The Fire Witness

She smiles shyly when she says hello to Joona. Then she sits down carefully on the armchair by the brown desk.

‘Tuula says Vicky creeps out at nights to meet a boy,’ Joona says.

‘No,’ Caroline laughs.

‘What makes you say that?’

‘She doesn’t do that,’ Caroline smiles.

‘You sound very sure.’

‘Tuula thinks everyone’s a total whore,’ she explains.

‘So Vicky doesn’t creep out?’

‘Oh, she does that,’ Caroline says, looking serious.

‘What does she do when she gets out?’ Joona asks, trying to hide his eagerness.

Caroline looks him in the eye briefly, then turns to gaze at the window.

‘She sits behind the brew-house and phones her mother.’

Joona knows that Vicky’s mother died before Vicky arrived at the Birgitta Home, but instead of confronting Caroline with this he asks calmly: ‘What do they talk about?’

‘Well … Vicky just leaves little messages on her mother’s voicemail, but I think … if I’ve got this right, her mum never calls back.’

Joona nods, thinking that no one seems to have told Vicky that her mother is dead.

‘Have you ever heard of someone called Dennis?’ he asks.

‘No,’ Caroline says instantly.

‘Think carefully.’

She looks him calmly in the eye, then jumps when Susanne Öst’s phone buzzes as a text message arrives.

‘Who would Vicky turn to?’ Joona goes on, even though the energy has gone out of the conversation.

‘Her mum – that’s the only person I can think of.’

‘Friends, boys?’

‘No,’ Caroline replies. ‘But I don’t know her … look, we’re both doing ADL, so we see each other quite a bit, but she never talks about herself.’

‘ADL?’

‘Sounds like a condition, doesn’t it?’ Caroline laughs. ‘It stands for All Day Lifestyle. Only for people who are really good. You get to try going out, you tag along to Sundsvall to get the groceries, exciting stuff like that …’

‘You must have talked to each other when you were doing that?’ Joona prompts.

‘A bit, but not much.’

‘So who else would she talk to, then?’

‘No one,’ she replies. ‘Except Daniel, of course.’

‘The counsellor?’

40 (#ulink_2e1a758e-ab84-5b93-882e-082241889415)

Joona and Susanne leave the bridal suite and walk back along the corridor to the lift. She laughs as they both reach for the button at the same time.

‘When can we talk to Daniel Grim?’ Joona asks.

‘His doctor said it was too soon yesterday, which is understandable,’ she says, glancing at him. ‘This isn’t easy. But I’ll try prompting, and see what happens.’

They get out on the ground floor and head towards the front door, but stop at the reception desk when they see Gunnarsson standing there.

‘Oh yes, I got a text message to let me know that the post-mortem’s underway,’ Susanne tells Joona.

‘Good. When do you think we’ll get the first results?’ he asks.

‘Go home,’ Gunnarsson grunts. ‘You shouldn’t be here, you’re not going to see any damn results, you …’

‘OK, calm down,’ Susanne interrupts, surprised.

‘We’re so damn stupid up here that we’re happy to let some fucking observer take over the whole preliminary investigation just because he comes from Stockholm.’

‘I’m trying to help,’ Joona says. ‘Seeing as—’

‘Just shut up.’

‘This is my preliminary investigation,’ the prosecutor says, looking Gunnarsson hard in the eye.

‘Then maybe you’d like to know that Joona Linna has got Internal Investigations on his back, and that senior prosecutor at National—’

‘Are you under investigation?’ Susanne Öst asks, taken aback.

‘Yes,’ Joona replies. ‘But my role—’

‘And here I am going about trusting you,’ she says, her mouth contracting tightly. ‘I’ve let you in on the investigation, listened to you. And it turns out you’re just a liar.’

‘I haven’t got time for this,’ Joona says seriously. ‘I need to talk to Daniel Grim.’

‘I’ll do that,’ Gunnarsson says with a snort.

‘You do realise how serious this is,’ Joona goes on. ‘Daniel Grim could be the only person who—’