Chapter 113
Pontus is pale and drawn when he is brought into the interview room.
He doesn’t look as if he slept particularly well on the plastic mattress in the custody suite.
He is wearing the same clothes as yesterday and gives off an acrid smell of sweat as he pulls out the chair opposite the two police officers.
He looks like a complete wreck.
Good, Hanna thinks. It might make him more inclined to tell the truth about the fire.
She is growing heartily sick of all the denials and lies coming out of both William’s and Pontus’s mouths.
After the previous day’s interviews, she is leaning increasingly toward the theory of two different perpetrators, with William being behind Filippa’s death, and Pontus responsible for setting fire to the cabin.
Two different crimes, two different motives, but the one triggered the other, hence the connection.
Something tells her that Pontus is lying about the fire. He had both motive and opportunity, and has shown his violent tendencies.
Plus he ran away.
It doesn’t matter if he continues to deny everything—Hanna simply doesn’t believe him. They just need to find enough evidence to make him confess.
“So how are you today?” she asks once the tape is running.
“Not great.” Pontus picks at a cuticle, avoids meeting her gaze.
“I know it’s not easy,” she says with more sympathy in her voice than he deserves.
“We’d like to talk a little more about the arson attack on the cabin,” Daniel says. “We had an interesting conversation with William. He denies any involvement in the fire, which leaves only you in the frame.”
He is pushing the boundaries, but his assertion has the desired effect.
Pontus’s face loses all its color, and he seems to be fighting back tears.
“Olivia and Emil were asleep in the cabin when the fire started,” Hanna reminds him. “Do you realize what could have happened if Olivia hadn’t woken up in time? They could both have died. A terrible, agonizing death in the flames.”
“Two more homicide victims,” Daniel adds. “That means a life sentence in jail.”
“It wasn’t me.”
Pontus’s words are barely audible, but Daniel doesn’t let that stop him.
“There are three troubling facts as I see it. One, you were there on the night in question, which your friends will confirm in court. Two, you had a motive to harm Emil, whom you attacked earlier and tried to strangle with your bare hands. Three, you ran away from the scene of the crime immediately afterward and tried to hide.” He holds up one finger at a time as he goes through the key points.
Pontus recoils with each statement. “In my eyes you’re in a real mess.
And we haven’t even started to discuss the fact that you are going to be charged with assaulting a police officer.
Or the small matter of entering the neighbor’s garage illegally. ”
Pontus is breathing with his mouth open.
“And you lied to us about William and Filippa,” Hanna adds.
She can see that he is on the verge of breaking down. His face crumples; his lips are twitching. A night in custody often has a real impact.
Come on, Pontus. Time to tell the truth.
“Seriously—why should we believe you just because you claim you’re innocent?” Daniel leans across the table. “Who else would have started the fire?” His harsh tone is gone. He sounds almost gentle as he places a hand on Pontus’s arm. “Who else, if it wasn’t you?”
“Talk to us, Pontus,” Hanna says. “Trust me, you’ll feel better. This must be very difficult for you to cope with all on your own. We do understand.”
Pontus buries his face in his hands. “I didn’t mean it,” he mumbles through his fingers.
At last.
Hanna holds her breath as she hears the words, thick with tears. She signals to Daniel to give him some breathing space; it’s better to allow Pontus to compose himself before they continue. She has no doubt that he is going to tell them everything now he has taken the first step.
“What happened that night?” she says after a pause. “What were you thinking?”
“I was so angry,” Pontus snivels. “And drunk. I didn’t know what I was doing.
After the row with Emil, I just collapsed on my bed, but then I woke up and needed a piss.
When I went past the laundry room on the way to the bathroom, I saw a bottle of lighter fluid on the bench by the sink .
. .” His eyes are huge and full of fear as he continues: “I felt like I had to show them that they couldn’t just ignore me.
And somehow it felt good to see the cabin burning.
I thought they’d all feel sorry for what they’d done, especially William; he treats me like shit.
But then I heard Olivia screaming inside . . .”
“Two people were sleeping in the cabin,” Daniel reiterates. “They could both have died in the flames.”
“I know.” Pontus’s face contorts. “I didn’t know that Olivia and Emil were in there.
I swear on my mother’s honor, on God, on my grandfather’s grave.
Emil had the room next to mine, and I thought Olivia was sleeping in the main house after everything that had happened.
I would never have tried to kill them, never. ”
“Was that why you ran away?” Hanna asks.
Pontus sighs heavily. “The fire took hold so fast. I still don’t understand how it spread so quickly. And then, when Olivia came running out with the extinguisher . . . I thought I’d die of shame, what if she saw me and realized what I’d done . . . So I just . . . ran. All I wanted to do was hide.”
“That’s why our colleague found you in the garage?”
When Pontus looks up, his expression is one of utter hopelessness.
“I’m so ashamed of what I did to him. I never meant to hurt him so badly.
” He puts his elbows on the table and lowers his head.
He is sobbing so hard that his entire body is shaking.
Between the sobs comes a low groan: “What’s going to happen to me now? ”