Chapter 28
A few minutes later Hanna hurries along to the conference room. It is time for the special unit to meet again. She sits down with Daniel, Anton, and Raffe at two thirty, and they link up with ?stersund.
Birgitta Grip begins by reporting on the press conference that took place earlier.
“Just so you know, the media is going crazy. The murder has also been picked up by the international press, and our communications department has its hands full.”
Hanna shakes her head as she thinks about the journalists in the hotel foyer yesterday, crowding around Daniel on the stairs.
She tries to catch his eye, but his attention is on Grip, who has moved on to the current situation.
They discuss the conversation with Filip Wretlind and the interviews with hotel guests and employees.
Unfortunately not much has emerged from this process; no one staying on the same floor saw or heard anything from the victim’s suite on Sunday night.
Their colleagues are now speaking to those staying on the floor below.
Hanna prepares to share what she found on Flashback.
She does a quick mental recap on the information they have gathered so far on Charlotte’s private life.
Since the divorce in 1999, she doesn’t seem to have had any long-term relationships in the public eye, focusing instead on her job and her son.
A secret boyfriend would explain why details of her love life are so sparse.
If she was having an affair with a public figure who was married and therefore worried about their reputations, they would of course want to stay under the radar.
Maybe Henry Sylvester knows something about that.
Or Filip.
“I found a couple of pointers about Charlotte Wretlind’s private life on Flashback,” she begins, and runs through the posts on Stefan and Charlotte’s relationship.
“Well done,” Grip says. “We’ll ask our colleagues in Stockholm to check out his alibi right away.”
Then she turns to Raffe.
“Did you get anywhere with the Storlien project and its finances?”
“We’ve only just started, but we have found some interesting things about the deceased and her business partner, Henry Sylvester.
” He jerks his head toward Anton, who has also spent the day looking into the finances surrounding Storlien.
After a brief pause, Raffe continues. “Charlotte Wretlind’s company, SEG, has taken out substantial loans in order to build the new hotel in Storlien; the project is being run by a separate company.
If anything went wrong, she stood to lose a great deal of money. ”
“So she must have been desperate to push it through,” Daniel comments.
Anton nods. “Exactly. The fact that she was prepared to take such a huge personal financial risk says a great deal about her commitment.”
“The question is, how far was she prepared to go in order to succeed?” Hanna wonders. “With such high stakes?”
“Are you thinking it might be a motive for murder?” Grip says.
“I am. It doesn’t sound like you’d want to get in Charlotte’s way.”
Hanna looks at her boss on the screen. When Hanna first came to ?re, it took her a while to get used to the digital meetings, which were essential because the team is so far apart. After a year of working at home, it has become the norm all over the world.
Everyone is following the example of the Norrland police, she thinks with a faint smile.
“Have you had time to take a look at Henry Sylvester’s company?” Daniel asks.
“We have, and that’s interesting too,” Raffe replies. “It’s called Pecunium AB, and they’ve been investing in various commercial property projects throughout Scandinavia for a long time, but they’ve never put capital into a hotel before.”
Hanna nods. This fits with what Henry told them yesterday. He admitted he’d never had anything to do with the hotel industry. What was it he’d said when they asked why he’d gone along with Charlotte’s plans?
That it wasn’t easy to say no to her.
Which still doesn’t explain why he got involved with a high-risk project that contradicts his usual business strategy.
Hanna wonders if Charlotte had some kind of hold over him, something that meant he was more or less forced into the investment.
From the little she has read about him, she knows that Henry is a year or so younger than the victim, fifty-five, and single.
He has three grown-up sons from a previous marriage.
During the last decade he seems to have made a habit of going out with significantly younger women who all look the same.
He is very rich, and has an apartment on Strandv?gen in Stockholm, one of the capital’s most desirable addresses.
The description of Henry is something of a cliché, but one thing stands out. He has publicly stated that after his death, the lion’s share of his fortune will go to a foundation he has started in order to keep the Baltic Sea clean, and to combat the destruction of the environment.
A wealthy man with a conscience, in other words. Someone who wants to use his millions to make a difference.
To be honest, Hanna is finding it difficult to form a clear perception of Henry Sylvester.
He seems to be a man with contradictory qualities.
On the one hand he is a philanthropist, on the other a hardheaded businessman.
He comes across as willing to cooperate, but it is impossible to penetrate beneath the surface.
He also seems to be a thoughtful godfather to Filip, although he failed to mention their relationship yesterday.
What else has he chosen to keep to himself?
“Anyway,” Raffe continues, “Henry Sylvester’s company owns thirty percent of the Storlien company, Charlotte twenty-five, and the rest is divided between various investors.”
“How much money are we talking about?” Grip wants to know.
“In total we’re looking at between three and five hundred million kronor.”
A collective gasp sweeps through the meeting.
“Are you kidding?” Hanna says. “That’s unbelievable—for a hotel in a place like Storlien.”
Raffe looks pleased, as if he was looking forward to their reaction.
“There was a piece about the sale in the local paper,” Anton says. “The owners had been trying to sell for quite a while, although at the time it sounded as if they were only asking twenty million.”
Grip joins in. “I think it was sold for over three hundred million ten years ago.”
“That’s right,” Raffe confirms. “But then the complex was bought back after three years because the buyer at the time hadn’t secured the investments that had been agreed to in the contract.”
“And then it was put on the market for a pathetic twenty million?” Hanna says.
“Correct. But the problem isn’t the purchase price; it’s all the rest that burns money. It’s a huge construction project, and the demolition costs alone are astronomical,” Anton explains.
“Demolition? Won’t there be anything left?” Daniel asks.
Raffe holds up a photograph of the mountain hotel, showing five rectangular buildings in a snowy landscape.
Hanna recognizes it from the Facebook page she visited earlier.
The picture was taken in brilliant sunshine against a clear blue sky, but even though the image was obviously intended to show the hotel to its best advantage, it looks dated.
There is a kind of tired 1960s vibe about the place.
“The current hotel consists of a main building and four attached annexes,” Raffe explains.
“I spoke to the site supervisor, who told me that most of it is very run down, with seventies or eighties standards. You can imagine—dirty carpets, peeling wallpaper, bathrooms that would need replacing, and so on. It would need a huge amount of renovation.”
Hanna is impressed by the amount of information Raffe and Anton have come up with in such a short time.
“So the plan is to flatten the whole lot?” Daniel says.
Anton nods. “Seems that way. It would cost far more to renovate than to demolish, if I’ve understood correctly. And they have soaring ambitions. Charlotte had engaged an overseas architect who is known for his spectacular buildings.”
“You should see the drawings in the planning application we got from the council,” Raffe adds. “Enormous windows, dramatic lines. I’ve never seen anything like it. With that kind of vision, you’d have to start again from square one.”
Anton reaches into his bag and gets out a bottle containing something green. He is a fitness fanatic, and often brings in protein drinks and homemade smoothies. The smell of raw spinach and broccoli spreads through the room when he unscrews the cap.
“I don’t understand how they got permission,” Daniel says.
“They seem to have had good contacts on the council,” Anton replies, taking a swig. “Apparently Bengt Hedin, the chair of the planning committee, gave the project his personal backing.”
Hanna remembers that Hedin was supposed to have been participating in Monday’s press conference—she’d read about it earlier.
“I was thinking of checking him out,” Anton adds, putting down the bottle. “I’ll go over to J?rpen first thing tomorrow and have a chat with him.”
Time to change the subject. Grip flicks through her papers and looks up.
“How about the CCTV cameras at the hotel? Any luck there?”
A younger colleague in ?stersund shakes his head. “I’m afraid not. It turns out they have hardly any cameras. The few they do have aren’t working. They wanted to put up cameras by the staff exit a couple of years ago, but they weren’t allowed for reasons of integrity.”
Hanna groans silently. She understands that there are arguments in favor of regulation, but in this case a single functioning camera would have been a big help. She holds up her hand to indicate that she has something to say, and tells the team about the Facebook group she found.
“We need to look into that,” Grip says. “I’ll ask IT to track down the administrator, see what they can find out.”
It is almost four o’clock and Hanna is getting hungry. She wishes she’d brought a snack, like Anton. The hot dog she had for lunch didn’t really cut it.
“Anything else before we finish?” Grip asks.
“We’ve checked Espen Lund’s alibi for Sunday,” says one of the investigators in ?stersund.
“There are witnesses who can confirm that he was at home in Unders?ker from 5:00 p.m. that day. His brother-in-law and sister-in-law were visiting, and it was a late night—they didn’t leave until after midnight. ”
At least we can eliminate him from our inquiries, Hanna thinks. Which is something at least.
Grip looks around.
“So to summarize: We have a hugely expensive hotel project, the profitability of which is dubious. We have the murder of the individual who was most passionate about the project, a reluctant fellow investor, and possibly a secret lover. And there may be questions regarding the planning permission.” She pauses. “Have I missed anything?”
No one has any suggestions.
The meeting comes to an end, and Hanna stays where she is as Anton and Raffe leave the room. She is still brooding over Henry Sylvester’s involvement in Storlien.
Daniel has stood up, but notices that she hasn’t moved. “What is it?”
She weighs her pen in her hand while she works out what to say.
“I just don’t understand why Henry agreed to invest. The amount of money is staggering. If he owned thirty percent of the company, we’re talking about huge sums, even if the majority should have been financed through loans.”
Daniel leans on the table while Hanna continues her train of thought.
“A commitment of three to five hundred million is a hell of a lot, even for a businessman on his level.”
Daniel seems to understand.
“So why don’t we go back to the hotel and have another chat with Henry Sylvester?” he suggests.