Free The Disappeared by Kristina Ohlsson Page B

itself out.’
    An evasive tone, indicating that her working arrangements were negotiable. Alex didn’t know what to think. Apparently, the child’s father was about the same age as Alex; he wondered how that was possible. He certainly wouldn’t want to start all over again with a baby. Dirty nappies and sleepless nights, snotty noses and potty training. The thought made him feel a little sad. He hadn’t taken paternity leave, and to be honest he hadn’t actually wiped very many snotty noses. For a long time he had convinced himself that he wasn’t missing anything, that he could make up for it with the children later on.
    Few lies in the history of the world have become more prevalent than the idea that you can somehow compensate at a later stage for not spending time with your children when they are little. When Alex was faced with the horrendous task of burying his wife, the mother of his children, it was very clear which parent was closest to those children. His son had come back from South America during the summer and stayed until it was all over. In every gesture he made, every word he said, Alex recognised Lena. He couldn’t see himself anywhere at all.
    ‘The pathologist is hoping to get back to us with further information tomorrow,’ he said, ‘but we shouldn’t get our hopes up. The second body has been in the ground for a long time, and key evidence is no longer available.’
    He got up and began to write on the whiteboard at one end of the room.
    ‘As far as Rebecca Trolle is concerned, this is what we know. She went missing on her way to a party. She was seen on a bus heading in the opposite direction from the party; we don’t know why she was on the bus. She was expecting a child she didn’t want, and might well have been afraid that the child’s father would want to keep it. At the time of her disappearance she wasn’t in a steady relationship, as far as we are aware, but we do know that she had had sexual intercourse with a friend, Håkan Nilsson, whom she has referred to as a nuisance when speaking to other friends. And Håkan would have loved to be a father.’
    Alex fell silent.
    ‘We also know that after her disappearance there were rumours that she had been selling sex on the Internet, but we seem to have hit a brick wall there,’ Peder said. ‘No one can give us the name of the website where she was allegedly active, and no one can tell us exactly how long she was supposed to have been doing this. Nor can anyone remember when the rumour started, or where it came from.’
    ‘What happened with Diana Trolle’s friend?’ Alex asked. ‘Did you speak to her and her daughter?’
    ‘I’m seeing them in an hour.’
    ‘This sounds like nonsense to me,’ Fredrika said. ‘We have nothing that would explain why Rebecca would do such a thing. Selling your body isn’t exactly something you do because it’s fun – you do it because you have to, or because you’re sick and you don’t know any better.’
    ‘I agree,’ Alex said. ‘Let’s see where we are after Peder has spoken to Diana’s friend and her daughter.’
    He stepped back and looked at his notes.
    ‘Håkan Nilsson is still the most interesting character. Unless the DNA test shows that someone else was the child’s father; if that’s the case, we need to prioritise the search for the secret boyfriend.’
    ‘Håkan could still be of interest, even if he isn’t the father,’ Fredrika said. ‘That might even make him more interesting. He was obviously keener on Rebecca than she was on him. He might have found out she was pregnant and confronted her, gone crazy with jealousy.’
    ‘And killed her,’ Peder chipped in.
    Alex looked at him.
    ‘Not just killed her,’ he said. ‘Dismembered her body as well.’
    He left his words hanging in the air.
    ‘It could have happened,’ Peder said. ‘He’s an odd bugger. Unpleasant.’
    ‘I’m not saying you’re wrong,’ Alex said. ‘What I’m saying is the fact that