Chapter 45
Daniel is leaning against one of the closet doors in Pontus’s room. Hanna is standing at the foot of the bed. She gives Emil an inquiring glance, and he points to the open laptop. It is a silver-colored Mac, the screen is dark and locked, but the characteristic apple can be seen on the back.
“I came in here to borrow a charger just after the others had left,” Emil explains.
“Pontus has the same laptop as me, and mine had just run out, so I thought I could use his.” He sounds uncomfortable, as if he isn’t quite sure how to go on.
“The computer was still open—the screen hadn’t locked, so I happened to notice what Pontus had been looking at. ”
He falls silent, and a faint flush appears on his pale cheeks.
“And what was that?” Hanna asks.
She sits down in a leather armchair in one corner of the room, next to the window that overlooks the ?re valley. It is in shade now; the sun will go down in just a few hours.
“So . . .” Emil turns away. “Pontus had been googling things I didn’t like the look of.”
“Such as?”
“He’d typed ‘hypothermia as a cause of death’ into the search box.” Emil makes quotation marks in the air with his fingers, then adds, “That means your body temperature is too low.”
Daniel doesn’t require an explanation of that particular term.
He is well aware of what hypothermia involves.
Two years ago he helped save the life of a woman that he and Hanna found in the forest on a dark winter’s night.
She was suffering from hypothermia, and they got her off to the hospital at the very last minute. It was sheer luck that she survived.
In this case there is a lot to suggest that hypothermia was the cause of Filippa’s death. However, as far as Daniel is concerned, the key question is why she froze to death outdoors in the middle of the night, with hardly any clothes on.
Did she end up out there of her own free will, or not?
“So what did you think when you saw what Pontus had been doing?”
“I thought it was . . . unpleasant. Given what . . . what happened to Filippa.”
“And what did you do?” Hanna asks.
Emil tugs at the sleeve of his top. He is wearing a gray hoodie with the black logo of a well-known sports brand on the chest. It looks well worn, both the sleeves and front are pilled.
“Does Pontus . . . have to know I’ve told you this?” he wonders, sounding tense.
“We’re not going to hang you out to dry right away, if that’s what’s worrying you,” Daniel reassures him. “Go on.”
Emil sits down on the edge of the bed. “I thought it was horrible, so I went in and checked out Pontus’s search history. And things got even weirder . . .”
“Can you give us some examples?” Hanna prompts him.
Emil points to the laptop. “Unfortunately I don’t know the password; otherwise I could have shown you.
But what I saw didn’t feel okay. There were words like murder and manslaughter and causing the death of another person.
He’d also looked up how long it takes for someone to freeze to death in different temperatures.
And he’d also . . .” Emil falls silent, as if he is considering how far to go.
“What else had he done?” It is Daniel’s turn to push him now; he has already decided to confiscate Pontus’s laptop.
“The worst thing was that he’d googled punishments for young adults—penalty discounts because of a person’s age, that kind of thing.”
“And what did that make you think?” Hanna asks.
“I thought it almost seemed as if he was involved in Filippa’s death,” Emil admits. “As if Pontus wanted to find out how to get away with it.”