”Thanks, I’d love to, oh they are good. If it’s OK I’ll have another one.”
”Eat, you never know when you’ll see food again”, Daphne answered smiling and had a sip of the lovely tea.
”Are you still there, Nikki?”
Nikki startled and realized she was still Skyping with David.
”Oh, you frightened me. I had completely forgotten you were around”, Nikki giggled tiredly.
”Now you can read the mail on both computers.”
”Is that true?” She ran to the conference room and looked at all the mail on both screens. ”You are an angel, David. What would I have done without you?”
”I’ve written down their user-names and passwords in the notes on each computer, so you can easily find them next time you need to log in.”
Nikki blew a kiss and bowed and curtsied to say thanks for the help. ”Thank you David, thank you my dear for all your help. I hope I didn’t disturb you too much?”
”Anything for you my Princess, you know that. Hugs and kisses. We’ll keep in touch babe.”
”Kiss”, Nikki said and hung up with a tired smile.
Monday June 10th
The side-effects of the disease started acting up. The unpleasant shaking and the body’s stiffness were similar to the ones he’d had the previous spring when he had gone to the doctor for help. He was weak and dehydrated. Two entire days without food or drink had made Patrik listless. Petros had come in several times and abused him with a promise to let Patrik go if he signed the documents. His chest was heaving with great effort and Patrik’s breathing was heavy and wheezing. He had no idea of what time it was or how long he had been locked up.
But he did know he should have taken his medicine a long time ago. Once again he tried opening his swollen eyes and could barely make out the moon light in one of the openings of the dark room. Despite the suffocating air he was feeling cold. A cold sweat was pouring down his forehead and he felt feverish. Patrik tried thinking clearly but the dizziness was too rampant as well as the pain welling up like an electrically charged cord every time he tried moving. The cable ties were cutting into his wrists and both his hands and arms had been numb for a long time. Fearing for his life he heard somebody approaching the locked wooden door.
”Did you shit yourself?” Petros shouted and laughed cruelly. ”What do you want actually? Do you really want to die? Isn’t it better you sign these bloody papers?”
Patrik tried nodding. He was prepared to sign now. But however much he tried moving his head, the body didn’t obey him. He could feel Petros’ hard look on his bruised body and then the pain came. The first kick hit his side. He tried rolling up into a little ball to protect his face but before he could he felt the next kick crushing into his jaw. Patrik turned, shouting in pain.
”You know what it takes to get your freedom back”, Patrik heard somewhere far away before losing consciousness. The next second he was brought back by a bucket of cold water. His breathing was erratic and the adrenalin was pumping fast through his veins. His thoughts were fleeting and he didn’t know if it was a dream or reality. Linn, the kids and Anna quickly passed by and then it all went black again. Another bucket of ice cold water made him wake up.
The pain in his jaw radiated through his whole body and he didn’t know how much longer he would be able to suffer the abuse. Despite repeated attempts to make Petros understand that he wanted to sign Patrik couldn’t get the message across. All of a sudden he was jerked up. Petros tried making Patrik lean against the wall. His head was rolling from side to side until a steady hard hand held his chin. Petros forced him to open his mouth despite his jaw being broken. He screamed with pain. His heart was beating so heavily it almost broke his body and the taste of blood in his mouth grew stronger.
Patrik felt something on his tongue but couldn’t make out what it was. Laughing Petros forced his head back and Patrik felt a little piece of metal slide down toward his throat. His jaw reflex reacted and went into spasm. His tongue once again stuck to his dry palate and however Patrik tried to swallow he couldn’t.
”Swallow you bastard”, Petros was shouting while holding his head with a tight grip.
Patrik’s eyes fluttered and he once again tried swallowing. Something sharp pierced his throat and he fainted from the effort. More cold water. Patrik didn’t want to come back to the cruel reality and his body was giving up. He was shivering from cold when the hazy picture of a lovely summer day appeared. Céline and Klas dressed in summer clothes, dancing around the Midsummer pole at Marstrand.
”Now we’re going to play a little game. Do you remember what games you played in your parties as a little child, perhaps it was fish pond?” Petros laughed loudly.
Midsummer and fish-ponds, Patrik thought quietly and saw a well prepared table in front of his eyes. Suddenly he felt a cut in his throat. The fish-hook tore on the inside and once again he lost consciousness.
Monday June 10th
The call to the alarm centre came at 7.43 on the Monday morning. The woman calling in was hysterical and the operator had to repeat the question several times as she wasn’t speaking coherently. After many attempts she managed to say that there was a body in a sand bunker at the Mountain Hills Golf club. At the third missed stroke at the golf ball the woman had shovelled away enough sand to see part of the body. She had fainted with the shock. The alarm quickly went out to all units in Cyprus and a tired team of Forensic technicians immediately went - to the scene.
Sam was the first of all the police to arrive since he had been out patrolling the area on the station’s motorbike. When he heard the alarm in the ear-piece he called the station just to be sure his colleagues had heard it. Both Carlos and Daphne were already in the big Land cruiser, on their way to the popular resort in Kathikas, up in the mountains 150 metres above sea level. To make sure the area did not get contaminated Sam immediately fenced it off with the police’s black and yellow tape. The crying woman who had found the body was sitting on a bench near the scene with her golfing friends. Sam had managed to get all the information from the group and had briefly interviewed them before the ambulance staff had taken over.
Maria and Stavros had been working the whole night in Sten’s weapons’ cave. They had black circles under their eyes and their faces were pale. Both hid a yawn as they put on their rustling overalls and thin latex gloves. Stavros started taking pictures of the victim from every thinkable angle. While he was going around with the digital camera around his neck he also got an opinion as to what had happened to the victim. The eyes were missing in the face and the naked skin on the body was covered with sand. The possibility that the murderer had left any traces behind were slim since Stavros supposed they were dealing with the same offender as before.
Maria was crawling around the corpse with a little brush carefully trying to remove the sand from the body. Then she would start with the biological traces with the help of several cotton buds. The day would be insanely long for them both.
When Daphne and Carlos arrived at the golf club there was a riot taking place by the sand bunker. An angry little man was walking around cursing and causing problems. He was shouting and asked all the curious people to get off the impeccable green. The technicians tried working while Sam did everything he could to stop all the golfers and the angry man getting too near.
”Hey, what’s going on?” Daphne stared at the chaos and then tried getting eye-contact with her colleague.
”Deal with that bloody man”, Sam wheezed determined. ”He is making us all crazy and I’ll soon stuff a couple of golf balls in his mouth if he doesn’t stop shouting.”
Daphne turned around and saw a little angry man shaking his fists at all the bystanders. ”Come on, you’re in the way.” She took hold of the man’s arm and tried getting him away from the scene but he resisted, shouting and screaming. ”Calm down.” Daphne took a police grip of both his arms and he fell down on his knees.
”Ouch, what are you bloody doing?” The man was shouting trying to get out of the grip, which became tighter and hurt even more as soon as he moved.
”I can let you go if you’ll behave in a calm and decent manner, but otherwise I’ll cuff you. Handcuffs. It’s up to you.”
”What the hell. Just let me bloody go.”
Daphne had neither the time nor the will to discuss this further. She placed her knee in his back and got out the hand-cuffs. The man was shouting so loudly all the way to the police car that it was impossible to talk to him. With a determined gesture she got him into the back-seat. She put on his safety-belt and made sure his arms were OK behind his back before starting up the engine so that the air-conditioner started up.
”If you don’t stop shouting I’ll put my socks in your gob.” She slammed the door and went back to her colleagues.
Carlos was walking around the corpse unusually calmly as both Maria and Stavros’ shot pointed looks at him. The cigarette was dangling from his mouth while the sweat was pouring down his forehead. He made some loose attempts to talk, but Maria was not in the mood for games. Pretend as if he was invisible. He didn’t exist to her, not as a human and hardly as Chief of Police either. She wished his brother would get well so that Carlos could return home to Spain again.
”So what have we got here?” Daphne shook her head and crossed her arms on her chest.
Maria eased off the mask but kept the hood on. ”Well, what is really going on? Yesterday it was the worst weapon hoard and today another murder has been discovered. The third body in less than a week. We’ll have to hire more staff if this continues. I’m dead tired after the night’s work.”
”I can really understand that, Maria. You never called?”
”We didn’t finish until this morning. Sorry. I haven’t even had time to put together a report yet. I promise to do my very best, just let me have a couple of hours’ sleep first. I’ll fax it to the station as soon as I’ve finished it.”
”Of course.” Daphne patted her back in understanding and then looked down at the body full of sand lying on its back. The corpse was not possible to identify since the skin on the naked body was more or less gone. ”What kind of sick bastard has done this?” Daphne didn’t even have the sense to feel sick. The whole scene was just looking too grotesque and unreal.
”Well, yes, who knows? I’ll leave that up to you.”
”What have you found so far?” Daphne felt inadequate since they still didn’t have a clue as to who the offender could be. Slowly she pulled her hair back with both hands and rubbed her eyes. It felt as though they were full of grit. She was exhausted.
”It’s too early to make any statements. I’ll come back to you when we’ve finished. It’s been such a disturbance around here, you can’t even imagine. We’ve hardly been able to work in peace. Poor Sam has had to fight with the screaming old man as well as all the curious people.”
”Can you tell me if it’s a man or a woman?”
”It’s a man. I don’t think he’s been here for long. Top 12 hours.”
”Thanks Maria.” Daphne walked over to Sam who briefed her about what he had seen when he arrived at the murder scene and of everything else that had happened before Daphne and Carlos had arrived. He gave her the notes too from the interview with the woman who had found the body.
”Come on Carlos”, Daphne shouted loudly. She didn’t really want him to join in the questioning but knew that she didn’t have a choice. The angry man seemed to have plenty of explanations to give. She then heard Maria shouting at Carlos and as she turned around she saw how Carlos was being severely reprimanded. The upset Chief left with his hands in front of his face as if he was defending himself while slowly backing out from the cordoned off area.
”Bloody unnecessary.” Sam gave Carlos an irritated look and sighed in exasperation.
”Ah, what the hell. I wasn’t thinking. Maria will survive. At least she can throw away the cigarette now that she knows it’s mine.” Carlos twisted his bushy moustache between his middle and index-fingers and looked completely unaffected. Sam couldn’t understand how his boss once again had contaminated a restricted area.
”Come on now Carlos, don’t just stand there. We have other things to do.” She turned around with irritation and looked back at the golf course. The second hole was beautifully situated on a hill with a view over the amazingly green valley. Imagine a golf course being so green and beautiful compared with the burned body next to it. Carlos ran to catch up with Daphne and it was probably the first time she’d seen her boss lumbering. When they approached the police car they heard the old man shouting and his face was dark red.
”Do you actually know who I am?”
”No, please tell me”, Daphne answered irritated and dried the sweat on her neck with one of her hands.
”I’m actually the chairman of this golf club. You have no right to leave me sitting here while everybody is destroying my golf course.”
Finally Daphne got the point. ”Oh, so you are Olof Stenvall?”
”Ahm, that’s right”, he answered surprised.
”Good, another reason for you to follow us to the station. We have some questions we’d like you to answer, you see.”
Olof started shouting and screaming again. His voice was piercing and it cut through to the bone marrow.
”Now you have to be quiet, got it? You are behaving like a little kid.”
Carlos looked enquiringly at Daphne and before they sat down in the car Daphne briefed him about why Olof Stenvall was coming in for questioning.
It was still far too hot outside and the old air-conditioning was working overtime inside the station. She was still tired after far too few hours of sleep. The bed in the new flat had been soft, though, and unusually comfortable and Nikki had slept heavily once she’d fallen asleep. For the past couple of hours she’d been back in the conference room, looking for leads in Sten Arvidsson’s computer. Without warning a bent old woman dragging a cleaning trolley came in and methodically started mopping the floor where Nikki was sitting.
The smell of stale sweat immediately made Nikki leave and go to the kitchen and fill her tea- cup. Apart from the noise from the air-conditioner the station was completely quiet. Katerina was at her place, deeply involved with her tasks and the others were at the golf course. The Panther went out the kitchen door meowing before she had time to bend down and greet him good morning. When she once again sat down in the conference room she sent a good luck message to Gustav who had his last exam for the term today.
Her thoughts went to her sons and Nikki’s heart was filled with longing and love. She knew that the guys were fine. It’s just her thinking the years had passed far too fast, they were already grown up. How did that happen? Brooding she stirred her tea-cup and looked for a long time at the bubbles forming before she had a sip. Then her eyes went to Karl Hofvenskold’s computer and she pulled the office chair closer to the desk and clicked at his mail. She noticed immediately that he had nice sub-folders and his mail was very organized compared to Sten’s.
A folder with the name Cyprus caught her attention and her pulse increased slightly. So far Nikki hadn’t found anything special but she hoped for better luck now. With great interest she glanced through the mail in the folder and sent some to the old printer in the reception where Katerina was sitting. Nikki read through the documents and chose carefully the mail where the sender had asked Karl about a partnership. Whistling she left the conference room and went up to the reception where Katerina was sitting with the Panther on her lap. A sweet smell of perfume reached Nikki’s sensitive sense of smell and she started coughing.
”Sorry, I think I’m allergic to heavy perfumes.” She waved one arm as though trying to erase the unpleasant smell. ”But, are you eating again?”
”Ahm yes, but it’s just a vanilla and cardamom bun. Would you like to taste? I think I have a bun left over.” Katerina swirled her chair around and picked up the paper bag on top of the desk.
”No thanks, I’ll have one of those Raw-Bites instead. You should try that if your goal is to lose weight.”
Katerina wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and then dried it on her long dress. ”But are they really tasty?” Her voice was sceptical and so was her expression.
”Try one next time. Daphne usually fills up the fridge with them. Just because they are called raw-food doesn’t mean they are disgusting. You’ll be surprised at how good they are.”
She looked at Nikki as if she was an alien and had another bite of the bun. ”By the way, I have your print-outs here.” She licked her fingers before handing over the bunch.
”Thanks.” Nikki had a quick look at the paper on the top and read out the heading loud. ”Missing persons in Cyprus. This must be yours.”
”Oh, sorry, it must have come in between somehow. Daphne called earlier and wanted me to write an updated list of everyone reported missing on the island considering the victim in the sand pit.”
”How many are there?”
”Three. Want to have a look?”
Nikki read the name over and over again. She couldn’t believe her eyes and it took some time for the brain to realize the significance. A strange sound came from her throat and her body went stiff. Katerina looked enquiringly at Nikki but before she could ask what actually was going on Nikki had already run away. Her heart was beating hard inside her chest and the worry was like a hard lump in her stomach.
In panic she pulled out her mobile from the handbag, dialled Patrik’s mobile repeatedly and let signal after signal go through without any reply. In frustration she sent several messages while different scary scenarios were being played in front of her eyes.
Is that my Patrik who has disappeared? No, it can’t be true. There must be somebody else with the same name. But how many are actually called Patrik Kroona here in Cyprus?
Nikki bit her lip and wondered if she should call Linn.
”Damn it!” She shouted out loud, and upset paced up and down the worn-out floor with the mobile phone in her hand.
I don’t care if Linn knows about me and Patrik, now it’s about her husband. Come on, Nikki, bloody call her.
Her troubled conscience about her love relation with Patrik was flying through her mind. Nervously she dried the sweat on her hands on her red shorts and decided to swallow her pride and called her childhood friend.