The Demon of Dakar - Kjell Eriksson [80]
“I don’t think Hugo will want any,” he said.
When they sat down at the table, Patrik started to talk. Eva realized that he must have spent the evening thinking about it and even how to formulate his beginning.
“Zero is actually not stupid, you know? He is easy to deceive, that’s his biggest problem. He wants to be king but doesn’t know what to do.”
Eva figured out that by “king” Patrik meant “liked.”
“Has he been in touch with you?”
Patrik nodded and took a sip of his tea. Eva waited.
“What are you doing?” Hugo called out suddenly.
“None of your business,” Patrik yelled.
“Patrik!”
“He’s so annoying.”
“What did Zero say?”
“He’s hiding.”
Eva wondered where a fifteen-year-old boy could hide.
“He doesn’t dare go home. His brothers will beat him up.”
“Has he been in touch with his mother?”
“He called but she cried the whole time.”
“What did he say to you?”
Patrik looked up. After a couple of seconds’ hesitation he told her that Zero had been selling drugs in Sävja for the past couple of months. There was a man who had turned up and given him the drugs to sell to his friends.
“You wouldn’t believe what he makes. It can be a couple thousand. He’s planning to go to Turkey and rescue his father,” Patrik said.
“What really happened that evening?”
“That man came by with more drugs but Zero didn’t want to keep going. He was scared, but he didn’t say that. He started to pull some racist crap instead. The man made trouble and Zero punched him.”
“What about you? What did you do?”
Eva forced herself to remain calm. The least slip of the tongue or sign of being upset could result in Patrik clamming up.
“Helped Zero out,” he mumbled. “Then we took off.”
“That was when you came home bleeding?”
Patrik nodded. Eva could see that he was close to tears and felt an enormous gratitude in the fact that he was sitting there across from her, that he was talking, and that he could cry.
“And later, the next evening?”
“Another man came. We were up at the school, just hanging and talking. Then the other man came and started to talk. At first I thought it was a cop.”
“He was the one who was stabbed?”
“He started it!”
Eva nodded.
“Whose knife was it?”
“Zero’s.”
“Do you have a knife?” she asked, wishing she hadn’t the moment she saw Patrik’s expression.
The sound from the computer had stopped and Eva was convinced Hugo was listening.
“Forget it,” she said. “Go on.”
“He started in on Zero, said something about how he owed him money and stuff about, you know, what happens to people who don’t pay their debts. He was pretty scary.”
“What did Zero do?”
“Nothing! He was scared shitless, I could tell. Then the man wanted Zero to go with him to his car but he didn’t want to, he started to run. The guy caught up with him and pulled him down on the ground. The whole thing went so fast. Zero shook him off and then took out the knife. And then he was just lying there, the guy.”
“And this is what you told the police?”
Patrik nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell them this from the beginning?”
“I wanted to talk to Zero first,” Patrik said, and now his eyes were shiny with tears.
Eva stretched out her hand and put it on his arm.
“I’m glad you told me. I’m proud of you, you know that?”
After a couple of minutes of silence, Patrik stood up, took his teacup and put it on the counter.
“Helen called,” he said. “She wanted you to get back to her.”
Eva glanced at the wall clock.
“I’ll do it tomorrow,” she said.
“She said you could call late. She sounded really worked up. She has some stuff she’s doing, I didn’t get what it was.”
Eva took the handheld phone with her into the bedroom and dialed Helen’s number.
Thirty-Two
It is like California, but much smaller, Manuel thought. Even so he was pleased with his new location. The landscape constantly awakened memories of his brothers and their time in Anaheim, but he liked this place better than the last one and not only because of the connection with Armas.
Here his gaze did not get snared in brambles and stones. When he