“The very same.”
“Where did you see him?” said Henrik.
“Over there.”
Nils pointed toward the dock area.
“In the docks? You saw him there?”
“Yes, and I saw him last Thursday, more than a week ago.”
“And you are certain that it was him?” said Gunnar.
“Oh yes, I’m certain it was him. I knew his parents. His dad and I were in the same class and always said those were the days.”
“Okay, but can you point out the exact place where you saw him?” said Gunnar.
“Of course, come with me, boys.”
Nils let his dog down and brushed the hairs off his overcoat. Gunnar and Henrik followed Nils across the bridge toward the dock parking lot.
“It’s hard to grasp that he’s dead. I mean, who can do something so evil?” said Nils.
“We’re trying to find out,” said Gunnar.
“That’s good. Yes, I hope I can be of some help.”
He slowly led them across the lot and up to the yellow main building where they stood outside the locked doors.
“He was walking along here. He was on his own. And seemed angry.”
“Angry?”
“Yes, he looked very angry. But he acted as if he knew where he was headed.”
Gunnar and Henrik looked at each other.
“You didn’t see anyone else nearby?”
“No.”
“Did you hear any voices or other sounds?”
“No, not that I remember.”
“Did he have anything in his hands?”
“No, I don’t think so, no.”
Henrik looked up at the main building and the dark office windows.
“What time was it?” he said.
“Yes, well it was in the middle of the afternoon, around three, I think. That’s usually when we take her out for a walk.”
Nils looked at his dog and smiled.
“That’s what we usually do, isn’t it, old girl? Oh yes. We usually do that. We do, don’t we?”
Gunnar pushed his hands into his pockets.
“Do you know if he had his car parked here?”
“No idea.”
“We’ve got to try to get hold of somebody in the office.”
Henrik phoned the police communication center and asked the operator to immediately contact the managing director of the Norrk?ping Docks.
“Shall we look round for the time being,” Gunnar wondered aloud and nodded in the direction of the big warehouses some distance away.
Henrik nodded in response, while Gunnar thanked Nils for his cooperation and the information he had supplied them with.
Nils raised his cap.
“Glad to be of help. I don’t suppose you gentlemen have anything against my following along with you? I know a lot about the port here.”
Nils immediately started to tell about the history of the port and what it looked like on the quay in the old days. While they walked, he rambled on about the surface materials, warehouses that protected goods from the elements and the flexibility of the cranes. When he started talking about the rail cars and how they linked with the mainline, Gunnar silenced him with a polite thank-you.
“Hans came walking along here, you say?”
“Yes, he came from here.”
Nils pointed at the halls that they were now approaching.
“So perhaps he hadn’t been in the office building?”
“I don’t know. I said I saw him outside, not that he was in there.”
Henrik’s cell phone rang. It was from the station telling him they couldn’t reach the managing director and asking if they should try the person on call instead. Henrik said yes.
Gunnar took the lead as they crossed the asphalt area, and looked with curiosity between the warehouses they passed.
Henrik was not far behind, and after him came Nils with his panting dog at the end of an outstretched leash.
Gunnar saw a shed a bit further along and went toward it. He opened the door and looked in. Tables, folding chairs, a coffee machine, some cupboards and an old mat on the floor. The ceiling light was on, and the news was on the radio.
Henrik, still standing on the quay, looked around. His gaze fell on some containers far away that were lined up in a depot next to a couple of tall gantries that lifted them onto ships.
“Would you believe those metal things are transported around the world?” said Nils who had now come up beside Henrik.
“They carry anything you want... Iron, gravel, garbage, toys.”
*
Gunnar closed the door to the shed and noticed that the sliding door to a warehouse was open. He motioned to Henrik, trying to attract his attention. But it was futile. Henrik was focused on Nils, who carried on about the contents of the containers: “machines, timber, cars, clothes...”
Gunnar slid open the door to one side and went inside. He cast a glance at the large space. The ceiling was lighted by fluorescent lights, and the walls were steel-clad with storage shelves and cupboards lined up against the back wall. Forklifts and trucks were parked on one side, and on the floor lay...a man.
*
Henrik was still standing on the quay with Nils who wouldn’t stop talking.
Then, as if his prayers had been answered, Henrik’s phone started to ring. The station got hold of an emergency number and was now putting the call through. While he waited for someone to pick up, Henrik excused himself and walked toward the area where Gunnar had been standing a moment ago.
He peered into the shed first, but Gunnar wasn’t there. Suddenly he heard Gunnar shout: “Henrik! Come here!”
Henrik ran toward the warehouse from where Gunnar’s voice had called. He found his boss leaning over the body of a man.
Dead.
“Phone forensics!”
Henrik immediately dialed the station.
*
Jana Berzelius felt clean again.
She brewed a cup of coffee, made some oatmeal and squeezed some oranges for juice. It took her fifteen minutes to eat her breakfast. She thumbed through the morning paper without much interest before going into her study. She started up her computer and then unlocked the secret storeroom. She had hidden Thomas Rydberg’s telephone and SIM card in a box. She knew that she must get rid of both right away. The box also contained the ticket with all the numbers she had found in the cell phone. She took the ticket and went and sat in front of the computer.
She nimbly keyed in the first number on the home page of the search engine and that led her to a company that sold spare parts.
The next search provided information about a lunch restaurant. The next two were a private individual and an inspector at Norrk?ping Docks. When she checked all the numbers Rydberg had called, she didn’t find anything remarkable.
Jana fingered the parking receipt and wondered about the abbreviation in one of the outgoing text messages. Del.Tues.1.
You only wrote as cryptically as that if you had something to hide.
The message had been sent on April 4 and presumably it ought to mean Delivery Tuesday 1. But what did the 1 stand for? Was it how many? Or the date perhaps?
Jana glanced down at the right-hand corner of the computer screen. Today was April 21. Ten days to the first of May. She entered the telephone number that the text message had been sent to on the search engine. In less than a second she had an answer. The result surprised her. Could it really be correct?
She read the name again.
The Migration Board.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
THEY SAT IN silence in the back of the van. The vehicle shook and it was very noisy inside the small space. The girl tried to brace herself against the sudden rocking.
Hades sat next to her with a dogged look on his face. His gaze was locked on a point straight in front of him.
The girl was falling asleep when the van finally stopped. The driver told them to do it quickly. Not to waste any time, just complete the mission and then come back out again.