“You can go ahead now,” he said, before turning to Henrik and Gunnar. “Here comes the first one.”
Jana looked out across the sea and the safety zone. She screwed up her eyes as she watched the floating crane work. Slowly, slowly, a steel cable was winched up. The waves hit against the barge. The wind howled. Then a dark gray object broke the surface and a container became visible. The water poured down on the sides. The container rotated half a turn and was then lowered cautiously onto the barge.
The second container to be lifted up was blue. When that broke the surface, Jana became rigid. She saw the combination code. And recognized it. Paralyzed, she watched the container’s rocking movements before it landed on the barge. When the third container came up, she immediately felt impatient. She wanted to see what was in them. Now!
The salvage operation took one and a half hours. One by one, the containers were lifted from the barge onto land.
Jana put her weight on her other leg, to relax.
Mia Bolander jumped up and down and wound her arms round in large circles.
Anneli Lindgren and Gunnar ?hrn stood next to Ola S?derstr?m and chatted.
Henrik helped to direct the crane operators until all ten containers were lifted into place.
“We’ll start with this one,” Gunnar shouted and pointed at an orange-colored container that had emerged from the water as number four.
They gathered together outside the steel, moon-shaped doors. The bearded dockworker stood in the middle, in front of the locking mechanism.
“When we open, we’ve got to be very careful. I want you all to move to a safe distance. The containers will contain a lot of water,” he said.
“I thought they were watertight,” said Henrik.
“Oh no, believe me, they’re not.”
Henrik’s spirits sank drastically. The hope of finding something important was immediately dampened. Water was a great enemy that could eliminate important evidence. Often very quickly.
“Go back!” the dockworker shouted out.
Jana took several steps backward.
Gunnar got hold of Anneli’s arm and pulled her along, as if he wanted to protect her.
Henrik and Mia came after them. From twenty meters, Henrik looked questioningly at the dockworker.
“Go further back!” he shouted.
At fifty meters they stopped. The dockworker gave a thumbs-up sign and then looked closely at the doors. He felt the locking rods and checked the locking mechanism. With the help of a hefty tool, he forced open the lock and set it down. He thought for a few moments about how he could avoid getting caught by any water that might be inside. He steadied himself, put his hand on the metal handle and pulled. His hand slipped. It was like holding a cake of soap. He tried again. Took a firm grip with both hands, tensed his muscles and pulled as hard as he could. The doors opened and water gushed out with enormous power. The dockworker was caught by the flow and landed hard on his back. The water washed over him and he spat and hissed. He tried to wipe his face with his wet jacket, but it didn’t help, so he tried to sit up.
But something else came gushing out of the container.
He tried to dry his eyes again so he could see what it was that had landed next to him. Something round and covered with algae. He gave it a slight poke and felt something stick on his hands. He poked again and then rolled the object to one side. He immediately pulled back at the dreadful sight that met him.
It was a decomposed head.
*
Jana stood stock-still. Her face revealed nothing as she looked across the wet ground. Body parts were strewn everywhere. Rotting arms and legs. Clumps of hair. The stench was awful.
Henrik Levin held his nose as his stomach cramped. He struggled not to vomit.
Anneli Lindgren was very cautious when she documented the head. The face had dissolved, the eye sockets seemed to have grown bigger and what was left of the eyes hung out.
“One year,” said Anneli and got up. She estimated roughly one year that they had been in the water. “We can thank our cold climate for the bodies being so well preserved.”
Henrik nodded and felt queasy and swallowed several times to get rid of that.
Mia Bolander’s face had turned white. She had already used up a whole year’s supply of expletives.
Jana Berzelius remained standing at a safe distance. Immobile.
Anneli carefully went up to one of the rotting bones, bent down and took a series of photographs. The skin hung down off the bone like bags of water. When she touched the surface, the skin fell off and stuck on her latex gloves. The bone had penetrated the skin at several places. Anneli got in close with her camera to catch all the details.
“Shall we open the next container?”
Henrik nodded, but he could no longer keep the contents of his stomach down.
*
It took a relatively long time before the next container could be opened. Because of the macabre contents found in the first one, they had to take rigorous safety precautions. Anneli Lindgren had discussed different methods with the dock manager Rainer Gustavsson. They decided they would pump out the water before the doors were opened. But so as not to risk the contents of the container being sucked out, they needed a mechanical filter and the necessary equipment was only available in Link?ping. Bringing it to their location further delayed the process. It took two hours before three technicians arrived with the special pump. They set up the filter unit, fit in the filters then inserted a large valve to regulate the flow of the water.
Henrik Levin left all this to the specialists. Even though the outdoor temperature had fallen during the afternoon, he was no longer freezing. He just wanted not to vomit again. He had emptied his stomach three times, and that was three times too many. He wasn’t the only one. Even Mia Bolander got sick. She stood next to him now and looked pale.
“We’ll start the pump now,” said one of the technicians.
The water poured out from the container into a large tank. The emptying took place in silence. The rotted bodies had left everyone shocked and stunned. Henrik thanked the powers above that the cordoning had kept the journalists at a distance. Anneli had called in reinforcement, and five police officers were now following her instructions and gathering together the body parts for transport to forensics. Henrik looked from a slight distance at the rust that climbed up the blue steel wall of the container.
Jana Berzelius stood behind him. She didn’t see the rust. She saw the numbers. And letters. The combination.
Just like they had looked in her dream.
“I think we are going to find more bodies inside there,” said Mia.
“Do you think so?” said Henrik.
“Yes, I fucking bet there’ll be corpses in all of them,” said Mia.
“I hope not,” said Henrik dejectedly.
“Ready!” called out one of the pump technicians.
“Who’s going to open it?” Henrik called back.
“Not any of my workers. The last one is at the clinic getting his stomach pumped. He swallowed a bit too much water. And other stuff. You open it.”
“Me?” said Henrik, surprised.
“Yes? Open it now.”
Henrik went up to the doors and felt them. They were slimy. He pulled one rod toward him but the door didn’t budge. He took a deep breath. He separated his legs far apart to give himself leverage, then got a harder grip on the rod and gave a sudden pull. The door creaked as it slowly opened.
Inside the container was dark. Completely black and totally impossible to see inside. Dripping water echoed as it hit the hard floor. The space sounded empty.
“Lights!” he said.
Mia Bolander rushed off to a car and got a large torch from the trunk. She hurried back to Henrik.
“Can someone see that we get some more lights!” she shouted. “We must be able to see!”