Chapter 81
Emil and Olivia are curled up on one of the sofas when Hanna walks in. She can see immediately that Olivia’s entire body is shaking, even though she has a warm blanket around her shoulders.
She is so pale that she is almost transparent.
Micke talked about how resourceful Olivia had been, but it seems as if the shock has caught up with her.
William and Amir are sitting on the opposite sofa in T-shirts and underpants. Both look completely blank; they are clearly as stunned by the events of the night as their friends.
A male paramedic is on his knees, packing away his equipment. When he sees the two police officers, he stands up and takes them to one side.
“How are they?” Hanna asks quietly.
“They’ll be fine. They’ve inhaled a certain amount of smoke, but it’s not serious—there’s no need for them to go to the hospital. However, they’re both very shocked, which is hardly surprising under the circumstances.”
He gestures discreetly toward Emil.
“I gather there’s been a confrontation between him and one of the others. You might want to check it out.”
Hanna thanks him for the information before she and Anton go over to the group.
Both Emil and Olivia are still wearing their nightclothes, presumably because they didn’t have time to grab anything else.
As she gets closer she sees that Emil has angry marks on his throat, red that has begun to turn purple.
They look like the result of an attempted strangulation.
Where have they come from?
Hanna has seen marks like that many times before, when she worked for the Domestic Violence Unit in Stockholm. Back then it was almost always down to men who had assaulted their wives or girlfriends.
Although men assault men too, of course.
Something must have gone down before the fire.
“I realize you must both be exhausted,” she begins. “But I’m wondering if you could manage a little chat with me and Anton?”
Olivia nods.
“Okay,” Emil says. He sounds hoarse.
“What happened to your throat?” Anton asks. “It doesn’t look too good.”
“It’s fine.”
“Who attacked you?”
Emil hesitates, and Olivia leans forward.
“Pontus attacked him when we were having dinner last night! He went crazy, tried to strangle him, it was awful. He was furious because Emil had told the police about the search history on his computer.”
Hanna recalls that Emil had been worried about that, but she would never have expected something like this.
Emil still doesn’t say anything, but William reacts to Olivia’s outburst. He opens his mouth, possibly to mitigate her harsh words, then sinks back against the cushions and shakes his head, giving Olivia a resigned glance.
Emil seems uncomfortable too. He changes his position on the sofa, pulls the checked blanket more tightly around his body.
Hanna looks searchingly at him.
“Is this true? Did Pontus physically attack you?”
After a second or two Emil nods.
“He put his hands around your throat?”
“Yes, he did!” Olivia says. “If William and Amir hadn’t intervened, you could have died!
” Her voice breaks, but she angrily dashes away the tears with her right hand.
Her eyes are burning as she continues. “And then the fire started when we were asleep in the cabin.” She looks around accusingly.
“So who do you think it was? That fire can’t have started by itself. It must have been Pontus—who else?”
These are serious accusations, but they could well be justified. A thorough investigation will be required, but the leading fire officer had also expressed doubts that the fire could have started by itself.
She looks at the marks on Emil’s throat again. “So where is Pontus?”
The exhausted friends exchange glances, as if each of them is hoping someone else will answer the question.
“I don’t know,” Olivia admits. “In his room, I guess.”
“I expect he’s asleep,” William adds.
Hanna doubts that very much. Who sleeps through the noise of the sirens and the efforts of the firefighters over the past hour or more?
The whole of Sadeln must be awake by now.
“He was so drunk after dinner that Amir and I had to put him to bed,” William explains. “He couldn’t even walk on his own.” He turns to Amir. “That’s right, isn’t it?”
Amir seems to be in some kind of trance. He doesn’t respond to William’s question until his friend reaches out and gives him a push.
“Pontus was so drunk he was completely out of it, wasn’t he?” William repeats. “You and me had to drag him down to his room.”
“Right, yes, he was.” Amir lowers his head.
“But not too drunk to attack one of you,” Anton observes.
William shuffles uncomfortably. “I’m not trying to excuse what he did to Emil, but he was so drunk I’m not sure he even realized what he was doing.”
He gives Emil an apologetic look.
“And he regretted it straight away. He was crying and apologizing when we were taking him downstairs.”
As if that alleviates the seriousness of the situation.
Hanna can feel her pulse rate increasing. This is just getting worse and worse—first of all a death under suspicious circumstances, and now a probable case of arson.
All within two days.
“What happened to you is known as grievous bodily harm,” Anton says to Emil. “Why are you trying to protect someone who did that to you?”
An embarrassed silence fills the room.
“You should have contacted us yesterday evening when it happened,” Hanna says, underlining her colleague’s words.
Anton heads for the stairs leading to the lower floor. “Time to wake up Sleeping Beauty,” he says over his shoulder to Hanna. “We need to take Pontus to the station.”