The Girl in the Woods

‘No, I can’t say I recall anything that would be of interest. I have a good view out the kitchen window when I’m sitting here, but I don’t remember seeing anything special.’

‘If you happen to think of something later on, don’t hesitate to phone us,’ said Paula, getting up after casting an enquiring glance at Martin, who nodded.

She put her business card on the table and pushed in her chair.

‘Thanks for the coffee,’ said Martin. ‘It was excellent and also … an experience.’

‘Precisely the way things in life should be,’ replied Dagmar with a smile.

He glanced again at the photo of the beautiful young athlete and saw the same glint in her eye as in the eyes of ninety-one-year-old Dagmar. He recognized that glint. Pia had had it too: joie de vivre.

With great care he closed the lovely old front door behind him.

Mellberg stretched as he sat at the head of the conference table. An impressive group of reporters had gathered. Not only from the local papers, but from the national media as well.

‘Is it the same perpetrator?’ asked Kjell from Bohusläningen.

Patrik was keeping a close eye on Mellberg. He would have preferred to take over, but Mellberg had put his foot down. A press conference was his moment in the spotlight, and he wasn’t about to give up the opportunity. This was in stark contrast to his readiness to step aside when it came to anything that resembled hard work.

‘We can’t rule out the possibility of a link to the Stella case, but we’re not going to get locked into any one theory,’ said Mellberg.

‘But surely it’s not a coincidence,’ Kjell insisted.

His dark beard now had a few streaks of grey.

‘As I said, we will of course investigate every angle, but when something seems too obvious, there’s a risk we might not look into other possibilities.’

Good answer, Mellberg, thought Patrik with surprise. Maybe he’d actually learned a few things along the way.

‘Though clearly it does seem a strange coincidence that the film star should come back here right before this happens,’ said Mellberg. All the reporters began feverishly taking notes.

Patrik had to clench his fists to stop himself from slapping his forehead. He could already guess what the evening headlines would be.

‘So, are you planning to question Marie and Helen?’ asked a hack from one of the evening papers.

The younger reporters were always the most persistent. Hungry to establish themselves at the paper and prepared to do whatever it took to make their name.

‘Yes, we plan to talk to them,’ Mellberg confirmed. It was obvious he was enjoying all the attention.

He gladly turned his face towards the cameras aimed at him, reaching up to make sure his comb-over was in place.

‘So are they your prime suspects?’ asked a young female reporter from the other big evening paper.

‘Well, I mean … No, I wouldn’t exactly say that …’

Mellberg scratched his head and seemed to realize he might have turned the conversation in the wrong direction. He looked at Patrik, who cleared his throat and said:

‘We have no suspects at this stage of the investigation. As Bertil Mellberg said, we’re not ruling anything out yet. We’re waiting for the technical report, and we’re carrying out interviews on a broad front, talking to people who might provide information regarding the time period when Nea disappeared.’

‘So you think it’s merely coincidence that a girl from the same farm disappears and is found dead in the same place as Stella, during the same week when one of the individuals convicted in the Stella case comes back here for the first time in thirty years?’

‘The most obvious connections are not always the most significant,’ he replied to the follow-up question. ‘So it would not be wise for us to get locked into one theory right now. As Mellberg has already pointed out.’

Kjell from Bohusläningen raised his hand to indicate he had another question.

‘How did the girl die?’

Mellberg leaned forward.

‘As Patrik Hedström mentioned, we haven’t yet received the technical report, and the post-mortem hasn’t been done. So at this time we can’t address that question.’

‘Is there a risk other children might be murdered?’ Kjell went on. ‘Should parents in the area keep their children inside? As you might expect, rumours have been spreading, and people are scared.’

Mellberg paused before answering. Patrik discreetly shook his head, hoping his boss would get the message. There was no reason to frighten the local population.

‘At the present time there is no reason for concern,’ Mellberg said. ‘We’re putting all our resources into this investigation. We will find out who killed Linnea Berg.’

‘Was she killed in the same way as Stella?’

Kjell wasn’t giving up. The other journalists looked from him to Mellberg. Patrik crossed his fingers that Mellberg would stand firm.

‘As I said, we won’t know until we have the results of the pathology report.’

‘But you’re not denying it?’ the young hack chimed in.

In his mind Patrik again pictured the body of the little girl, lying exposed and alone on the cold autopsy table. He couldn’t help snapping, ‘We’ve already told you that we won’t know anything until we get the pathology report!’

The young reporter retreated, looking offended.

Kjell raised his hand again. This time he looked straight at Patrik.

‘I’ve heard your wife is writing a book about the Stella case. Is that true?’

Patrik had known the question would come, but he still felt unprepared for it. He looked down at his clenched fists.

‘For some reason, my wife refuses to discuss her projects, even with the excellent resources she has at home,’ he said, drawing a ripple of laughter from the reporters. ‘So I’ve only heard a few things about it in passing. I don’t know how far along she is in her research. I’m usually kept out of the creative process, and I don’t get involved until she asks me to read the completed manuscript.’

That wasn’t entirely true, but almost. He knew roughly what stage Erica had reached in the project, but only because of a few casual remarks she’d let slip. She was always reluctant to talk about her books while she was working on them, and he usually got involved only if she needed to ask him about any police-related issues. But she rarely supplied any context when putting her questions, so they were little help in getting a sense of the book itself.

‘Could that have been a contributing factor? For another murder?’

The young woman from the evening paper was looking at him expectantly, and he could see the gleam in her eye. What the hell did she mean? Was she saying his wife might have provoked the death of the little girl?

He was about to open his mouth to deliver a scathing reply when he heard Mellberg’s calm admonition:

‘I consider that question both tasteless and irrelevant. And no, there is nothing to suggest any connection whatsoever between Erica Falck’s book and the murder of Linnea Berg. And if you can’t refrain from such outrageous questions during the next’ – Mellberg glanced at his watch – ‘ten minutes that remain of this press conference, I won’t hesitate to cut it short. Understood?’

Patrik exchanged astonished glances with Annika. And to his great surprise, the journalists behaved themselves for the rest of the press conference.