Free Missing in Malmö: The third Inspector Anita Sundström mystery (Inspector Anita Sundström mysteries) by Torquil MacLeod

neighbour, her father came to visit her. She gave him the key to Jansson’s apartment. And the school said that she wasn’t returning for family reasons. So it all fits. You’ve nothing to worry about.’
    There was silence at the other end of the line.
    ‘Did you hear what I said, Björn?’
    At last he spoke. ‘Greta’s father died of cancer last year.’

CHAPTER 12
    During the morning, two reported sightings of Graeme Todd came into the polishus. The first was from the city library and the second was from the Malmöhus museum. Both were for the day before he disappeared. But both needed to be followed up. Anita decided to send Hakim to the castle. It was a tourist attraction and therefore an obvious place for a first-time visitor to Malmö to go. Over the centuries, it had been a fort, a royal mint, a prison and now a rather eclectic museum, which featured everything from period furniture to a stuffed elk. She decided that she would take the library as it was a more intriguing place for Todd to visit.
    Anita walked through the drizzle along the canal towards Slottsparken. The weather matched her mood. Her brief conversation with Björn had thrown up more questions than the simple answer she thought she had uncovered. Greta Jansson’s whereabouts were no longer a straightforward matter, but she knew she had to shove that to the back of her mind. Graeme Todd was the priority. It was official. Reluctantly, Anita had again promised Björn that she would ask around, but only when she had time. It had been enough to get him off the phone. It was after overhearing the conversation that Lasse had poured out his confused feelings for his father. Lasse had been upset at seeing him in such a drunken and maudlin state. During his teenage visits to Uppsala, he had met a succession of increasingly youthful girlfriends. The fact that they were far nearer his own age than Björn’s had been amusing at the time. What unnerved him was that he had never seen his father so besotted. All these years, he had harboured the dream of many children of divorced parents that there would be some sort of reconciliation. Of course, Lasse now knew that he had been deluding himself, and that his mother would never turn back the clock. He still hoped that his father would realize that he had made a mistake, change his philandering ways and try to mend their fractured family. But seeing Björn so upset by the disappearance of his latest girlfriend brought home the harsh reality that his father had moved on and would never come back. He would never change. He saw him now as an old man who was making a fool of himself over a girl only a couple of years older than his son. Björn made him feel sick.
    Anita was torn. She was saddened that Lasse had such negative feelings for his father, who was behaving like a complete idiot. She hated to see her son so upset. It was a tough lesson having to reassess a parent. Yet she was pleased that they had been able to talk together again, as in the pre-Rebecka days. It was their first proper conversation since Lasse’s return home. And when he had broken down in tears, she had taken him in her arms. She had missed that human contact, which had decreased as he’d grown up and he’d shunned her attempts to hug him. After she had gone to bed and left him watching his box set of
Curb your Enthusiasm
, she hadn’t been able to sleep because she was so furious with Björn. His selfish actions were alienating a devoted son. What’s more, he was intruding into her life again. She had fought so hard to banish him from her feelings that his reappearance was aggravating beyond measure – all the disappointments and resentments had come flooding back. Well, he could wallow in his self-pity. Fuck Björn and fuck Greta Jansson.
    The city library was on the edge of Slottsparken. The older part of the building reminded Anita of a solid German schloss. She entered the foyer of the modern 1990s annex, which had a certain