Camilla Lackberg Crime Thrillers 1-3: The Ice Princess, The Preacher, The Stonecutter

After a few minutes of hushed conversation, Nelly left the grieving parents and went out on the veranda to sit with Julia. No one gave the slightest indication that they found this quite strange. They went on with their conversations, keeping a watchful eye on the odd pair.

Erica once again stood alone in the corner after Francine left to continue mingling. From there, she could watch Julia and Nelly undisturbed. For the first time that day Erica saw a smile spread across Julia’s face. She hopped down from the windowsill and sat next to Nelly on the rattan sofa, and there they sat with their heads close together, whispering.

What could such a mismatched pair have in common? Erica cast a look in Birgit’s direction. The tears had finally stopped streaming down her cheeks. She fixed her gaze on her daughter and Nelly Lorentz with a look of naked horror on her face. Erica decided to accept that invitation from Mrs Lorentz after all. It might be interesting to have a little chat with her in private.

With a great sense of relief she finally left the house on the hill, glad to breathe in the invigorating winter air once more.

Patrik felt a little nervous. It was a long time since he had made dinner for a woman. A woman, moreover, for whom he felt a strong attraction. Everything had to be perfect.

He hummed as he sliced cucumbers for the salad. After much agony and pondering, he had finally decided on fillet of beef. Now it was trimmed and in the oven, almost done. The gravy was sputtering on the stove, and he could feel his stomach growling from the aroma.

It had been a hectic afternoon. He hadn’t been able to leave work as early as he had hoped, so he had to clean the house in record time. He hadn’t really been aware of the extent to which he had let the house go to pot since Karin left him, but when he saw it with Erica’s eyes, he realized that it was going to take a serious effort.

It felt a little embarrassing to have fallen into the typical bachelor’s trap with untidy surroundings and nothing in the fridge. He hadn’t really understood what a big burden Karin had carried at home. He took the neat, well-kept home for granted and didn’t give a thought to how much work it required to keep it in order. There was a lot he had taken for granted.

When Erica rang the doorbell he flung off his apron and glanced in the mirror to check his hair. Although he’d put gel on it, it was as unruly as ever.

Erica looked fantastic, as always. Her cheeks were a warm pink from the cold, and her blonde hair curled thickly over the collar of her down jacket. He gave her a brief hug, allowing himself to shut his eyes for a moment and inhale the scent of her perfume. Then he let her into the warm house.

The table was already set, and they started in on the appetizer while they waited for the entree to be done. Patrik surreptitiously watched as she tasted with pleasure the avocado stuffed with shrimp. Not really a difficult dish; hard to ruin.

‘I never would have thought that you could rustle up a three-course dinner,’ Erica said as she took another bite of the avocado.

‘No, I can hardly believe it myself. But – skål and welcome to Restaurant Hedström.’

They clinked glasses and sipped at the chilled white wine. Then they ate for a while in companionable silence.

‘How have you been?’ Patrik peered at Erica from under the hair hanging into his eyes.

‘I’ve probably had better weeks.’

‘Why did you come with them to the interview? It must have been quite a few years since you’ve had any contact with either Alex or her family.’

‘Yes, it’s probably been about twenty-five years or so. I’m not quite sure why I came. I feel as though I’ve just been sucked into a whirlpool, and I don’t know whether I can escape, or whether I even want to. I think Birgit sees me as a reminder of better days. Plus I’m an outsider, so maybe I represent some sort of security.’ Erica paused. ‘Have you made any progress?’

‘I’m sorry, I can’t say anything about the case.’

‘No, I understand. Pardon me, I wasn’t thinking.’

‘No problem. But I thought you might be able to help me. You’ve seen the family a good deal now, plus you know them from before. Could you tell me a little about your impressions of the family and what you know about Alex?’

Erica put down her silverware and tried to sort out her own impressions in the order she wanted to present them to Patrik. She told him everything she’d found out, along with her impressions of the people in Alex’s life. Patrik listened attentively even as he got up and cleared away the appetizer and brought out the entree. Now and then he would interject a question. He was astonished at all the information Erica had uncovered in such a short time. And after she also told him what she knew about Alex from the past, the woman who until now had been merely a murder victim was suddenly transformed into someone with a face and personality.

‘I know that you can’t talk about the case, Patrik, but can you tell me if the police have any leads? Any ideas at all about who could have murdered her?’

‘No, I have to say that we haven’t got very far in the investigation. A minor breakthrough, anything at all, would be extremely welcome about now.’ He sighed and circled his finger around the edge of his wine glass.

Erica hesitantly said, ‘I may have something that could be of interest.’ She reached for her handbag and began digging around in it. She pulled out a piece of paper which she handed to him across the table. Patrik took it and unfolded it. He read what it said with interest, but raised a questioning eyebrow when he was done.

‘What does this have to do with Alex?’

‘That’s what I was wondering too. I found this article in a bureau drawer, hidden beneath Alex’s underwear.’

‘What do you mean, you “found” it? When did you have a chance to go through her bureau drawers?’

He saw her blush and wondered what she was hiding.

‘Well, one night I went to the house and snooped around a little.’

‘You did what?’

‘Yes, I know. You don’t have to say it. It was really stupid, but you know how I am. Act first and think later.’ She was talking fast in order to ward off any additional reproaches. ‘In any case, I found this paper in Alex’s drawer and managed to take it with me.’

He refrained from asking how she could ‘manage’ to take the item with her. It was better not to know.

‘What do you think it could mean?’ asked Erica. ‘An article about a disappearance twenty-five years ago. What connection could that have with Alex?’

‘What else do you know about this?’ asked Patrik, waving the article.

‘Factually, no more than what’s in the article. That Nils Lorentz, son of Fabian and Nelly Lorentz, disappeared without a trace in January of 1977. No body was ever found. On the other hand, there has been a good deal of speculation over the years. Some people think that he drowned and the body washed out to sea. Other rumours say that he embezzled a large amount of money from his father and then fled the country. What I heard was that Nils Lorentz was not a nice person, so most people leaned towards the latter alternative. He was the only son, and Nelly apparently spoiled him rotten. She was inconsolable after he disappeared, and Fabian Lorentz never got over the loss. He died of a heart attack about a year later. The only heir to the fortune is now a foster son they took in about a year before Nils vanished. Nelly adopted him a couple of years after her husband died. Well, that’s just a small sampling of the local gossip. I still don’t understand how this could have any bearing on Alex’s death. The only dealings the families ever had with each other were when Karl-Erik worked in the office at the Lorentz cannery when Alex and I were little, before they moved to Göteborg. But that was over twenty-five years ago.’

Erica suddenly remembered one other link. She told Patrik about Nelly’s appearance at the funeral reception and how she had devoted almost all her attention to Julia.

‘I have no idea how any of this could be connected to the article. But there must be something. Francine, Alex’s partner in the gallery, also mentioned that she thought Alex wanted to come to terms with the past somehow. That was as much as Francine knew, but I think it makes sense. Call it woman’s intuition or whatever you like, but I have a feeling that there’s a connection.’

She was a little ashamed because she knew she hadn’t told Patrik the whole truth. There was one more small but very strange piece of the puzzle that she was keeping to herself. At least until she knew more.

‘Well, I certainly can’t argue with a woman’s intuition. Would you like a little more wine?’

‘Yes, please.’ Erica looked around the kitchen. ‘A nice place you have here. Did you decorate it yourself?’

‘No, I can’t take credit for that. It was Karin who was the decorating talent.’

‘Oh right, your wife Karin. What happened between the two of you, actually?’

‘Well, it was really the same old story. Girl meets dance-band singer in a waist-length jacket. Girl falls in love. Girl divorces her husband and moves in with the dance-band singer.’

‘You’re kidding!’

‘Unfortunately I’m not. It was bad enough that she dumped me. But she left me for Leif Larsson, popular singer and heartthrob in “Leffes” the most famous dance band in Bohuslän. The man with the prettiest hockey girlfriend on the west coast. Yep, there’s not much you can do to compete with a man in tasselled loafers.’

Erica looked at him wide-eyed.

Patrik smiled. ‘Well, that’s probably a somewhat exaggerated version, but something along those lines.’

‘But that must have been terrible. It couldn’t have been easy for you.’

‘I felt sorry for myself for quite a while, but it’s okay now. Not good, but okay.’

Erica changed the subject. ‘The news about Alex’s pregnancy was like a bomb going off.’ She stared hard at Patrik, and he had a feeling that there was something more behind her apparently innocent remark.

‘In any case, it seemed she hadn’t shared the good news with her husband,’ Erica said.

Patrik waited silently for her to go on. After a moment Erica appeared to have decided to continue down that path, but she spoke in a low voice, still sounding hesitant.

‘According to her best friend, Henrik isn’t the father of the child.’

Patrik raised an eyebrow and whistled, but still said nothing in the hope of more information from Erica.

‘Francine told me that Alex had met someone here in Fjällbacka. And she drove here every weekend to see him. According to Francine, Alex had never wanted to have children with Henrik, but it was different with this man. She was overjoyed about the baby, and that’s why Francine insisted so strongly that her death wasn’t suicide. In her view, Alex was happy for the first time in her life.’

‘Did she know who the man was?’

‘No, she didn’t. Alex kept that information to herself.’

‘But why would her husband put up with her driving to Fjällbacka every weekend without him? Did he know that she was meeting someone here?’

Patrik took another sip of wine and felt his cheeks beginning to flush. Whether from the wine or from Erica’s presence, he wasn’t quite sure.

‘Apparently they had a quite unusual relationship. I met Henrik in Göteborg and I got the feeling that their lives ran on parallel tracks that seldom crossed. It’s also impossible to say what he knows or doesn’t know, from the short conversation that I had with him. That man has a stone face. I think that whatever he knows, he’s very careful to keep it to himself.’

‘That type of person can sometimes be like a pressure cooker. The steam builds and builds, and one day it explodes. Do you think that’s what might have happened? That one day the rejected husband had enough, and he killed the unfaithful wife?’ Patrik asked.

‘I don’t know, Patrik. I really don’t know. But now I think we should drink more than our share of wine and talk about all sorts of things, as long as it doesn’t have to do with murder and sudden death.’

He willingly agreed and raised his glass in a toast.

They moved to the sofa and spent the rest of the evening talking comfortably about everything else under the sun. She told him about her life, about the fuss over the house and her grief over her parents. He told her about his anger and feeling of failure after his divorce, and about the frustration of finding himself at square one again, just as he was starting to feel ready for children and a family, ready to believe that he and Karin would grow old together.

Even the brief pauses in the conversation felt comfortable, and it was at those moments he had to keep himself from leaning forward and kissing Erica. He refrained, and the opportunity passed.

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