The Princess of Burundi - Kjell Eriksson [122]
Gunnel went in and Lindell hurried over to her colleagues. The temperature had fallen noticeably and it was sparklingly cold. She tightened the scarf around her. Their breath formed puffs of smoke.
“What is it?” she asked.
Haver looked at her and all trace of tiredness had left his eyes.
“Tracks,” he said and pointed to the ground by his feet. Lindell thought she could see a smile on his face.
“Explain,” she said.
Haver told her about the snow dump in Libro where they had found John.
“Do you think it’s the same car?”
Haver nodded.
“Eskil is on his way,” he said, and now Lindell saw how nervous he was.
“Should we ask Mrs. Sagander which visitors they’ve had lately?” Lindell asked. At the same time her cell phone rang. It was her mother, wondering where she was. Erik had woken up once and they had given him the baby porridge, he had fallen asleep again, but now he had woken up again.
“Is he crying?” Lindell asked and walked away from her colleagues.
“No, not exactly,” her mother said, and Ann wondered what she meant.
“I’ll be home soon. Give him some banana, he likes that.”
“He doesn’t need a banana. He needs his mother.”
“He has a grandmother,” Ann said, but she regretted her words at the moment she said them.
There was silence on the other end.
“Just come home,” her mother said and hung up.
Ann Lindell stood there with the phone in her hand, looked at Haver and Berglund, pretended to end the conversation in a normal way, and then returned to their midst.
“The baby-sitter?” Berglund said. Lindell nodded and she saw him give Haver a quick look. Then Ryde’s old car came up the driveway. He braked and seemed to hesitate before driving up all the way to the house.
Lindell walked over to Gunnel Sagander, who was standing out on the porch. She was shivering.
“Should we go in?” Lindell asked.
Gunnel shook her head.
“What is it?” she asked again and looked intently at Lindell.
“Car tracks,” Lindell said. “I have to ask you who has visited you today.”
Gunnel looked away.
“Agne’s brother Ruben,” she said tersely. “He stopped by a few hours ago. He was going off to hunt hare and wanted to borrow a box of ammunition for his rifle.”
“Did he have the rifle with him?”
“He usually does,” Gunnel said. “He is…”
She fell silent. Both of the women watched as Ryde got out of his car, walked over to the other two, and crouched down. Berglund turned the flashlight back on.
“Where does Ruben live?”
“Up the hill,” Gunnel said and pointed to a pair of houses a couple of hundred meters away.
“Where the lights are on, the house with the two chimneys?”
Gunnel nodded.
Lindell walked back to the car tracks. Ryde gave her a disapproving look but didn’t say anything. He took out a folding ruler and measured the tracks.
“Same width,” he said.
Then he took out a camera and quickly took half a dozen pictures. The flash lit up the snow. Haver shivered. Lindell told him that it was most likely Sagander’s brother’s car, that he was armed and lived close by.
Ola Haver looked at her but Lindell sensed that he was far away in his thoughts.
“The knife that Mattias stole was in the car. The car that made the tracks in Libro and now here,” Haver said. “Ruben visited his brother in the hospital the day after the murder.”
“Fucking amateur,” Ryde said.
“Ruben Sagander,” Lindell said, and all four turned north to look at the house with the two chimneys.
“He’s armed,” Haver said.
As if on a given signal they all started walking to Agne Sagander’s house. Gunnel sensed what was going on; they all saw it. She drew the scarf tight around her neck, straightened up, and steeled herself.
“Do you know if Ruben visited his brother in the hospital on the day after the operation?” Lindell asked.
“Yes, we went there together.”
“In Ruben’s car?”
Gunnel nodded.
“Does he have a red-and-white pickup?”
A new nod.
“What’s happened?” she asked, but Lindell sensed that Gunnel Sagander already knew.
“Did Ruben know John?” Berglund asked.
“Yes, certainly.”
They went into the house. Haver made a call. Berglund talked to Agne