The Demon of Dakar - Kjell Eriksson [144]
Slobodan shook his head.
“I don’t know anything about the tattoo,” he said hoarsely.
Barbro Liljendahl rose, left the room, and returned quickly with a pitcher of water and some glasses.
Sammy Nilsson poured a glass and placed it in front of Slobodan before he continued.
“Talk about Patricio Alavez. Was he the one you met in Mexico?”
Slobodan’s hand, which had just grabbed hold of the glass, shook and he spilled water onto the table.
“Oops,” Sammy Nilsson said cheerfully.
“I would like to know on what grounds you are subjecting my client to this attack,” the lawyer said.
“I’m happy to oblige,” Sammy Nilsson said and leaned forward. “We have good reason to believe that your client has smuggled cocaine into this country to the estimated value of at least three million. Does that count as reason enough?”
The demolishing of Slobodan Andersson’s line of defense continued. Sammy Nilsson continued to systematically counter each attempt at explanation and denial. When Slobodan was asked about his contact with Konrad Rosenberg he at first denied all knowledge of him, but was then forced to concede that he had a faint memory of a guest named Rosenberg.
“Your friend Konrad is also dead,” Sammy Nilsson announced brutally. “Cocaine became his death.”
At this point Simone Motander-Banks interrupted the proceedings for a private consultation with her client. Both of the detectives left the room.
“Yes,” Sammy Nilsson said, and sat down in a chair in the little lounge outside the questioning room, but got to his feet almost at once.
“Can we pin Armas’s murder on him as well?” Barbro Liljendahl wondered.
“I doubt it,” Sammy said. “He has a good alibi. At least twenty people had confirmed that he was at Alhambra all evening.”
“He could have hired someone.”
“It’s possible, but I don’t think he wanted Armas dead. Ann doesn’t think so either. But we’ll put him away on the drug charge. I’m one hundred percent certain that his prints are on that bag.”
They resumed the session. The detectives had anticipated a counterattack from the lawyer, but she was surprisingly passive when Sammy Nilsson turned the tape recorder back on.
“Alhambra,” he began. “Isn’t it careless to keep so much cocaine there? We found a bag in your office that—”
“I don’t know anything about a bag!”
“We have secured a number of prints and it is only a matter of time before we can establish if yours are among them,” Sammy Nilsson said calmly.
“I’ve been set up!” Slobodan Andersson exclaimed. “It’s a trap. Don’t you get it? That briefcase was given to me by—”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know,” Slobodan Andersson muttered.
“You can do better than that,” Barbro Liljendahl said.
He lifted his head and stared at her as if she were an alien. In his eyes, she read that the coming retreat would not be orderly, that everything that followed would in fact be panic, lies, and condemnation. The police held all the trump cards.
Slobodan Andersson’s enormous body appeared to have lost all control and sunk down on the chair. He muttered something that no one present was able to catch.
Fifty-Seven
Ever since Eva Willman woke up at six o’clock that morning she had wondered if she should contact the police.
The escape from the Norrtälje prison had been allotted a great deal of space in the paper. She had read every line with an increasing sense of anxiety and indecision. She stared at the photograph of Manuel’s brother. They were very alike.
Where are they now, she wondered, and recalled Manuel’s awkwardness about all things Swedish. He had displayed a sweeping lack of knowledge about the country and Uppsala.
She believed him when he had pleaded ignorance about his brother’s escape. Perhaps not last night—then there had only been room for surprise and bitterness at his duplicity—but now in hindsight, as she recalled his assurances and above all his expression, she was prepared to take him at his word.
What had he said as she left the dishwashing area? That he had believed she had wanted to visit his country. She pushed the paper away and tried to imagine herself in