The Fire Witness: A Novel Read online

  Daniel nods so slightly it can barely be seen. The room fills with tension.

  Elin is trying to read Daniel’s expression, but he isn’t looking at her. Vicky seems on the point of tears.

  Johannes, however, stays calm and doesn’t let Daniel escape his gaze.

  “You were Vicky Bennet’s therapist,” he says. “Do you believe that she is capable of murdering your wife?”

  Daniel Grim lifts his chin. His lips are pale. His hand trembles as he wipes his eyes, nudging his glasses off-kilter.

  “I have not discussed the case with any of my colleagues. I haven’t been able to. But in my professional opinion, well, no, I don’t believe that Vicky Bennet is capable of this.”

  “How did you reach that opinion?”

  “Vicky was responsive to therapy and medication,” Daniel says. “But most important, in my profession, you meet people who are … that is, she did not have any violent fantasies and she was not violent in the manner that such people are.”

  “Thank you,” Johannes says quietly.

  151

  After lunch, Johannes is the last person to get back to the arraignment room. He’s holding his cell phone to his ear. The judge waits until the room is silent and then summarizes the results of the morning. Then he says, “The prosecutor has reduced the level of suspicion to the next-lowest level. She still requests that the accused be held in custody as a suspect for the crime of kidnapping.”

  “Yes, indeed,” Susanne Öst says. “You cannot ignore the fact that Vicky Bennet kidnapped Dante Abrahamsson and held him captive for more than a week.”

  “There’s just one thing,” Johannes says.

  “What now?” asks the judge.

  Johannes walks to the door and opens it. Joona Linna enters, followed by a woman and a little boy. They stop as soon as they cross the threshold.

  “I would like to introduce Joona Linna,” Johannes says.

  “I know who he is,” the judge replies. He leans forward with increased interest.

  Joona turns to the little boy hiding behind his mother’s legs. “Here are the old guys I was telling you about.”

  “They don’t look like trolls,” the boy whispers, and starts to smile.

  “You don’t think so? Look closely at that one over there.” He points to the judge.

  The boy shakes his head and grins.

  “Everybody, say hi to Dante and his mom, Pia Abrahamsson,” Joona says.

  Everyone in the room says hi. When Dante sees Vicky, he waves. Vicky waves back and her smile is heartbreaking. Susanne closes her eyes and tries to breathe slowly.

  “You’re waving at Vicky, but wasn’t she mean to you?” Joona says.

  “Mean?”

  “Someone told me she was really mean,” Joona says.

  “She gave me piggyback rides and all her Hubba Bubba.”

  “But you wanted to go back to your mom.”

  “I couldn’t,” the boy says.

  “Why not?”

  The boy shrugs.

  “Tell them what you told me,” Pia says to her son.

  “What about?”

  “That she called.”

  “Oh yeah, she called.”

  “Can you tell Joona all about it?” Pia nods encouragingly.

  “Vicky called on the phone but they wouldn’t let her come back.”

  “Where did she call from?” asks Joona.

  “From the truck.”

  “Did someone let her borrow a phone in the truck?”

  “Don’t know.” Dante shrugs.

  “What did she say on the phone?”

  “She wanted to go back.”

  Dante’s mother lifts him up and snuggles him and whispers to him until he wriggles free.

  “Can you explain this?” the judge asks Joona.

  “Vicky borrowed a cell phone from a truck driver who worked for IKEA. His name is Radek Skorża,” Johannes Grünewald explains. “Joona Linna has traced the call. The call was placed to Birgittagården. It was automatically rerouted to the central office of Orre, the company that manages the home. Vicky spoke to a woman named Eva Morander. Vicky asked for help and repeated that she wanted to return. Eva Morander remembers the conversation. She told Vicky that the central office doesn’t handle specific cases.”

  “Do you remember this conversation, Vicky?” the judge asks.

  “Yes,” says Vicky. Her voice is naked. “I just wanted to go back. I wanted them to take Dante back to his mother. But she said I couldn’t go back.”

  Joona walks over and stands next to Johannes.

  “I know that it’s strange for a detective inspector to be on the side of the defense,” he says. “But in my opinion, Vicky Bennet told the truth during Saga Bauer’s questioning. I do not believe we have a kidnapping case here, just a terrible coincidence. So I talked to Dante and his mother and asked them to come, and that’s why I’m here, too.”

  Joona’s sharp gaze lands on the girl’s face: no makeup, bruises, and scabs.

  “But murder is something else, Vicky,” he says sternly. “You may think you can keep silent, but I will not rest until I find out the truth.”

  152

  The hearing concludes twenty minutes later after Susanne retracts her request for the suspect to be kept in custody on the kidnapping charge. Elin is sitting with her back straight and her face is expressionless as the prosecutor speaks. Vicky stares at the table and shakes her head slightly.

  The judge leans back in his chair and declares that Vicky Bennet is free on her own recognizance in the matter of the murders of Elisabet Grim and Miranda Eriksdotter until the case is brought to trial.

  Vicky Bennet would have been returned to Orre, the company that runs Birgittagården and other group youth homes, but the Swedish Organization for Institutionalized Care has confirmed Elin Frank as Vicky’s temporary foster mother.

  As the judge turns to Vicky and tells her that she is free to go, Elin breaks into a large smile. She can’t help herself. Afterward, though, Johannes takes her aside and warns her: “Even though Vicky is not in custody, she is still a suspect in two murders and—”

  “I know that.”

  “If the prosecutor presses charges, we might be able to win in court. That wouldn’t mean she’s innocent,” Johannes says. “She could still be guilty.”

  “I know she’s innocent,” Elin says, aware of how naïve she must sound.

  “It is my job to warn you,” Johannes says.

  “Even if Vicky were involved … Well, she’s much too young to go to jail,” Elin tries to explain. “Johannes, I can give her the best care in the entire world. I have already hired people to help me, and I’ve asked Daniel to stay with us, since Vicky feels secure around him.”

  “That’s good of you,” Johannes says softly.

  “We’ll consider all the options and find out what is best for her. That’s all I really care about,” Elin says, taking Johannes’s hands. “Maybe Daniel can continue her therapy for a while. Maybe we will entrust someone else with that. But I will not let her down again. I won’t do that.”

  153

  While Johannes Grünewald meets with the journalists in the National Police Bureau press room, Elin and Vicky leave Stockholm in Elin’s Jeep. They have already passed between Haga Park, where Crown Princess Victoria lives in her castle, and the enormous cemetery where the socialist August Palm lies buried.

  The aroma of Italian leather fills the roomy interior. Elin’s left hand on the steering wheel is bathed in the amber light from the instrument panel, and the autumnal sound of Bach’s first cello suite pours from the speakers.

  Elin looks at Vicky’s calm face and smiles to herself.

  In order to escape media attention, Elin is taking Vicky to her mountain cabin, where they will stay until the trial starts. The cabin is a 4,500-square-foot house in the foothills of Tegefjäll outside Duved.

  There, Vicky will have around-the-clock care. Elin’s local maid, Bella, is already at the
cabin, and Daniel set out just ahead of them in his own car. A nurse will arrive tomorrow.

  Vicky showered and washed her hair at the hospital, and her hair now smells of cheap shampoo. Elin bought her jeans, shirts, underwear, socks, and sports shoes, as well as a Windbreaker, and Vicky picked out the pair of black Armani jeans and a baggy gray sweater from Gant. The rest of the clothes are still in their bags in the backseat.

  “What are you thinking about?” Elin asks.

  Vicky doesn’t answer. She’s staring at the road. Elin turns down the music a little.

  “You’ll be found innocent,” Elin says. “I’m absolutely sure of it.”

  They’ve now passed through the suburbs and there are fields and patches of forest on either side of the highway.

  Elin offers Vicky some chocolate, but she shakes her head.

  She looks much better today. Her face has more color and the bandages are gone. Only the cast on her thumb is still there.

  “I’m so glad that Daniel is able to join us,” Elin says.

  “He’s good,” Vicky says.

  Elin caught a glimpse of his golden Audi Kombi near Norrtull, but she’s fallen behind him since.

  “Is he better than the other therapists you’ve met before?” asks Elin.

  “Yeah.”

  Elin lowers the volume a bit more.

  “Do you want him to continue to work with you?”

  “If I have to.”

  “It would be a good idea for you to continue therapy for a while,” Elin says.

  “In that case, then Daniel.”

  The farther north they drive, the more autumn makes itself known. Mile by mile, there’s less green and more yellow and red. The fallen leaves form glowing lakes around the base of the tree trunks. They whirl over the highway.

  Elin and Vicky do not speak for a while, then, out of the blue, Vicky says, “I need my stuff.”

  “What stuff?”

  “My things. The stuff I left behind.”

  “Your belongings have been moved to the house where the other girls are living now,” Elin says. “At least, the things the police didn’t take with them. I can see that someone picks them up for you.”

  She glances at the girl and thinks that her things are important to her.

  “Or would you like to get them now?”

  Vicky nods.

  “All right, if that’s what you want. I’ll call Daniel,” Elin says. “After all, it’s on the way.”

  154

  The sun is setting behind the evergreens when Elin turns off the highway at Jättendal and parks behind Daniel’s car. Daniel is waiting for them, a pink cooler by his side. He waves and they get out of the car and stretch their legs. Daniel unpacks the cooler, and they each have a cheese sandwich and a bottle of Trocadero while leaning against the car and gazing over the train tracks to the fields beyond.

  “I called my substitute at the house up there,” Daniel tells Vicky. “She doesn’t think it’s a good idea for you to come inside because of the other girls.”

  “What harm would it do?” asks Elin.

  “I don’t want to see them anyway,” Vicky says. “I just want my stuff.”

  They get back into their cars. A winding road leads them past lakes and Falun-red cottages and barns, through the forest, and to the coast.

  They park outside the house where the girls from Birgittagården are staying. On the other side of the road, a World War II naval mine is standing beside an old gas pump. Seagulls are perched on the telephone poles.

  Vicky unfastens her seat belt but stays in the car. She watches Elin and Daniel head straight toward the house and disappear behind the lilac bushes.

  Just ahead, where the road forks, there’s an old midsummer pole and the harbor lies beyond. Vicky looks out over the calm surface of the water, then she takes the new cell phone Elin has given her out of its box and peels the plastic from the screen.

  * * *

  The girls are standing by the window when Daniel and Elin walk up the steps to the large veranda. Daniel’s substitute, Solveig Sundström, is already standing outside the front door. It is clear that she’s not happy to see them. She tells them that they are not welcome to stay for dinner.

  “Could we come in and say hi at least?” asks Daniel.

  “Preferably not,” Solveig replies. “It would be better if you tell me what you need and I go to look for it.”

  “There are quite a few things—” Elin begins to say.

  “I can’t promise I’ll find them all.”

  “Just ask Caroline, then,” Daniel says. “She usually has things under control.”

  While Daniel asks how the girls are doing and what they are up to, Elin is looking at their faces in the window. They’re pushing one another and she can hear their voices through the glass although she can’t make out what they are saying. Indie and Nina are standing next to each other, and Lu Chu pushes herself to the front of the pack and waves. Elin waves back. The only girl that Elin can’t see is little red-haired Tuula.

  * * *

  Vicky is putting a SIM card into her cell phone. She looks up. A shiver goes down her back. She thinks she’s seen someone moving outside the car. Maybe it’s just the wind tossing the leaves of the lilac bushes.

  It’s twilight now.

  Vicky looks back at Daniel’s car, at the midsummer pole, the fence, and the lawn in front of the dark red house.

  A light is shining on the mast of a boat moored far out on the pier. Its reflection quivers on the black water. Frames used for cleaning fishing nets, abandoned long ago, stand in the meadow near the harbor like soccer nets lined up in a row. Hundreds of iron hooks are still fastened to them.

  Vicky catches sight of a red balloon rolling along the lawn in front of the house where the girls live.

  She gets out of the car and walks slowly toward the house. She stops and listens. The light from the windows is falling on the birch tree’s yellow leaves.

  She can hear mumbling and wonders if someone is out there in the darkness. She leaves the gravel path. The balloon rolls past a volleyball net and finally stops when it gets tangled in a hedge.

  “Vicky?” a voice whispers.

  Vicky whirls around but sees no one. All her senses are heightened.

  The settee creaks and starts to swing. The old weathervane turns in the wind.

  “Vicky!” A sharp voice close beside her.

  Vicky turns to the right and stares into the darkness. It takes her a few moments before she sees Tuula’s narrow face peeking out from among the lilac bushes. She’s holding a baseball bat. It is so heavy that the tip of the barrel is resting on the ground. Tuula wets her lips and stares at Vicky with bloodshot eyes.

  * * *

  Elin leans against the veranda railing and looks to see if Vicky is still in the car. It’s too dark to make her out. Daniel is talking to Solveig. Elin listens to him explain that Almira needs to continue her therapy and that she reacts badly to high doses of antidepressants. He asks again if he can come in, but Solveig says that the girls are now her responsibility. However, she lets Caroline come out on the veranda. Caroline hugs Daniel and greets Elin.

  “I’ve packed all of Vicky’s things,” she says.

  “Is Tuula inside?” Elin asks. Her voice is tense.

  “Yeah, I think so,” Caroline says, surprised. “Would you like me to get her?”

  “Yes, please get her,” Elin replies. She tries to look calm.

  Caroline goes back inside and calls for Tuula. Solveig looks at Daniel and Elin with mistrust.

  “If you’re hungry, you can have some apples. I’ll tell one of the girls to get some,” she says.

  Elin doesn’t reply. She walks down the steps into the garden. Behind her, she can still hear Caroline calling for Tuula.

  It is so dark now that the ocean is invisible. The settee squeaks as it swings.

  Elin is trying to be quiet, but her high heels clatter on the paving stones as she hurries around the c
orner of the path. The lilac bushes are rustling. It sounds like a rabbit running away. The branches move and Elin almost runs into Vicky.

  “Good God!” Elin exclaims.

  They look at each other. Vicky’s face is pale in the weak light. Elin feels her pulse beat in her temples.

  “Let’s go to the car,” she says, leading Vicky away from the house.

  Elin glances over her shoulder and sees Caroline running up to them. She’s holding a big plastic bag.

  “I couldn’t find Tuula,” she says.

  “Thanks for your trouble,” Elin replies.

  Vicky takes the bag and looks inside.

  “Most of your stuff is there,” Caroline says. “But Lu Chu and Almira used your earrings to bet with when they were playing poker.”

  As Vicky and Elin drive away, Caroline stands and watches them go. Her face is deeply sad.

  155

  Elin can see Daniel’s headlights in her rearview mirror the entire time she’s driving on the E14. There’s almost no traffic, just a few freight trucks, but it still takes them three hours to reach the ski resort area. Even in the darkness, they can see the lifts and support poles for Åre’s immense cable car on the mountainside. Six kilometers before Duved, they turn onto a narrow gravel road that zigzags up Tegefjäll. Leaves and dust swirl in the beams of the headlights.

  Soon they pass through the open gates and wind up the driveway to Elin’s cabin. It is a large, modernist house of poured concrete, all right angles and straight lines. Its huge rectangular windows are hidden behind aluminum shutters.

  They park the cars in a garage with room for five vehicles. A tiny blue Mazda is already there. Daniel helps Elin carry the luggage into the living room. Some lights are already on and Elin walks to a switch and presses it. The aluminum shutters creak as their panels separate. Light from the security lamp outside slips in through hundreds of small holes and, with a great deal more creaking, the metal shutters begin to roll up.