Red Wolf_ A Novel Part 23

Once he had pulled on his coat and found his briefcase she slid up behind him, a light shadow of perfume and apple-scent. She wound her arms round his waist, laid her cheek against his back.

'Thanks for this evening,' she whispered.

He blinked a few times, turned round and kissed her gently.

'Thank you you,' he whispered.

She locked the door behind him, and he could feel her watching through the spyhole in the door until the lift carried him down with it.

His taxi glided up soundlessly through the thickening snow, and he jumped in when he suddenly noticed it. From the back seat he told the taxi-driver his address, Hantverkargatan 32.

He must have dozed off, because the next moment they were there. He fumbled for his business account card and paid, gathered his things with some difficulty, pushed the door shut and stopped to look up at the house.

The lights in the flat were still on. He glimpsed a shadow moving inside.

Annika was still up, even though she was always so tired in the evening, after all those years on the nights.h.i.+ft.

Why wasn't she asleep? What was she doing, wandering from room to room?

There were only two reasons. Either she was still working or else she suspected something, and once these thoughts had formulated themselves in his head the result was inevitable.

Guilt and regret hit him in the guts like the kick of a horse, the utterly fundamental paralysis that comes from unwelcome awareness. He couldn't breathe; his diaphragm contracted and made him collapse.

Oh, good G.o.d, what had he done?

What if she found out? What if she understood? What if she already knew? Had someone seen something? Had someone called? Maybe someone had tipped off the paper?

He was breathing raggedly and with some difficulty, forcing himself to be sensible.

Tipped off the paper? Why the h.e.l.l would anyone tip off the paper?

He was on the verge of losing his grip.

Slowly he straightened up, and looked up at the windows again. The sitting-room light was out now. She was on her way to bed.

Maybe she knows I'm coming, he thought. Maybe she's trying to fool me into thinking she doesn't know, even though she knows everything. Maybe she'll pretend to be asleep when I go in and then kill me in my sleep Maybe she's trying to fool me into thinking she doesn't know, even though she knows everything. Maybe she'll pretend to be asleep when I go in and then kill me in my sleep.

And he saw her in front of him with fire for hair, clutching an iron bar with both hands, poised to strike.

He felt like crying as he unlocked the front door, unable to think how he could bear to look at her. He walked up the two flights of stairs with silent steps and stopped outside the door, their door, the big double doors with the stained gla.s.s that Annika thought was so beautiful. And he stood there with the keys in his hand, shaking, a vibration in his stomach like a jamming jazz band, looking at the doors with strange eyes until his breathing was calmer, something like normal, and he could move again.

The hall was dark. He crept in and closed the heavy door quietly behind him.

'Thomas?'

Annika popped her head out of the bathroom, and took the toothbrush out of her mouth.

'How did it go?'

He collapsed on the hall bench, feeling utterly empty.

'It was a devil of a meeting,' he said. 'Everyone's in shock.'

She vanished into the bathroom again; he heard water running, the sound of spitting. The sounds rolled into the hall and were amplified, growing until he had to put his hands over his ears.

She came out of the bathroom, in a pair of black tanga briefs, her large b.r.e.a.s.t.s swinging.

'It may have been a devil of a meeting,' she said, settling down next to him and putting her hand on the back of his neck, 'but I don't think this death has anything to do with the devil's political views. I'm pretty sure you can all relax.'

He looked up at her, feeling her breast against his arm, realized he had tears in his eyes.

'How can you know that?'

'No one really knows anything at all yet,' she said, 'but there's something bigger behind this than just the local council in osthammar.'

She kissed him on the cheek, stroked the arm of his coat and stood up.

'I'm buzzing like an idiot tonight,' she said. 'I've drunk two hundred litres of coffee this evening.'

He let out a deep sigh. 'Me too,' he said.

'You smell of smoke and drink as well,' she said over her shoulder as she went into the bedroom.

'I hope so,' he said, 'because the taxpayer was paying.'

She gave a flat little laugh.

'Are you coming?' she called.

I can do this, he thought. I'm going to be able to do this I'm going to be able to do this.

Tuesday 17 November

27.

The news boards shrieked out their bright yellow messages about serial killers and police hunts all the way along Fleminggatan, standing out like sunflowers against an iron-grey lawn in the morning light. Annika saw them flash past from the window of the bus and felt the same strange effect as usual a fascination at having put something into the world that goes on and lives its own life. Her articles could reach hundreds of thousands of people whom she would never meet, her words could generate emotions and reactions that she would never know about.

The journey to work pa.s.sed quickly, accompanied by the screaming sunflowers.

In the newspaper's lobby, a whole wall was papered each morning with that day's newsbills, forming an entire enthusiastic choir.

Up in the newsroom she noted a change in temperature as she sailed out. Her lowered head was met with rea.s.suringly warm glances where she usually encountered blocks of ice. She was back on track, dominating that day's paper, someone to be reckoned with. All the old stuff was forgotten because things were happening again, nineteen hours to deadline and she had the picture byline on page six.

She turned her back on her colleagues' ingratiating glances and pushed the gla.s.s door of her office shut behind her with a bang.

Goran Nilsson, she thought, throwing off her outdoor clothes, frowning with tiredness. Born 1948 in Sattajarvi, emigrated, professional killer since 1969. No point looking him up on national databases. He would have been erased from the National Population Address Register decades ago.

She drummed her fingers in irritation as her computer slowly started up, then Googled 'goran nilsson' and got several hundred results.

There were so many Goran Nilssons in the world. She searched through the results and then turned instead to the Yellow Pages website to see how common the name really was, trying different districts at random. There were 73 in Blekinge alone, 55 in Boras, 205 in Stockholm and 46 in Norrbotten. Several thousand in the whole country, in other words.

She had to narrow the search somehow, add another word to the terms.

'goran nilsson sattajarvi'. No results.

The letters, she thought. Maoism or left-wing groups Maoism or left-wing groups.

Bingo. Ma.s.ses of hits, like Kristina Nilsson Nilsson, Mao Mao Zedong, Zedong, Goran Goran Andersson, all in the same result. Andersson, all in the same result.

Then she tried to find pictures instead, 'goran nilsson mao'.

Four results, small squares on the screen that she squinted at, leaning right forward. Two were logos for something she didn't investigate further, one cultural revolutionary portrait of the Master himself on someone's homepage, and finally a black-and-white picture of some young people in dated outfits. She looked closer, reading the description, clicked on the link and reached a homepage that someone had set up about their youth in Uppsala. There was a caption that put the picture in context.

After the establishment of the fundamental 9 April Declaration, Mats Andersson, Fredrik Svensson, Hans Larsson and Goran Nilsson were prepared to bravely mobilize the ma.s.ses in the name of the Master.

She read the text twice, surprised at the slightly ridiculous religiosity it suggested. Then she stared at the young man on the far right, his shoulder hidden behind the man next to him, short hair, nondescript features, evidently not that tall. Dark eyes that were staring at a point to the left of the photographer.

She clicked back to the front page of the site and discovered that there were more photographs from Uppsala on the server, several from various demonstrations, but mostly from parties of one sort or another. She looked through all of them, but the dark young man named Goran Nilsson didn't appear on any of the others.

Could it be him? Could he really have been an identifiable activist in the sixties, in which case he might well appear in various media from those days?

Archives like that were never available digitally; it was all envelopes of pictures and cuttings.

Her newspaper had the largest archive in the country. She grabbed the phone and asked the archivists to check if they had anything on a Goran Nilsson in Maoist groups at the end of the sixties. The woman who took her call showed little enthusiasm.

'When do you need it?'

'Yesterday,' Annika said. 'It's urgent.'

'When isn't it?'

'I'm sitting here waiting and can't do anything until I hear from you.'

An almost inaudible sigh on the line. 'I'll do a quick check and see if I can find him in his own right. Reading through everything that was published on Maoism would take several weeks.'

Annika stood and looked out over the newsroom until she got an answer.

'Sorry. No Goran Nilsson described as a Maoist. We've got a couple of hundred others though.'

'Thanks for checking so quickly,' Annika said.

What other archives were there from that period, in the places where Maoists were active? The university cities, she thought. The Compet.i.tor The Compet.i.tor existed then, but there was no point in calling them. existed then, but there was no point in calling them. Upsala Nya Tidning Upsala Nya Tidning? She had no contact there. Was there a newspaper in Lund?

She scratched her head in irritation.

What about Lulea?

She had picked up the phone and dialled the Norrland News Norrland News reception before even realizing she was doing it. reception before even realizing she was doing it.

'Hans Blomberg was off sick yesterday, I don't know if he'll be in today,' the receptionist said, ready to disconnect her.

Annika suddenly felt an immediate and inexplicable fear. Good G.o.d, surely nothing could have happened to him?

'Why? Is it serious?'

The receptionist sighed, as if she were dealing with someone who was a bit slow. 'Burned out, like everyone else. Personally I think they're just lazy.'

Annika started. 'You're not serious?' she said 'Have you thought that all these people started getting burned out when we joined the EU? All the s.h.i.+t coming over our borders comes from the EU, people, toxins, burn-out. And to think I voted yes. Fooled, that's what we were.'

'Is Hans Blomberg often ill?'

'He only works part time now, got a disability pension a while back. Often he's not even here on the days he's meant to be.'

Annika bit her lip. She had to get into the Norrland News Norrland News archive as soon as possible. archive as soon as possible.

'Can you ask him to call me when he comes in?' She left her name and number.

'If he comes in,' the receptionist said. he comes in,' the receptionist said.

Goran Nilsson, she thought as she hung up and stared at the young man on her computer screen. Is that you, Goran? Is that you, Goran?

The coffee machine had been repaired and the drinks were hotter than ever. She took her two cups into her room, letting the caffeine warm her brain.

Her eyes were stinging from lack of sleep. She had lain in bed with her eyes closed for hours while Thomas twisted and turned, moaning and scratching. The death of the local councillor had really shaken him.

She shook off her tiredness and carried on searching, typing in 'Sattajarvi', and reached a site about a building project at the end of the nineties.

There was a map. She leaned towards the screen to find the village and could just make out the tiny letters spelling out the names in the surrounding area: Roukuvaara, Ohtanajarvi, Kompeluslehto.

Not just another language, she thought. Another country, frozen solid, stretching up across the tundra above the Arctic Circle Another country, frozen solid, stretching up across the tundra above the Arctic Circle.

She leaned back.

What was it like growing up north of the Arctic Circle in the fifties, in a family where the father was a religious leader in a strict and weird belief system?

Annika knew the Swiss psychoa.n.a.lyst Alice Miller had found that a striking number of West German terrorists were the children of Protestant ministers. Miller saw a connection: the terrorist's violence was a rebellion against a strict religious upbringing. The same could easily be true of Sweden and Laestadianism, the religious movement of Northern Sweden.

Annika rubbed her eyes. At that moment she caught sight of Berit hurrying past. She forced her mind to clear and pulled herself up out of her chair.

'Have you got a minute?' she called from her door.