Marked for Life (27 page)

Carved by her.

CHAPTER
FORTY-NINE

Saturday, April 28

SHE COULD REMEMBER
it so clearly now, could see everything before her every time she closed her eyes for a few moments. It was as if somebody had given her a good shaking. She remembered the container, that she was dragged out of it, that she was taken away in a van, trained hard and then that she fled away from it all.

From Papa.

At the same time, she realized that every single detail, every note and every image in her notebooks were from the same reality. So they hadn't been dreams; they had been memories. Nobody had believed her either. Her father and mother had tried to silence her with medication and psychologists.

Sitting in her car, Jana hit at the steering wheel.

She shut her eyes and roared out loud. Then she became quiet. Breathed deeply. And suddenly, behind her closed eyes, she saw Papa before her.

* * *

He stood over her, watched how she tensed up. The terror had grown in her eyes. The hate in his.

And when he gave her the knife, she had realized what she was forced to do. She was forced to kill so as not to be killed. So she turned round and let the knife in her hand slowly sink between the ribs of the boy who lay beside her.

He, too, with tape over his mouth, and panic in his eyes.

* * *

It had been beautiful, in a horribly dreadful way.

When Jana opened her eyes again, for a brief moment she experienced the feeling of carrying out a required task for Papa. But then she slowly returned to the horrific reality.

She started the car and drove out onto the motorway. When she passed the sign that welcomed her to Linköping, she increased speed and felt how the adrenaline ran through her. Outside the forensic center she adjusted her jacket and ran her fingers through her hair.

She was back in her role as prosecutor.

* * *

Medical examiner Björn Ahlmann was leaning over the little girl who lay on the bench. Her body was partly decomposed from lying in the grave. Her eye sockets were holes.

Björn had the girl's hand in his and took her fingerprints. When he heard somebody in the doorway, he looked up and saw Jana Berzelius.

“Can you identify them?” she said.

“Let's hope so. For their parents' sake,” said Björn.

“They're not alive,” Jana said briefly.

“The parents?” said Björn.

“No, they are dead too,” said Jana.

“How can you know that?”

“I assume it.”

“An assumption is only a guess. As prosecutor you must be certain.”

“I am.”

“Certain?”

“Yes, I believe the children's parents were in those containers that were salvaged.”

“To believe is also a guess.”

“Match their DNA with the children's and you'll see.”

“You know that means a lot of work.”

“Yes, and the possibility to be able to identify them.”

Björn Ahlmann was just about to open his mouth to say something when Henrik Levin and Mia Bolander entered the room. Mia furrowed her brow when she saw the corpse on the bench and stopped a few meters away.

“She's not very old, is she?”

“About eight years,” said Björn.

“What do we know?” said Henrik.

“Shot,” said Björn. “They were all shot.”

“All of them?” said Henrik.

“Yes, but the entry holes are different,” said Björn.

“Did the children die where they were found?” said Henrik.

“In the ditch, yes. It seems so. They have presumably stood naked on the edge and been shot.”

“Presumably is only a guess,” said Jana and winked.

Björn cleared his throat.

“And there is reason to believe that the children belong to the people who were found in the containers,” Henrik said.

“Yes, and the prosecutor has initiated such a DNA match attempt,” said Björn.

Henrik ran his fingers through his hair and then left his hand on his neck a few moments.

“Fine. See if you can match them, straightaway,” he said.

Björn nodded in answer.

“Anything else?” said Henrik.

“Yes, I found something interesting on the girl's neck,” said Björn.

He turned her head to one side and exposed her neck.

The letters
E-R-I-D-A
were carved in the skin below her hairline. Erida.

Mia immediately pulled her cell out of her pocket and did a search for the name on her network.

“It must be the same person who has carved the name on the boy we found out at Viddviken,” said Henrik.

“Yes,” said Mia without taking her eyes off her telephone.

“So it's the same murderer,” said Henrik.

“The goddess of hate,” said Mia. “Erida stands for the goddess of hate and that too is a name from Greek mythology. Like Thanatos.”

The room fell silent.

All you could hear was the sound of the fans.

“One more thing,” Björn said finally. “The girl's head was shaved, but I found several long strands of hair on the girl. They are dark and thick and definitely not hers.”

“Send them straight to the National Forensics Lab,” said Henrik.

“Already done,” Björn answered.

* * *

The team sat in the conference room waiting for the briefing to begin. Gunnar Öhrn thumbed through a pile of papers. Anneli Lindgren was fidgeting with her hair; Henrik Levin leaned back in his chair with his arms folded over his chest. Mia Bolander also leaned back balancing her chair on its back legs. Jana Berzelius was leaning forward over the table with her notepad in front of her.

“First,” said Gunnar. “I've just spoken to Björn Ahlmann who confirms that several of the murdered children have the same DNA profile as the remains of those adults who were found in the salvaged containers. Which means they are relatives.”

“So presumably they are their parents,” said Henrik.

“Yes, it seems so,” said Gunnar. “We can reasonably assume that the children must have been originally in the containers, then were taken out and brought to the island. The parents were shot and dumped in the sea.”

“The containers came from Chile, right? Could this have been human trafficking?” said Henrik.

“Yes. I would guess this is about illegal refugees from Chile,” said Gunnar.

An oppressive silence spread around the table.

Gunnar went on, “The children that Björn Ahlmann has been able to perform an autopsy on have all had names carved on their necks. The names come from Greek mythology. Marking children is like giving them an identity. Carving into their flesh is beyond barbaric.”

“Marking is common among gangs. Think tattoos, emblems,” said Mia.

“But this has been systematic. Deliberate kidnapping.”

“But that's just crazy,” said Anneli.

“The toxicological analyses tell us that a couple of the children had drugs in their blood,” said Gunnar. “Our boy, Thanatos, was also drugged. My guess is that the children sold drugs or were used as couriers in the drug trade.”

“So we should look for a drug dealer,” Henrik noted.

“Or several, who are interested in Greek mythology,” said Mia.

“Okay, but if we should try to find out how it all fits together...” said Gunnar. “Lena still hasn't told us how she knew about the containers or who gave her the order to delete the file in Juhlén's computer. And this makes me wonder: Why delete a file? You do it to hide something. Hans Juhlén didn't delete it himself. It must be Lena who has something to hide.”

“But did Juhlén know about the containers?” said Henrik.

“Yes, but we don't know what he knew about them, perhaps he didn't know the truth.”

“You mean about the drug dealing with children involved?”

“Exactly.”

“So the containers also may have contained drugs?” said Henrik.

“I don't think they'd smuggle drugs as well as illegal refugees. But sure, it's a theory.”

“Okay, but if they got rid of the adults, why keep the children?”

“Their being under age for criminal responsibility,” said Mia triumphantly. “And they tend to be loyal to their taskmasters...”

“On the island a sort of training center with quite a lot of weapons had been set up,” said Henrik. “Do you think the children were trained to...”

The room fell silent. Henrik went on. “I believe Hans Juhlén found out about all this. That's why he was in the dock area with Thomas Rydberg. And Rydberg was scared he would be discovered, and he told Lena, who then deleted the file in the computer. She also gave somebody the order to kill Juhlén and then Rydberg.”

“We do actually have another interesting name to add to the investigation,” said Gunnar. “According to Björn Ahlmann a few strands of hair were found on one of the children, and the DNA analysis shows that the hair comes from this man.”

He reached out to pick up the remote and started the projector, which showed a picture of a dark-haired man with a broad nose and a large scar across half of his face.

“Christ, just look at him!” said Mia.

Jana was just about to open her mouth to shout out: “That's him!”

But she stopped herself and instead sat uncomfortably still on her chair.

“Gavril Bolanaki. Evidently he is called Papa,” said Gunnar. “I want you, Ola, to check what links exist between this man, Thomas Rydberg and Lena Wikström. Check if they share a past. Company? Schoolmates? Anything.”

“What do we know about this Gavril?” said Henrik.

“Not much. Born 1953 on the island of Tilos in Greece. Swedish citizen since 1960. Did his military service in Södertälje. Some military equipment was stolen in the mid 70s and for a lot of reasons he was at first suspected, but then was found not guilty on what was described as dubious grounds,” said Gunnar.

“Do we know which weapons disappeared?” said Henrik.

“No,” said Gunnar.

“Where is he?” said Jana with an exaggeratedly soft voice.

“We've put him on the national Wanted List, and informed all police authorities. Let's hope that will help us to arrest him quickly,” said Gunnar. “I think we're on the right track now.”

I think so too
, Jana thought to herself.

“In the first investigation of the island they found some food which leads us to believe that someone has been there recently. We don't know yet whether that would be Gavril or someone else. I'll get a dog handler to go over the area and I want you, Henrik and Mia, to come with me and Anneli to the island again. We're leaving in ten minutes.”

* * *

Mia Bolander was seasick again.

She tried to fix her gaze on just one place in the distance when the coast guard launch bobbed up and down on the big waves. She had eaten breakfast only half an hour earlier, before they had left the station. She had managed to persuade a trainee to treat her to a sandwich.

Today was the twenty-eighth. Only three days since she had received her salary and already she was broke. A whole month until the next payment. And today was Saturday too, and that always meant going out somewhere. Mia wondered how she'd be able to afford a beer.

Mia put a hand over her mouth, then leaned over the railing and vomited.

* * *

The search led to results. The police dog had found an underground concrete bunker quite close to the barn. The entrance was well hidden by bushes.

Gunnar went in first. It wasn't very big and he stopped after about three meters. The ceiling was low and he had to keep his head down when he looked around. There were two empty bags on the floor. A large number of guns hung on the walls. Gunnar immediately recognized the AK-47s, Sig Sauers and Glocks. Lots of ammunition lay sorted in various plastic containers. There were five smallish knives and several silencers too.

Gunner turned round and went out. He was met by Henrik Levin's and Mia Bolander's questioning gazes.

“It's a weapons stash. The biggest I've ever seen,” said Gunnar.

“Could they be from Södertälje?” said Henrik.

“Very likely. There are some older weapons as well as newer ones.”

“So it could be that this Gavril, in some way, smuggled weapons out from the barracks in Södertälje and built a weapons store here,” said Henrik.

“There are several Glock pistols in there and that is one of the most common weapons in the army,” said Gunnar.

“And one was used to murder Hans Juhlén,” said Henrik.

* * *

Gabriel Mellqvist had only one hour left of his watch by the jetty. He stamped his feet in turn to try to keep them warm. He scanned the horizon again. Just at that moment he caught sight of a boat heading toward the island. He looked through his binoculars at the railings to see if any of his colleagues were on board.

The boat slowed down, seemed to almost come to a stop and then suddenly turned sharply and drove off.

Gabriel grabbed his radio.

No time to lose.

* * *

Henrik Levin was just on his way down into the bunker when police officer Hanna Hultman came running.

“An unknown boat has been sighted, it's driving fast away from the island.”

Henrik Levin ran as fast as he could to the jetty and jumped up onto the coast guard launch.

Mia Bolander was right behind him.

“After it!” he shouted. “Don't wait for Gunnar. Go ahead!”

Henrik waved to the coast guard Rolf Vikman who quickly steered the launch out from the jetty and followed the boat that Gabriel Mellqvist had seen. It had disappeared from sight and Rolf increased speed in the direction it had last been seen, while he radioed in to the county communication center.

Henrik also stared into the distance. They had reached 30 knots and the launch threw up cascades of water around it. When they approached a little island they slowed down, but the boat still couldn't be seen anywhere. Henrik turned his head in all directions.