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By Root 668 0

caught something. What was he doing now? Her sadness about how her life had developed and her longing for the only man she had ever loved made her tremble with sobs. She could still clearly recall the image of his face although it was said that an absent loved one’s features became more blurred with time. That wasn’t the case. The pictures of Edvard and Erik were there, every wrinkle, expression, and glint in their eyes were clearer than ever. The same went for their voices, laughter, and variations in pitch.

Her head sank down to the brick floor that still felt cool. The smell of wine took on an increasingly smoky note.

She muttered words of love and was slowly rocked into unconsciousness.

Fifty

The smoke divers prepared themselves. They struggled into their suits and pulled out hoses of a slightly smaller dimension than the ones used from the outside.

The fire was no longer burning as intensely. All of the cubic meters of water that had been dropped over and into the house had had an effect.

Firemen on the ladder had punched two holes in the roof and sprayed in water. In the basket of a crane two men were systematically working on the west wing where the fire was most intense.

Ottosson and Berglund had arrived. They stood as close to the house as they were allowed but were not able to be of any assistance at the moment. Berglund had broken a window in Lindell’s car and searched it but had not found anything remarkable.

“Could she be in there?” Ottosson asked for the third time. He stared at the remains of a curtain fluttering in the window.

“Why haven’t they gone in yet?” he asked himself although he knew the answer.

Eskil Ryde from forensics came zooming along in his old Mazda. He got out, appraised the situation, and then turned to Ottosson.

“May the dear Lord have seen to the fact that Ann is not in there,” he said and returned to the car as quickly as he had come.

Ottosson took a few steps closer to the house. Wallin, the fire commander, came forward.

“You should watch it, Otto,” he said. “Objects can come flying.”

As if in illustration to what he had just said, a gutter pulled loose from its moorings, swung out from the wall like pendulum, and hovered there for a few moments before it crashed to the ground.

“Could someone survive in there?” Berglund asked.

“To be honest, I think it would be tough,” Wallin said.

“Have you put the word out on that Hindersten?” Ottosson asked.

Berglund nodded.

“She has a brand new red Ford, bought only a few weeks ago,” he said.

“The neighbor thinks she had a packed suitcase in the car with her,” Ottosson said.

“There’s a national alert on her,” Berglund said.

“Good,” Ottosson said.

Three smoke divers went in, Sven-OlofAndersson, David Näss, and Ludde Nilsson, who was the team leader. He placed himself by the door and was the one who maintained contact with the commander outside.

The smoke divers communicated by radio. Näss first checked the kitchen, which was relatively unharmed but covered in soot. The floor timber had burned as well as the linoleum floor.

He looked over his shoulder and saw his colleague peek into a bedroom. They stayed close. Näss quickly checked the area behind the kitchen table and then joined Andersson in the bedroom, which was burned out. An iron rod that he assumed had once been a floor lamp had bent from the heat. Of the bed only four bed knobs remained.

The next room was also a bedroom with damages similar to the first. They could not see any remains of a person in here either. With their experience, they could often form an understanding of what had happened from a cursory glance around a room. That which looked like one big burned-out hole to others could tell the smoke divers a great deal.

They kept searching. The next room had apparently been a living room, that bordered the dining room.

“There’s so damned little in here,” Andersson said over the radio.

Näss nodded. In all its sootiness and with water running down the walls, the room looked naked. They checked every nook and cranny but found nothing of interest.

They