Tuesday

As usual Petra Westman tackled the work assigned to her energetically, but for once she didn’t take on any new initiatives of her own. Instead, she devoted the downtime between her allotted tasks to digging for information regarding a certain Peder Fryhk.

Peder Fryhk was fifty-three years old and originally from Hudiksvall. He qualified for college with high scores in 1972, then did his military service as a commando at KA1 on Rindö in 1972 and 1973. In 1973 he started his medical training at the university in Lund and got married. In 1974 a daughter was born, but for the years between 1975 and 1980 information was lacking. His wife and child were in Hudiksvall during this period, where they were both still registered today. In 1980 he showed up again, resumed his studies in the autumn and got a divorce. In 1984 he received his medical degree, after which he worked at various hospitals in the Stockholm area and he was now a senior anaesthetist at Karolinska.

A colleague in the economic crimes unit helped her to gather information on Fryhk’s financial dealings. There were no irregularities here. He was single with a good income and living expenses to match. Nothing strange. Petra confirmed that he had no criminal record with a search in the register. Searches in ISP – the police department’s internal register of descriptions – produced nothing. Nor was there any information to be found in ASP – another of the police department’s internal registers, where you could search for individual names among comments entered in connection with crimes. He seemed to have a blemish-free past.

From a telephone call to Doctors Without Borders, Petra discovered that the organization had done work in Lebanon only during 1975. Peder Fryhk was twenty-two years old then and had finished only two years of pre-clinical studies. So he could not have worked as a doctor in Lebanon in 1975. He was not found on any of their lists. At the very least, she had caught him in a lie.

But how could she go further? Under no circumstances did she want Fryhk to find out about her investigations. For that reason she could not contact his mother, who was still alive, his neighbours, colleagues or employer. Nor did she dare contact his daughter. But the ex-wife seemed like a fairly safe bet. He had left her and his newborn daughter for a five-year stay abroad and then divorced her as soon as he came home. Presumably she did not speak to him very often, if at all.

After repeated attempts, she managed to reach the ex-wife at work late that evening. She was an operating-room nurse at Hudiksvall Hospital.

‘I’m looking for Peder Fryhk,’ Petra lied.

There was total silence on the line and she hoped this was a good sign.

‘Hello?’

‘I haven’t had any contact with him for years. You’ll have to look elsewhere. Who’s asking?’

Petra had deliberately avoided introducing herself. After careful consideration, she had decided not to lie about her identity to this woman. Conversely, she had considered ending the conversation at this point – without introducing herself – if the answer had been different.

‘My name is Westman and I’m a police officer,’ said Petra. ‘He appears in an investigation I’m working on.’

‘Then you know you won’t be able to find him through me,’ said the woman, whose name was Mona Friberg.

She obviously had her head on straight.

‘Actually you’re the one I wanted to talk to,’ Petra admitted, quickly trying to regain control of the conversation. ‘When did you last speak to him?’

‘In 1980,’ the woman replied curtly.

‘In connection with the divorce?’

‘That’s right.’

‘So you’ve had no contact with him whatsoever since then?’

‘As I said.’

‘And your daughter?’

‘Not her either, as far as I know.’

‘May I ask why?’

Mona Friberg hesitated for a few seconds before answering.

‘His involvement with his daughter has been non-existent. Neither she nor I have the slightest interest in having any contact.’

‘Please forgive me if I seem a bit forward,’ Petra said, ‘but why did you marry him in the first place?’

She was aware that she had now given the woman a reason to end the conversation, but something told her she would not.

‘The classic. I got pregnant.’

‘And he took responsibility?’

After a moment’s hesitation she replied, ‘On the surface. In reality, we never saw each other for the most part. He moved to Lund and then he went abroad and was gone for several years.’

‘And when he came home he asked for a divorce?’

‘Yes. Without seeing me. I haven’t seen him in person since 1975.’

Mona Friberg’s voice revealed no bitterness. She gave brief, factual answers to the questions she was asked. Nonetheless, Petra seemed to detect some ambiguity in her attitude to it all. What she was saying was anything but flattering to Fryhk, yet she had her guard up. While the conversation was going on, Petra could not put her finger on it, but afterwards she decided that Mona Friberg was holding back part of the truth about Peder Fryhk.

‘Has he paid child support?’ asked Petra, even though she already knew the answer.

‘No, and I never asked for any either. My finances are good.’

‘That might also be interpreted as you having strong reasons not to want to have anything to do with Peder Fryhk,’ Petra attempted.

‘I prefer to be independent,’ replied Mona Friberg without so much as a quiver in her voice to show that this might be untrue.

‘Have you any idea where he was during that stay abroad between 1975 and 1980?’ Petra enquired.

‘No. And no one else does either, that I know of.’

‘What is he like as a person?’ Petra ventured to ask.

‘Intelligent and goal-oriented. Selfish. Extroverted.’

In the midst of the positive judgements she had slipped in a negative one. She supplied facts and appeared to be completely objective. But what was it she wasn’t saying? She said extroverted, not pleasant. And goal-oriented, was that necessarily positive? No, not when it was followed by selfish. Petra did not have time to complete the thought.

‘Interested in war,’ said Mona Friberg. ‘Extremely interested in war. I must get back to work now.’

That ended the conversation.