WE’RE IN INTERVIEW. The reply came after Fabian’s third attempt to reach Theodor’s lawyer, Jadwiga Komorovski. Will call as soon as we’re done. We have a lot to talk about.
Fabian was already deeply worried about how things were going for Theodor, and Komorovski’s messages did nothing to allay his concerns. If there had been anything he could do, anything at all, he would have done it in a heartbeat. Without so much as a second thought, he would have dropped everything and run to the rescue. But he could do nothing. Other than wait for her to call back.
He turned into the car park next to the red three-storey buildings on Skaragatan. A little way away, he spotted Stubbs’s plump silhouette under a big oak tree. Judging from the way she was pacing back and forth with her arms crossed, she was in a bad mood.
Exactly how many feet away this was from the flat on the second floor of number 12, where Mattias Larsson’s girlfriend, Hanna Brahe, lived with her parents, Fabian didn’t know. His interview with her was his official reason for being here. That said, he had no idea how accurate the GPS tracker between his shoulder blades was, so ultimately he could only hope Molander wouldn’t think his position curious.
He backed into a visitor parking bay and was turning the engine off when his phone began to vibrate.
The number was unknown, but he recognized it from the night before, when he’d been in touch with the coastguard. He declined the call, climbed out of the car and walked over to Stubbs, who had stopped pacing and was glaring at him.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what the coastguard were calling about, and he had no problem understanding why they were upset and probably in the process of reporting him to the police. It would be odd if they weren’t. Even though he hadn’t taken the safety off his gun at any point, he’d certainly committed a serious crime when he threatened the crew of KB 202.
‘Hi,’ he called out. ‘I’m sorry I’m late, but—’
‘Hi,’ Stubbs cut him off. ‘Do I look like a confession booth to you or something?’
‘Eh, what?’
‘No, that’s right. So do us both a favour and spare us the forgive-me-my-sins bit. Unlike what some people seem to think, we don’t have all the time in the world. Here’s the deal. I’ve just been to—’
Even though his phone was on vibrate, it managed to interrupt Stubbs, who threw up her hands in silent protest as he once again declined the call from the coastguard.
‘Continue.’ Fabian put the phone back in his pocket.
‘I can certainly try.’ Stubbs gave him a very thin smile. ‘I spent the morning at Fosie Prison, speaking to Conny Öhman. And the rest of the day I’ve been kicking my heels, waiting around for you.’
‘And who is Conny Öhman?’
‘A wife-beating alcoholic from Munka-Ljungby, who is in prison for killing his wife last spring. At least, that’s what he was convicted of. But in reality, Molander was behind the murder.’
‘And what’s Molander’s connection to this Conny bloke, or his wife, for that matter?’
‘There probably isn’t one.’ Stubbs shrugged. ‘Other than that he was the perfect fall guy since his wife had already made several reports of aggravated assault to the police. The thing is, I’ve managed to make Conny see that he’s been used, and he has agreed to testify against Molander.’
‘Fine, but I still don’t understand. If there’s no connection, why—’
‘Maybe he was experiencing withdrawal, what do I know?’ Stubbs shrugged. ‘Like with Ingela Ploghed. As far as I’m aware, he’d been on his best behaviour for almost two years, so he probably couldn’t curb his urges any longer. Had to vent his pent-up energy and internal frustration. With children, they call it having ants in one’s pants. But why don’t we leave that to the psychiatrists. The point is, we have enough to bring him in. So I want you to head straight over to the station and get in a room with Tuvesson so you can—’
‘I’m sorry,’ Fabian broke in, shaking his head. ‘I can’t.’
‘Why? What do you mean you can’t? Of course you— That bloody thing of yours is going off again.’ Stubbs pointed to his pocket, where the illuminated screen of his phone was visible through the fabric.
The coastguard again. ‘It can wait,’ Fabian said. ‘Now listen to me. The thing is that Molander—’
‘No, I’m not going to stand here vying for your attention with some bloody phone. Either you turn it off completely or you take the call and get it over with.’
Fabian nodded and took a deep breath before answering. ‘This is Fabian Risk.
‘And this is Gert-Ove Helin from the Helsingborg coastguard.’
‘Yes, I pretty much figured, and before you launch into it, I just want you to know that I understand if you’re upset about what happened last night.’ He turned his back on Stubbs in an attempt to block out her angry sighs.
‘Yes, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like it in all my years here at—’
‘Gert-Ove,’ Fabian cut in. ‘I don’t want to seem rude. But I happen to be in the middle of an important meeting, so unless you have something else to say, I think you should just go ahead and file that police report and you can count on my full cooperation. Okay?’
‘Yes, yes, I’m sure that will all be fine. Look, I know Bengan and Sylen pretty well after twenty-two years of working with them, and those particular blokes can be proper whingers when they’re in that mood. I like to call them the true climacteric threat. Get it? Not climate, climacteric. You know, menopause.’ He could hear Gert-Ove chuckle at his own joke.
Stubbs walked back into Fabian’s view and tapped her watch impatiently. Fabian replied by signalling with one hand that the man on the other end wouldn’t stop jabbering on.
‘The thing is that I contacted our Danish colleagues to get a clearer picture of what happened,’ Helin continued. ‘And you can say many things about the Danes, but I happen to be on first-name terms with Ingolf Bremer, the head honcho over at the Naval Operative Command, and reading between the lines, the order to deny you access to Danish territorial waters came from higher up the food chain.’
‘I am perfectly aware of who issued the order, which was why I acted the way I did. It’s not an excuse, but I didn’t see any other way at the time.’
‘I hear you. But you have to understand my position.’
‘Look, Fabian, enough.’ Stubbs heaved a demonstrative sigh. ‘This is ridiculous. You keep doing whatever it is you’re doing and I’ll go back to doing my stuff.’
‘No, hold on.’ Fabian grabbed Stubbs’s arm.
‘Otherwise, where would we be?’ Gert-Ove continued.
‘Exactly, which is why I suggest you do what you feel you have to do.’
‘Yes, until fifteen minutes ago, I couldn’t really see a way around reporting you. But when it turned out you were right all along, I decided to stick the whole thing in a drawer. That’s what I wanted to tell you.’
‘I’m not sure I follow?’ Fabian raised his free hand to pre-empt an outburst from Stubbs, who looked ready to erupt. ‘Right about what?’
‘You didn’t hear about the ship?’
‘What ship?’
‘Blimey. I just assumed those things were relayed to you guys.’
‘What things?’ Fabian could tell his body was about to flood with adrenaline.
‘I don’t know if you noticed last night, but a freight ship by the name of MS Vinterland was passing through Öresund while you were out on your caper with the boys.’
‘Yes, I remember it well.’ He could sense where the conversation was headed and started walking back towards his car. ‘It actually passed us close enough that it blocked the rubber dinghy from view for several minutes.’
‘Fabian!’ Stubbs called after him. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’
‘I’ll explain in the car,’ he called back. ‘Come on, hurry up. There’s no time!’
‘It’s not really our job to keep an eye on things that far north. But we couldn’t understand why it suddenly veered off course a few hours later, turning sharply eastwards. So, we hailed them but had no response.’
Stubbs hadn’t moved from under the oak tree when Fabian reached his car and opened the driver-side door. But then she finally relented and hurried over.
‘They didn’t respond until several hours later. Or, to be more precise, fifteen minutes ago.’