THORÉN SAT AS IF SHE WAS nailed to the chair with a stunned expression on the face. Her eyes were the only feature that moved as they followed the images on the computer screen. She was in a small room equipped with a DVD player.
“Coffee?” asked Javier pushing the door open a fraction.
Thorén didn’t appear to hear him and continued with what she was doing.
Javier realized that she was using earphones and couldn’t hear him so he walked into the room to get her attention but was immediately distracted by the images on the screen.
“What the hell’s that?”
He pulled up a chair and sat down beside her. “Bloody hell!”
Thorén glanced at him despondently.
Javier put on his earphones.
“No, shit!” He ripped out the earphones. “Who’s that woman?”
“Ingalill Segelström…”
“Was that in the hidden files?”
Thorén nodded.
“She’s Anders Segelström’s sister. Sanna told me that it was Anders who took Ingalill’s files. He’s not allowed anywhere near them now. I assume that he’ll be transferred to another investigation. Anyway, he’s definitely off the case.”
The video recording depicted the brutal rape of Ingalill Segelström. It began with scenes of Ingalill encouraging Svenson to be rough with her. However, things started to get out of hand when Svenson pressed Ingalill’s head down hard into the cushion and she panicked, screaming that she couldn’t breathe and begging him to stop. He ignored her and continued acting aggressively. She struggled desperately to free herself, but Börge Svenson was oblivious. He was enjoying it. He had an object in his hand and the more she screamed the harder he pushed it into her anus. She made another attempt to get away and started to cry. Svenson sat astride her and pulled her hair hard. “Shut up you bloody whore!” he shouted and slapped her.
“Is that why she threatened his wife?” wondered Thorén.
“Probably. But why his wife and not him? Although we don’t actually know what happened after the rape.”
“Have you spoken to Kalle?” asked Thorén.
“No, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the other video recordings are pretty similar,” replied Javier. “We’ll find out shortly. Sanna called us to a meeting.”
“Really, I didn’t hear about it,” said Thorén. “What time?”
Javier looked at his wristwatch.
“In ten minutes. I’ll go and get some coffee first. Are you coming?”
“Can you get me a latte?”
The entire team minus Segelström gathered in the investigation room. The prosecutor looked at his clock and then at Sanna.
“How long do you think this will take?”
“One hour, max,” answered Sanna. “First and foremost I need to inform you that Anders Segelström has been removed from the case. As I’m sure you understand, from now on you must not talk to him about the case or what has been disclosed about his sister Ingalill. To make a long story short, Anders Segelström is no longer involved in the investigation because his sister is now the focus of an enquiry.”
She surveyed the team members gathered around the table.
“For those of you who don’t already know, I can now disclose that we have found new information on Svenson’s laptop that was concealed among so-called hidden files. Thorén and Kalle have gone through the material and will give us a preliminary report.”
She glanced at Thorén.
“Can you start?”
Thorén looked at Sanna in disbelief.
“I have to admit that I’m not at all prepared but I can of course present what I’ve managed to find out so far.” She drew a deep breath. “The files contain details of a series of violent sexual acts. To start with both Svenson and Ingalill were on the same wave length.” She looked down and hesitated for a moment before continuing. “There was also a film sequence showing Ingalill being brutally abused and raped despite her begging Svenson to stop.”
“Is this the same woman who threatened Ingrid Svenson?” asked Alkelius.
“Yes, it’s the same woman,” interjected Sanna.
“Hmm,” said Alkelius.
“The question is, why did she threaten his wife and child? Maybe she wanted revenge on those who she thought Svenson loved,” said Sanna.
Alkelius removed his spectacles and laid them on the table. He leaned back in his chair and groaned.
There was a short silence.
“Is there no end to this?” commented Blom, dejectedly.
“That’s not all. Kalle can you present what you have found so far?”
Over a half hour period, Kalle presented his findings. The video films were mainly a repeat of what Thorén had described. The women seemed to enjoy rough sex and apart from a couple of cases there was no evidence of abuse.
“I intend to examine women number five and thirteen further since their situations are similar to Ingalill’s. There’s more material in the index file on them,” said Kalle.
Sanna and Alkelius nodded.
“How much more do we need to do?” added Alkelius. “We have to call it quits sometime.
“I agree. My suggestion is that we dig up as much as possible on Ingalill Segelström. She pops up several times during the investigation, so I think we should focus on her…”
Sanna surveyed the participants.
“The problem is that Ingalill Segelström is abroad at the moment. I have tried to call her and left messages on her mobile. We’ll just have to hope that she contacts me as soon as she returns.”
“Do you know when she’s supposed to get back?” asked Blom.
“No. I’ve also asked Anders if he knows where she’s gone but he has no idea,” said Sanna.
“Isn’t it odd that she decides to go away now?” said Blom.
Alkelius nodded slowly.
“What about the women I’m following up on?” asked Kalle.
“Contact them and arrange a hearing,” said Sanna. “We’ll see where it leads.” She looked in her notebook. “If there are no more questions or anything to add let’s get back to work.”
Kalle followed Sanna down the corridor.
“Sanna, there’s something I want to talk to you about.”
She turned around.
“Can we go to your office?”
There was a look of seriousness in Kalle’s eyes that didn’t go unnoticed by Sanna.
“Is something wrong?”
He nodded but said nothing. Once back in Sanna’s office he closed the door behind him. Sanna sat down and signalled Kalle to grab a chair.
“The material that Segelström handed in isn’t the original. We’ve been given a false copy of the CD.”
Sanna stared at him in complete bewilderment. She was lost for words. This was too much.
Kalle explained that he had first become suspicious when he noticed that the contents didn’t follow the same pattern as the rest of Svenson’s CD’s containing so-called conclusions. And on closer inspection he noticed that the serial number was out of sequence with the other CD’s that Svenson had used.
Segelström’s assumption that his sister had been classified in the “ordinary women” category was incorrect. As revealed during Thorén’s presentation, Svenson had established an additional category where intelligence was very low on his list of priorities.
“I suspect that Svenson wrote something about Ingalill’s threats to his family,” continued Kalle.
“Yes, we must get that info as soon as possible!”
HE LEARNT ABOUT THE HIDDEN files the same day as Sanna. With a copy of Svenson’s computer in his possession Segelström went home directly after lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon scouring through the files. He admired Svenson’s cunning, which was of almost Machiavellian proportions.
Initially, he had been searching for the video recordings of Ingalill but when he realized that his little sister was enjoying the rough sex he immediately turned off the machine. It was mortifying to see his own sister performing a sex act. He pulled himself together, remembering that this was an investigation and that he had a job to do. He needed to find out why Ingalill had threatened Svenson and his wife. He watched the rest of the videos, trying to build up a picture of what they were dealing with. Were they consenting adults with similar sexual inclinations getting together to have raw sex? Or was it something more sinister?
Three hours later he’d had enough. He closed the laptop and ran his fingers through his hair in agitation. He hadn’t been prepared for this. He would have to watch the video again to make sure that she hadn’t been badly injured. He fast-forwarded to the scenes he wanted to see again. It didn’t take long before he was forced to wind it back to normal speed.
Segelström was horrified by the way Svenson had assaulted Ingalill. He decided to produce a false version of Svenson’s “conclusions” and removed scenes that he felt were compromising – sections where it was revealed that Ingalill had threatened Svenson and his family. But even in his darkest fantasies he could never have imagined that his own sister had such inclinations. However, what angered him the most was that Ingalill hadn’t confided in him about the rape.
He felt the anger boil up inside him. He summed up what he had learnt about his sister but it was a discovery that was very hard to swallow. He wanted to break Svenson’s neck. Unfortunately, he was safely locked up.
After what seemed like hours of uncertainty and speculation he decided to contact Ingalill. Did she have anything to do with Ingrid Svenson’s murder? Had she been inside the Svenson’s house? There were rumours of a man seen outside the house – what if he was one of Ingalill’s friends? He knew that she was at her ex-husband’s country place. Should he ring first or just go straight to Norrtälje?
He wanted to hear directly from her. There was no time to lose. He picked up the receiver and punched in the number.
“Hello,” she answered.
“Hi, Ingalill it’s Anders.”
The siblings hadn’t been in contact for several months. In fact, they had barely been on speaking terms since adolescence when he had complained about the friends she hung around with, many of whom were known to the police.
“What do you want?” she said curtly.
He didn’t know where to begin.
“Can we meet? There’s a lot I need to talk about with you face to face.”
She didn’t respond.
“Of course you’re wondering why I’m calling…” He swallowed. “I have…I know that Börge Svenson raped you.” He wiped the sweat from his forehead.
She was so quiet he couldn’t even hear her breathing.
“I know everything,” he continued.
She hung up the phone.
Segelström grabbed the car keys and left the apartment. He started the car but switched off the engine again. He needed time to prepare himself before confronting her with the question he so desperately needed an answer to.
BY TWELVE O’CLOCK on Saturday morning a large group of people had assembled on Medborgaplatsen. It seemed as the entire population of Stockholm was amassing in one place. Banners and placards representing a number of different organizations were visible as far as the eye could see. The square was swarming with people and the atmosphere was electric. Enthusiastic crowds stood chattering among themselves, others sat on benches or the ground, snacking. Rosie the Riveter members walked around handing out sheets of paper with protest songs or catch phrases. It was going to be a loud demonstration.
By one o’clock the number of participants had grown to enormous proportions. There were thousands of people – women and men – who were getting ready to march through town.
The demonstration began at Medborgarplatsen with a mass gathering to demand justice. On the stairs of Medborgarhuset stood a few well-known activists, waving their placards. Everyone was there, either as spectators or demonstrators. There were musicians strumming rhythmic tunes and cheerleaders singing feminist songs. TV personalities and their cameramen mingled among the crowds and took the opportunity to interview politicians and other prominent people as well as ordinary citizens who had joined up with the demonstrators to show solidarity.
It was an endless procession. A number of different organizations had heeded the call to demonstrate and were participating with banners, streamers and homemade placards with protest slogans. A few shouted in unison: “Stop the violence! No means no!” Others carried lit torches in a silent mourning procession. Some had posters with copies of the texts that women had placed in locations where they had been attacked or raped.
For the first time in history these texts were the genuine article. They were written by women who were describing their own experiences. Sanna’s placard had also been reprinted and was positioned at the head of the procession together with the famous Rosie the Riveter’s placard.
The police kept their distance. TV vans were installed in strategic places and the crowd kept expanding.
The procession continued towards Götgatan and Södermalmstorg. They marched on to Hornsgatan where more people had gathered from all corners of the city. Even though they weren’t marching in the procession they cheered and clapped in support. The demonstration continued through Kungsträdgården until they reached their final destination – Humlegården.
The head of the procession, Rosie the Riveter’s spokesperson, took her place on the specially erected podium. Mikaela took the microphone and thanked all the people and organizations that had helped arrange the march. It was an impressive list. She expressed regret at not being able to name everyone but there were just too many people who had devoted both time and energy to make sure the demonstration was a success.
The next speakers were well-known feminists and politicians who were very outspoken about social problems and women’s rights as well as ineffective laws and the weakness of the authorities and the government.
A few groups chanted slogans through megaphones.
National media and regional TV channels reported on the event. The protest action was proclaimed the largest of its kind ever organized in support of a woman’s right to control her own body. The placard would without doubt be remembered as a defining moment in the history of the women’s movement.