“Calm down,” Anders sneered. “I was just asking how she is.”
“And I’m working.”
Gunnar shifted his weight in his chair, feeling the sweat on his back seeping through the material of his shirt. He looked at Anders, who sat composed and still, hands now by his mouth, fingertips still pressed against each other. He had an expression of superiority on his face, a crooked smile visible at the corner of his mouth.
“Coffee?”
“Oh, are we going to take coffee breaks together now, too?”
“Here you go,” Anders said, pushing the mug toward Gunnar, who looked at it with disgust.
“I don’t understand how you can dare to come in here,” Gunnar said.
“I value your opinions,” Anders replied.
“You have nothing to do here.”
“I hear what you’re saying.”
“To think that you have the balls to question our investigation.”
“I’m doing my job.”
“We’re doing ours, too.”
“Clearly not, because I’m here.”
“There must be another reason you’re here. I really want to tell you to go to hell.”
“I know.”
“But then I risk retaliation?”
“You might anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I just said.”
“Are you threatening me?”
Anders continued smiling, rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward.
“No, Gunnar. Why would I threaten you? I just want to make sure that you’re all doing a good job here in Norrköping.”
“I have worked in law enforcement my whole life. I know how to do a good job.”
“Then I’ll have to see that you do a better job, then.”
“You can sit here, leaning in to seem more dangerous,” Gunnar said, leaning back in his chair, “and you can say whatever you want. I’m still not going to listen.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Anders said.
“I know exactly what I’m doing.”
“I don’t think you do. It seems like you don’t understand the importance of cooperation. That we are going to cooperate. Regional and National Crime Squads. Norrköping and Stockholm. You and me, Gunnar.”
Gunnar didn’t want to hear any more. Sweat ran down his temples, but he didn’t dare wipe it away for fear of showing Anders how upset he really was.
“Obviously, we will cooperate,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “You and me. Anything else I can do for you?”
Anders stood up.
“No,” he said, putting his hand out and giving Gunnar a firm handshake. Unnecessarily firm, for unnecessarily long.
And Gunnar responded.
Just as unnecessarily hard and for just as unnecessarily long.
HIS COAT SPARKLED with snowflakes.
Karl Berzelius stamped the snow from his shoes before he got into the taxi outside the Louis De Geer Concert Hall.
He raked his hand through his thick gray hair and straightened his coat underneath him.
Margaretha was already sitting in the backseat with her purse on her lap. She wiped her delicate eyeglasses with a tissue before replacing them on her nose and carefully folding the tissue and putting it back into her purse, closing it with a click.
“Fantastic,” she murmured as the taxi swung out onto the cobblestones.
“What did you say?” Karl asked, looking out the window.
“The concert was fantastic. The best I’ve heard in a long time. Makes me happy.”
“Yes, it is one of the most played pieces in the entire piano repertoire.”
“I understand why.”
“Rachmaninoff, hard to beat.”
“Yes.”
He looked at the snowdrifts. As the car turned to the right, he turned his gaze up to the garlands that hung over the street, watching the thousands of lights swaying back and forth.
“It’s the second Sunday of Advent this week,” Margaretha murmured. “And Christmas soon...”
She said it quietly, but he heard her.
“Yes? And what about it?”
She didn’t answer at first, as if she were biding her time. Then came the question he had expected. “Maybe it’s time to invite her over?”
He looked at his wife, saw how she was hugging her purse and knew that she was waiting for his reaction.
“For Christmas, yes,” he replied.
“Or earlier, maybe even this Saturday so that we could...”
He held his hand up, signaling that he’d heard enough.
“Please, Karl.”
“No.”
“But I don’t want to wait until Christmas, and I think it’s a good idea if we...”
“She hasn’t called.”
“But I’ve called her.”
He glared at her, making Margaretha hug her purse even more tightly.
“Have you spoken with her?” he asked.
“Yes, and you should, too. It’s been a long time since you did,” she said, adding his name. “Karl.”
He cleared his throat.
“I don’t want to hear any more,” he said.
“So we should just leave her alone?”
“Yes.”
“But I don’t want to.”
“That’s enough! If you want to see her, do it. Invite her over. Do what you want! But leave me out of it!”
There it was again. The anger, irritation. He surprised himself with it. He heard her sigh but didn’t care.
He turned his gaze back to the window.
Back to the swaying lights.
* * *
Jana Berzelius opened her inbox and glanced through new emails that she had received during the late afternoon. The first was from Torsten Granath, an invitation to the regional prosecutorial chamber’s traditional Christmas dinner at the Göta Hotel in Borensberg. The next two were regarding a hearing about an assault at a pub, to be held at Norrköping’s district court within a week. The last one contained a two-page document that had to do with an amendment decision in the Swedish Prosecution Authority statute book.
Twenty minutes later, she turned off her computer and walked slowly into her bedroom, taking off her clothes, folding them and putting them on a chair. She turned on the light in her walk-in closet and stood before the mirror that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. She pushed her long, dark hair to the side, letting it fall over