Chapter 105
Pontus presses his chin down toward his chest. His cheeks are puffy and sallow.
“Enough,” Daniel says in a tone that makes it clear it’s time to be honest. “Was it you who had sex with Filippa before she died?”
A shake of the head.
“But you know who it was?” Hanna says.
“I . . . I think so. Or maybe not . . .”
His voice dies away. The evasive answer tests Daniel’s already dwindling patience. Give us a proper answer! he wants to yell, but he knows there is a limit to how unpleasant he can be.
The most important thing is to get the truth out of Pontus.
Hanna, with her gentler approach, has a better chance of succeeding. He lets her take over.
“In that case I think you should tell us, once and for all,” she says.
Pontus looks troubled. He tucks his hands beneath his thighs, like some kind of buffer between his body and the chair.
“Pontus? Talk to us.”
“On Saturday, Emil and Olivia went to bed soon after midnight. William too; there was only Amir, Filippa, and me left in the living room.” His voice is little more than a whisper as he continues: “Filippa was in love with Amir, everyone knew that. But Amir didn’t seem particularly interested, even though she was offering herself to him on a plate.
She was drunk and high; she could barely stand up.
They sat next to each other on the sofa, making out during the evening, but in the end it was as if Amir had had enough.
He said good night and went off to his room. ”
Pontus glances at the window. Darkness has fallen during the interview, and large snowflakes are falling. Snow has landed on the windowsill, forming a white, irregular pattern.
“Filippa was devastated. It was obvious she’d been hoping Amir would ask her to go up to the loft with him, and that they’d spend the night together. But Amir didn’t care; he just left. Filippa was really upset; I could see her fighting to hold back the tears.”
“So what did you do then?”
“Not much. I was nearly as drunk as she was; I could hardly speak. But then the door of William’s room opened, and he came out wearing his robe. And he . . . he put his arms around Filippa, and then . . .”
“And then?”
“Then he slept with her.”
Daniel is taken by surprise. He can see that Hanna is surprised too; she drops her pen.
If Pontus is telling the truth, then it was William who had sex with Filippa on Saturday. In which case it must have been his voice Olivia heard from the stairs, when one of the boys told the other to keep quiet about him and Filippa.
Pontus seems genuine; he doesn’t look as if he’s lying.
“Are you sure about that?” Daniel asks anyway.
“The walls between the rooms are very thin. I could hear . . . what they were doing.”
“Why didn’t you tell us this from the start?” Hanna says.
“Because . . . because William told me to keep my mouth shut. When Filippa’s body was found in the snow the next day.”
Pontus alters his position on the chair. He frees one hand, scratches his neck beneath his ear.
His eyes are darting all over the place.
“William was afraid you’d suspect him of being involved if you found out what he’d done.
It wouldn’t look good, and William isn’t the kind of guy who wants to be dragged into a problem like that.
It could affect his future, his entire career.
He’s already got it all planned. He’s going to start working as a management consultant when he graduates. ”
Daniel shakes his head. William is only twenty; it’s crazy to have your whole life mapped out at that age. And who the hell wants to do a job like that?
He feels a stab of pain in his heart as he remembers the article about Hanna and Henry Sylvester. The well-known financier also started out as a management consultant back in the day. Now he is richer than most people in Sweden.
And he is with Hanna.
“William needs a perfect résumé,” Pontus explains.
“What do you think?” Hanna asks. “Is he so perfect that he couldn’t possibly have anything to do with Filippa’s death?”
“No idea.” Pontus shrugs. “I fell asleep before she came out of his room. When I woke up a bit later, there was no one around.” He gives them a pleading look. “It’s true. I don’t know what happened, maybe they started arguing and it all went wrong.”
Daniel doesn’t give much for his assurances. It remains to be seen whether Pontus is a credible witness, but if it is true, then at least they know who was with Filippa before she died.
It’s a small step forward.
If William had been honest from the start, they would have saved a great deal of time.
“Was that why you carried out those online searches?” Hanna says.
“I was scared you’d come for me if you found out what I’d done. That I’d lied for William’s sake.”
“Are you afraid of him?”
“It’s hard to explain.” Pontus’s head droops. “It’s like . . . you do whatever he tells you. Everyone does, it’s not just me.”
His tone gives away how powerless he feels. There is no doubt that Pontus realizes he gave in when he should have stood up for himself.
Hanna has been making notes even though they are recording the interview. Now she gives him a searching look.
“If we move on and accept that you didn’t have anything to do with Filippa’s death . . . what made you start the fire at the cabin when Olivia and Emil were sleeping in there?”
“But I didn’t.”
Daniel can’t keep quiet any longer. “Do you seriously expect us to believe that you attacked Emil and tried to strangle him in front of everyone, but that it wasn’t you who started the fire later that same night?”
“It wasn’t me!” Desperation makes Pontus almost scream the words. “I’m not a murderer!”
“So who was it?”
“I don’t know, but I had nothing to do with it!”
“Why did you take off if you were innocent?” Hanna asks. “You must see that it’s a cause for concern.”
“Because I realized how it would look.” Pontus sounds resigned.
“You’d seen the search history on my laptop, and you were suspicious.
It’s true that I attacked Emil, but I wasn’t myself at the time.
I’d drunk way too much, and I was angry; I never would have done it otherwise.
And then I was woken up in the middle of the night by the flames and the firefighters.
I knew you’d accuse me, and I panicked. All I could think of was getting away. ”
“And you thought it was a good idea to break into a neighbor’s garage?” Daniel says.
“It wasn’t locked,” Pontus counters.
Daniel has no intention of arguing over semantics. They passed that stage long ago. If Pontus thinks this is a grammar lesson, he is very wrong.
“Call it what you like. You entered someone else’s property without permission.”
“I just needed a place to hide. I didn’t have time to think; there was no plan.”
Pontus scratches the back of one hand, so hard that long white marks appear.
Daniel glances at the clock. They have been going for over an hour, and he is starting to feel stressed. He needs to collect Alice from preschool very soon. The truth is he’s already late and ought to message Ida or her mom and ask if they can step in at short notice.
No doubt Ida will make the most of the opportunity to score points off him yet again, but he has no choice. Discreetly he takes out his phone and sends her a quick text.
“What did you think when our colleague tracked you down?” Hanna asks.
“I was terrified. And when I saw that he had a gun in his hand, I thought he was going to shoot me. My brain kind of froze.”
“So you decided to attack him with a hammer.” Daniel slips his phone back into his pocket. “You do realize you could have killed him?”
“I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“You didn’t mean to hurt him? Seriously?”
Daniel has no time for Pontus’s excuses. He might be young, but surely he has to take some responsibility for his actions.
Hanna gives Daniel a warning look, as if she realizes that he is about to explode. She has seen him lose his temper on other occasions, and it has rarely had a positive outcome.
Learning to control himself is one of the things he has focused on during those expensive therapy sessions.
“Please explain,” Hanna says to Pontus.
“All I wanted was to get away. I was terrified when he came into the garage. I never meant for the hammer to hit him on the head—I was trying to knock the gun out of his hand so he couldn’t shoot me.”
“You assaulted a police officer,” Daniel says coldly. “The hammer struck his forehead. It’s pure luck that he hasn’t ended up blind in one eye.”
“I’m sorry,” Pontus whispers.
Daniel leans back on his chair. He can’t fit the pieces together. Pontus has told them that William was the one who had sex with Filippa, but he is denying everything else. If he wasn’t responsible for Filippa’s death or the fire, then it must be someone else.
One thing is clear, in any case.
They need to bring in William right away. If he lied about having slept with Filippa, then he isn’t as innocent as he would like to appear.