She left her things in a locker, then went through the metal detector and on into the long corridor. She walked past Ward 113, and as usual heard shouting and fighting inside. That was where they kept the most difficult patients, under heavy medication, while they were waiting to go to one of the other care facilities around the country.
She walked along the corridor, then turned right into Ward 112 and made her way to the consulting room that the psychologists shared. She glanced at the time and noted that she was fifteen minutes early.
She closed the door, sat down at the desk and compared the front pages of the two evening papers.
MACABRE FIND IN CENTRAL STOCKHOLM and MUMMY FOUND IN BUSHES!
She took a bite of the sandwich and sipped the hot coffee. The mummified body of a young boy had been found out at Thorildsplan.
More dead children, she thought with a heavy heart.
The door was opened by a thickset psychiatric nurse. ‘I’ve got someone out here that I gather you’re supposed to talk to. Nasty piece of work, with a load of shit on her conscience.’ He gestured over his shoulder.
She didn’t like the language the nurses used among themselves. Even if they were dealing with serious criminals, there was no reason to be offensive or condescending.
‘Show her in, please, then you can leave us alone.’
Mariatorget – Sofia Zetterlund’s Office
AT TWO O’CLOCK Sofia Zetterlund was back in her office in the city. She still had two appointments left before the day’s work was over, and she realised it was going to be hard to stay focused after her visit to Huddinge.
Sofia sat down at her desk to formulate a recommendation that Tyra M?kel? be sentenced to secure psychiatric care. The meeting of the members of the consultative team had led to the lead psychiatrist moderating his position somewhat, and Sofia was hopeful that they would soon be able to make a final decision.
If nothing else, then for Tyra M?kel?’s sake.
The woman needed treatment.
Sofia had presented a summary of the woman’s background and character. Tyra M?kel? had two suicide attempts behind her: as a fourteen-year-old she had taken an intentional overdose of pills, and she was put on disability benefit at the age of twenty as a result of persistent depression. The fifteen years she had spent with the sadistic Harri M?kel? had led to another suicide attempt, then the murder of their adopted son.
Sofia believed that the time she had spent with her husband, who had been deemed sufficiently sane to be sentenced to prison, had exacerbated the woman’s condition.
Sofia’s conclusion was that Tyra M?kel? had in all likelihood suffered repeated psychotic episodes during the years in which the abuse took place. There were two documented visits to a psychiatric clinic during the past year that supported her thesis. In both cases she had been found wandering the streets and had to be hospitalised for several days before she could be discharged.
Sofia also saw other mitigating factors regarding Tyra M?kel?’s culpability in the case. Her IQ was so low that it meant she could hardly be held responsible for murder, a fact that the court had more or less ignored. Sofia saw a woman who, under the ever-present influence of alcohol, idealised her man. Her passivity might mean that she could be regarded as complicit in the abuse, but at the same time she was incapable of intervention because of her mental state.
The verdict had been upheld at the highest level, and all that remained now was the sentence.
Tyra M?kel? needed treatment. Her crimes could never be undone, but a prison sentence wouldn’t help anyone.
The cruelty of the case mustn’t be allowed to cloud their judgement.
During the afternoon Sofia completed her statement about Tyra M?kel?, and got through her three and four o’clock appointments. A burned-out businessman and an ageing actress who was no longer getting any parts and had fallen into a deep depression as a result.
When she was on her way out at five o’clock, Ann-Britt stopped her in reception.
‘You haven’t forgotten that you’re going to Gothenburg next Saturday? I’ve got the train tickets here, and you’re booked into the Hotel Scandic.’
Ann-Britt put a folder on the counter.
‘Of course not,’ Sofia said.
She was going to see a publisher who was planning to print a Swedish translation of the former child soldier Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone. The publisher was hoping that Sofia could use her experience with traumatised children to help them check some of the facts.
‘What time am I going?’
‘Early. The departure time’s on the ticket.’
‘Five-twelve?’
Sofia sighed and went back into her office to dig out the report she had written for UNICEF seven years before.
When she sat down at her desk again and opened the file, she couldn’t help wondering if she was actually ready to return to her memories from that time. She still dreamed about the child soldiers in Port Loko. The two boys by the truck, one with no arms, the other with no legs. The UNICEF paediatrician, murdered by the same children it was his calling to help. Victims turned perpetrators. The sounds of singing, ‘Mambaa manyani … Mamani manyimi.’ Seven years, she thought.
Was it really that long ago?
Kronoberg – Police Headquarters
THE FOLLOWING DAY Jeanette systematically worked her way through the documents Hurtig had given her. Interviews, reports from investigations and judgements, all of them dealing with abuse or murders involving an element of sadism. Jeanette noted that in every case but one the perpetrator was male.
The exception’s name was Tyra M?kel?, and she and her husband had recently been found guilty of the murder of their adopted son.
Nothing she had seen at the crime scene out at Thorildsplan reminded her of anything she had experienced before, and she felt she needed assistance.
She picked up the phone and called Lars Mikkelsen at National Crime: he was responsible for violent and sexual offences against children. She decided to give as brief an outline of the case as possible. If Mikkelsen was in a position to help her, she could go into more detail later.
What a fucking awful job, she thought as she waited for him to answer.
Interviewing and investigating paedophiles. How strong did you have to be to cope with watching thousands of hours of filmed abuse and several million pictures of violated children?
Could you actually have children of your own?
After her conversation with Mikkelsen, Jeanette Kihlberg called another meeting of the investigating team, where they attempted to piece the facts together. They didn’t have that many lines of inquiry to follow up at the moment.
‘The call to the emergency operator was made from an area close to the DN Tower.’ ?hlund held a sheet of paper in the air. ‘We should know where, soon.’
Jeanette nodded. She went over to the whiteboard, where a dozen photographs of the dead boy had been pinned up.
‘So, what do we know?’ She turned to Hurtig.