually better than that,” said Lisa Mattei.
“Lisa, Lisa,” sighed Johansson half an hour later. “What am I going to do with you?”
“I was hoping for another gold star,” said Lisa Mattei. “A giant one,” she clarified.