The Ice Child

‘Minna Wahlberg,’ said Martin.

Patrik nodded, wrote down the name, and picked up a photo of a girl with blue eyes. Her brown hair was gathered in a messy topknot. ‘Yes. Minna Wahlberg. Fourteen years old, from Göteborg. Disappeared about seven months ago. Her background is different from the other girls. Raised by a single mother, with lots of reports of trouble at home while Minna was growing up. Her mother’s boyfriends were usually to blame. Minna’s name started appearing in social welfare records for things like shoplifting and smoking hash. Unfortunately, it’s the classic story of a young girl gone astray. She was frequently absent from school.’

‘Any siblings?’ asked Gösta.

‘No. She lived alone with her mother.’

‘You haven’t added any comment about how Jennifer and Kim disappeared,’ Gösta pointed out. Patrik turned to look at the board and realized he was right.

‘Jennifer disappeared on her way home from school, after gymnastics practice. Kim disappeared near her home. She had gone out for a walk and planned to meet a friend, but she never turned up. In both cases the police were notified early on that the girls were missing.’

‘But that didn’t happen in Minna’s case, did it?’ said Martin.

‘No. You’re right. Minna hadn’t been seen at school or home for three days when her mother realized that something was wrong and phoned the police. Clearly she didn’t keep a close eye on her daughter. Minna came and went as she pleased. She would stay with various girlfriends or guys she knew. So we don’t know exactly what day Minna disappeared.’

‘What about the witness?’ Martin took another sip of coffee, and Patrik had to smile at his frown when he tasted the bitter brew, which had been sitting in the pot for hours.

‘Damn it, Martin. Why don’t you make some fresh coffee?’ said Gösta. ‘I could use a cup, and I’m sure Patrik could too.’

‘Why don’t you make it yourself?’ Martin replied.

‘Never mind. It’s not necessary.’

‘I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as lazy as you,’ said Martin. ‘Maybe it’s your age.’

‘Hey, I’m not that old.’ Gösta often joked and grumbled about his age, but he didn’t like it when anyone else alluded to it.

Patrik wondered what an outsider would think about the banter that went on between them, even during the most harrowing investigations. But it was something they all needed. Sometimes the work left them so weighed down that they had to take a moment to relax, tease each other, and laugh. That was how they coped with all the sorrow, death, and despair.

‘Shall we go on? Where were we?’

‘The witness,’ Martin reminded him.

‘Right. Well, this is the only case with a witness – an eighty-year-old woman. The information she provided is a bit hazy, and she had difficulty remembering the exact time, but it appears to have happened the first day Minna didn’t return home. The witness stated that she saw Minna get into a small white car outside the ICA supermarket on Hisingen.’

‘But she wasn’t able to identify the type of car?’ said Gösta.

‘No, she wasn’t. The Göteborg police have tried everything they can think of to get more details from her about the car, but it was no use. All she could tell them was that it was an “older white car”.’

‘And the witness didn’t see who was sitting inside?’ asked Martin, even though he already knew the answer.

‘No. She thought it might be a young man sitting behind the wheel, but she couldn’t say for sure.’

‘I can’t believe this,’ said Gösta. ‘How the hell can five teenage girls just disappear? Somebody must have seen something.’

‘Well, so far no one has come forward,’ replied Patrik. ‘And that’s in spite of all the media coverage. After all the column space the papers have devoted to the missing girls, you’d think someone would have contacted the police if they’d seen anything.’

‘Either the perpetrator is extraordinarily clever, or he’s so obsessive that he never leaves any evidence behind.’ Martin was thinking aloud.

Patrik shook his head. ‘I think there must be a pattern. I can’t say why I think so, but it’s there somewhere, and once we discover it …’ He threw out his hands. ‘By the way, have you had any luck finding someone to put together a psychological profile of the perpetrator for us?’

‘Turns out it’s not that straightforward,’ Martin said. ‘There aren’t many specialists in that field, and most of them are booked up. But Annika just told me that she’s found an expert who does profiling. A man named Gerhard Struwer. He’s a criminologist at Göteborg University, and he can meet with us at his office this afternoon. She emailed him all the information we have. It’s rather strange that the Göteborg police haven’t already talked to him.’