Joona Linna: Stalker Part 55

'Joona, what's going on?' Erik asks, trying to keep his voice steady. 'The police are hunting me with a helicopter, they've tried to shoot me. This is crazy, I haven't done anything, I was just following the preacher ...'

'Hang on, Erik, just hold on ... Where are you now? Are you safe?'

'I don't know, I'm walking along an empty street, past Telefonplan ... I don't understand any of this.'

'You followed the preacher to Adam's home,' Joona says. 'His wife is the latest victim, she's dead.'

'No ...' Erik gasps.

'They're all panicking,' Joona says darkly. 'They seem to think you're guilty of the murder because-'

'So talk to them!' Erik interrupts.

'You were seen near the house right after the murder.'

'Yes, but if I-'

Erik falls silent as he hears a car approaching. He ducks into a doorway and turns his back to the street.

'Can't I just hand myself in?' he asks once the car has gone.

'Not without a plan,' Joona replies.

'You don't trust the police?' Erik asks.

'They just tried to shoot you,' Joona says. 'And if that wasn't a mistake, then there are people in the force who are out for revenge.'

Erik runs his hands through his wet hair, struggling to understand all the improbable things that have happened over the past few days.

'What are my options?' he asks in the end. 'What do you think I should do?'

'If you can let me have a bit of time, I'll try to find out what's happening with the police operation,' Joona says. 'I'll find out what they're saying about you internally, and if there's a safe way for you to come in.'

'OK.'

'But you need to lie low,' Joona says.

'How do I do that? What do I do?'

'They've already got your car, you can't go home, you can't go to any of your friends. Ditch your phone after this conversation, because you know they can track it even when it's switched off. They're probably tracing it now, so we don't have much time.'

'I understand.'

Sweat is running down Erik's cheeks as he tries to listen to Joona's advice.

'Find a cash machine and take some money out, as much as you can, this is your only chance to do that ... But before you withdraw the money you need to work out how to get to another part of town quickly, because they'll be ready if you make the slightest mistake.'

'OK.'

'Buy a used pay-as-you-go phone and call me so I've got the number,' Joona goes on. 'Don't contact anyone else, and go and sleep in a shelter that won't demand any ID.'

'After this, everyone's going to believe I'm guilty,' Erik says.

'Only until I find the preacher,' Joona replies.

'If I can get a chance to hypnotise Rocky, I know I could find out the sort of details that-'

'That's no longer possible,' Joona interrupts. 'He's back in custody.'

95.

When Joona gets back to his old room early the next morning, Margot is sitting behind her desk wearing a T-shirt with the text 'Guys with trucks are not lesbians'. Her thick plait has almost come unravelled, she has dark rings under her eyes and deep lines around her mouth.

'I've been to an emergency meeting of senior officers,' she tells him, helping herself to a bag of sweets. 'The regional police chief, Carlos, Annika from the National Police Board. The preliminary investigation is now top priority, we're getting a lot more resources ... A national alert has been issued, and they're preparing for a press conference tomorrow.'

'How's Adam?' Joona asks.

'I don't know, he's been relieved of duty, doesn't want to see a counsellor ... he's got his family round him, but ...'

'Terrible,' Joona says.

Joona hopes Erik has taken his advice to destroy his phone immediately after their conversation.

During the large police and emergency services operation at Sofa Zone in Hgdalen they had to charter a bus to take all the people they'd apprehended to the custody unit in Huddinge while they waited for a decision from the prosecutor about arrests. The high number of dead and injured were a.s.sumed to be the victims of a b.l.o.o.d.y power-struggle in the criminal underworld.

One of the men taken into custody for possession of narcotics was Rocky Kyrklund. He had eleven capsules each containing 250 milligrams of 30 per cent heroin hidden in his clothes.

'We saw the murderer at the Zone. Erik followed him to Katryna,' Joona says, leaning forward.

'How do you know that?'

'Erik didn't do it,' Joona says.

'Joona,' Margot sighs. 'You can discuss this with me. I know the two of you are friends, but be careful when you see the others.'

'They need to know that he's innocent.'

'You don't want it to be Erik, but perhaps he's been deceiving you,' she says patiently.

'I saw a man in a yellow raincoat at the Zone, and remembered what Filip Cronstedt said about yellow oilskins ... Erik followed him, and ended up at Adam's.'

'So how do you explain the fact that he knew all the victims, including Katryna?' Margot says, holding his gaze.

'When did he meet her?'

'She was with us one time when Adam and I were round at his,' she replies. 'And Susanna Kern worked at the Karolinska as a nurse, she was on a course where Erik was one of the lecturers ... We've got security camera footage of him talking to her.'

Joona gestures with his hand as if to say that the information is irrelevant.

'So why would Erik be known as the preacher?' he asks.

'He's smart, he's tricked you ... he can make Rocky remember anything he wants him to.'

'Why?'

'Joona, I don't know everything yet, but Erik has been close to the investigation, and has been hampering our progress ... We've finally got a witness statement from Bjrn Kern and it's very clear that Erik didn't tell us that Susanna's body was posed with her hand over her ear.'

'Did he see that when he was hypnotised?'

'Erik knew the information about the ear would lead us to Rocky, and then to him, and-'

'That doesn't make sense, Margot.'

'And Erik visited Rocky at Karsudden a few days before I asked him to go.'

Joona's eyes turn cold as ice as he puts his hand on the folder.

'This isn't evidence,' he says. 'You know that, don't you?'

'It's enough to bring him into custody, and enough for a search warrant, enough for a national alert,' she replies stiffly.

'It sounds to me like he's been conducting his own investigations, and the rest is just coincidence.'

'He fits the perpetrator profile. He's divorced, single, has a history of substance abuse, and-'

'So have half the police force,' Joona interrupts.

'The murders are extremely voyeuristic ... we know that Erik is obsessed with filming his patients, even under hypnosis, when they don't know anything about it.'

'That's just to stop him having to take notes.'

'But he's got thousands of hours in his archive, and ... and a stalker is almost always slow, methodical ... The investment in time is part of the ownership process, part of the quasi-relationship that develops.'

'Margot, I hear what you're saying, but could you at least entertain the possibility that Erik is innocent?' Joona asks.

'That's possible, certainly,' she replies honestly.

'In which case you also have to consider the possibility that we're losing sight of the real murderer, the one we're calling the preacher.'

She forces herself to look away from him and glances at the time.

'The meeting's about to start,' she says, getting to her feet.

'I can find the preacher if you want me to,' Joona says.

'We've already got him,' she replies.

'I need my gun, I need all the material, the reports from the crime scenes, the post-mortems.'

'I really shouldn't agree to that,' she says, opening the door.

'And can you arrange for me to see Rocky Kyrklund in prison?' Joona asks.

'You don't give up, do you?' she says with a smile.

They walk slowly along the corridor together. Margot stops Joona outside the meeting room.

'Bear in mind that the people waiting in here are Adam's colleagues,' she says with her fingers on the door handle. 'The tone of the meeting is likely to be pretty tough, they need to vent their anger. It's their way of showing their support for him, and the force as a whole.'

96.

Joona follows Margot into the large meeting room. She makes a gesture that simultaneously say h.e.l.lo to everyone and tells them to remain seated.

'Before we start ... I know emotions are running high at the moment, and we're a tolerant bunch, but I'd still like to encourage everyone to stick to a civilised tone,' she says. 'The preliminary investigation is entering a new phase, and will now be actively led by the prosecutor while we focus on making a quick arrest.'

She stops and catches her breath.

'But our bosses have asked me to bring in Joona Linna, seeing as he is the homicide detective with the best results ... there's no contest, frankly, and ...'

A few of the officers clap while others sit there staring at the table.

'Naturally he won't be officially involved in the preliminary investigation, but I hope he'll be able to give the rest of us mere mortals a few tips along the way,' Margot jokes, even though her eyes show no sign of amus.e.m.e.nt.

Joona takes a steps forward and looks at his former colleagues seated around the pale wooden table before speaking: 'Erik is no murderer.'

'What the f.u.c.k?' Petter mutters.

'Let's hear him out,' Margot says curtly.

'I appreciate that there's a lot of evidence pointing at Erik ... and he should certainly be brought in for questioning, but seeing as I'm here to tell you what I think-'

'Joona, I just want to say that I've had a meeting with the prosecutor,' Benny says. 'Her opinion is that we have very compelling evidence.'