Angel Maker: An Unputdownable Scandinavian Crime Thriller With A Chilling Twist (DI Jamie Johansson Book 1)

Jan Hansen was an accounts manager for a software development company in the city. And he made a lot of money doing it. His wife, Anna Hansen, retired from work at forty-three years old to foster children full time.

They had been married for over twenty-five years, and had one child of their own. Anna fell pregnant at just seventeen, and they got married as soon as it was legal. Now that their own son had flown the nest, Anna had wanted to fill that hole.

They were currently fostering two children. A boy, William Martinsson. And their victim, Emmy Berg.

By all accounts they were good, wholesome, generous people. Neither had criminal records, or anything to suggest that they were anything else. Except for the fact that both Wiik and Jamie unanimously agreed that Jan Hansen was one of the least caring and rudest people that they’d ever met.

‘It’s not our fault,’ he said flatly, arms folded, sitting back into the corner of the sofa in his living room.

The house was sizeable – three floors, four bedrooms. His wife and his was on the first floor – along with the one that Jan had converted into a home office – and the children’s on the second.

Jamie could see that Jan’s general demeanour was like nails on a chalkboard to Wiik. His temple vein was back again. So she took the lead. ‘No one is saying it’s your fault, Mr Hansen,’ Jamie offered diplomatically.

Anna Hansen spoke up then. ‘Emmy was such a sweet girl—’

But then Jan Hansen cut her off for what must have been the fifth time in as many minutes. ‘She was a rambunctious, uncontrollable teenager. She was a runaway. And she was a thief,’ he said bitterly.

His wife’s lip quivered. ‘For God’s sake, Jan!’ she said, throwing her hands down but keeping her eyes on the floor. She didn’t dare shout at him. ‘She was just a girl! An innocent girl. She’d been bounced from house to house, from family to family – she was scared, and she didn’t think anyone could ever love her.’

Jan sneered. ‘She didn’t know how good she had it.’

‘No, she didn’t!’ Anna nearly yelled this time. ‘But we were getting there with her. She would have understood. If you’d have just been a little…’

Jan leaned forward on the sofa now. ‘A little what?’ he spat. ‘Nicer?’ He laughed now, his words dripping with bile. ‘She had a warm bed, food in her stomach, and a roof over her head. And what did she give us? Nothing but sullen grunts, angry silences and grief.’ He looked at Jamie and Wiik now. ‘Either of you ever fostered?’

They both shook their heads.

‘Well don’t. More trouble than it’s worth. And now the agency is going to try and say it was our fault. You know how many times that girl ran away?’

They shook their heads again.

‘Six times. Six times in ten months.’ He shook his head and sneered again. ‘She’d wait for an opportunity, and then bang.’ He clapped loudly and threw his right hand into the air. ‘Out the door with whatever she could stuff in her pockets.’

Jamie set her jaw. ‘You don’t seem to like fostering, Mr Hansen,’ she said slowly, glancing at the ceiling.

‘Until this one,’ Jan said, laughing again, ‘It’s been a dream. But Emmy?’ He tutted now.

Anna was silent. Submissively so. Jamie expected that it was Anna’s wish to foster the children, and that Jan just went along with it. Though Jamie couldn’t understand why. Anna obviously wasn’t the dominant one here.

Wiik asked a question now. ‘What kind of things did she take?’

‘What didn’t she steal?’ Jan said.

Jamie noted the use of the word ‘steal’ versus Wiik’s ‘take’. Whether it meant anything, Jamie didn’t know. But it felt harsher to hear. More blame-laying, that much was certain. Jan was playing himself off as the victim. Or trying to. He didn’t look like one, though. He actually didn’t look like much except for a gigantic dickhead. She watched him with his voice on mute as he counted off the things Emmy had taken on his hands – very animatedly, she realised, without any sound. She caught the words ‘ornaments’, ‘silverware’, ‘an iPad’, before she got rid of his voice altogether. Jamie was glad he was easy to tune out, and instead focused on the ‘loving’ husband and wife in front of her.

Anna was slight, with a short brown pixie cut. She had a pointed chin and a small nose, sunken eyes and prominent cheekbones. She was wearing a high-collared dress that stretched down to her shins, a brown cardigan and house slippers.

Jan, on the other hand, was big – a little overweight, maybe hovering around six feet or so. He had a thick neck and a narrow head so that it looked like someone had painted a face on a finger. She remembered what Wiik had said about Sjöberg’s urn and tried not to smirk to herself. Jan Hansen’s ears stuck out of his tapering, bald head, and supported thin and what she was sure he was told by the optician were ‘trendy’ glasses. They hugged his face and covered his beady eyes. She watched as the roll of skin wobbled under his weak chin, her eyes moving down to his open short-sleeved white shirt, the hairy exposed forearms, and then she slowly turned the volume up, just as he was getting to the end of what seemed to be an exhaustive list.

‘—which is why we started hiding the electronics,’ he said, finishing with a flourish of his arms.

Jamie refocused on Anna now. ‘Anna,’ she said, waiting for the woman to look up. ‘Can you tell us what Emmy was like?’

‘The girl was—’ Jan began before Wiik laid daggers into him.

‘Inspector Johansson was talking to your wife,’ he said coolly, staring the guy out.

Jan, like all bullies, shrank at the first sign of someone standing up to them.

‘Anna,’ Jamie said again.

‘I thought… I thought she was happy,’ Anna Hansen said quietly. ‘She was sweet.’

Jan scoffed behind her, and then sat back again, pouting, crossing his hairy arms over his belly.

Anna went on after a few seconds – once she realised Jan wouldn’t speak again. He knew better with Wiik still staring at him. ‘She was… she was scared, I think.’

‘Scared of what?’ Jamie asked, trying not to lean in too expectantly.

‘Scared of being loved.’

Jamie’s jaw tightened. Not the answer she wanted, but it was one that tugged on the heartstrings. Hard. Anna was distraught by it. Jamie could see that. ‘How many children have you fostered?’ she asked, changing the way she was going to approach this.

‘Emmy was our… fourth? Fifth.’ She corrected herself. ‘We usually try to take one teenager, and one younger. Often it’s difficult to place teenagers – not many families want them. And they can often be more difficult than the younger children.’

Jan looked like he wanted to weigh in, but Wiik wasn’t looking like he wanted to be tested, so instead he kept quiet and resigned himself to sulking.

‘I can imagine,’ Jamie said. ‘The other child you have now – has he been with you long?’

‘William?’ Anna asked. ‘Yes – about two years now. Maybe a little longer.’

‘And how old is William?’

‘He’s eight,’ Anna said.

‘Good.’ Jamie offered her a warm smile. The woman seemed genuinely nice. What she was doing with a guy like Jan, was anybody’s guess. Though Hallberg had said she didn’t have a job, and the house wasn’t cheap. Jan must have earned a lot on his own to afford it. She expected that he reminded Anna of that often. ‘And before William?’

‘Elias – he was with us for seven years. From the time he was eleven to when he was eighteen.’

‘He was lucky to have you,’ Jamie said.

Jan couldn’t help himself this time. ‘And the boy knew it, too.’

Wiik growled, then stood up. ‘Mr Hansen – could you show me to Emmy’s room, please? We’d like to take a look at it.’

He looked at Wiik, then at Jamie. ‘Why? The girl was never there. Always out, doing who knows what with who knows who.’

Wiik straightened his jacket. ‘All part of the investigation,’ he said, forcing a smile. ‘Would you mind?’

Jan Hansen looked at his wife now – staring at the back of her head as though afraid to leave her alone with Jamie.

‘Now, Mr Hansen.’

The man reddened visibly, then heaved himself off the sofa. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Top floor. After you.’

He trailed after Wiik, glancing back a dozen times before he disappeared up the stairs.

Jamie breathed a little easier, but Anna looked more apprehensive than before.

‘Are you alright, Mrs Hansen?’ Jamie asked.

‘Yes,’ she replied quickly. ‘It’s just…’

‘What?’

‘Jan didn’t want me to call you,’ she all but whispered.

‘Why not?’ Jamie asked quickly, aware that Jan was probably doing all he could to hurry Wiik along and get back down here.

‘I don’t know – he said that no one would care that she was gone. That it would be easier for everyone if we just left things as they were.’

Jamie measured the woman, aware she had to tread a fine line here. ‘Mr Hansen said Emmy had run away before – six times.’

‘That’s right.’

‘Did she always come back?’

‘Yes – eventually. She knew where we kept the spare key for the side gate, and the back door. She’d usually slip in during the night. I’d find her in bed in the morning.’

‘And how did she seem when she came back?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Children who run away don’t usually try to come back – not unless something has happened to them, or—’

‘Oh, no, I don’t think it was anything like that,’ Anna said dismissively. ‘I think she just realised it was safer here than out there, you know? For a girl of her age. She wouldn’t tell me where she went or why she left… But I trusted her to talk to me when she was ready. She just never… got the…’ Anna Hansen broke down into tears then and began to sob quietly.

Jamie steeled herself. She had to maintain distance. She cleared her throat, looked down, gathered her thoughts, and then spoke again. ‘Fostering children can be difficult. You can take solace in the fact that you provided a solid, dependable, safe environment for her. But girls like Emmy – if they’ve been in the system for a while – it can be hard for them to build trust.’

Anna nodded, not stopping.

‘Did Emmy have a phone by any chance? Did you contact her while she was away from the house at all?’

Anna shook her head. ‘No, I gave her a phone,’ she choked out. ‘But Jan said she sold it…’

Jamie cursed inwardly but kept going, conscious of time. ‘Do you know where she might have gone? Did she have any friends or contacts in the city?’

Again, Anna shook her head. ‘No – William is… he has friends, you know? But Emmy – she struggled to meet people. She was nervous. Quiet. She liked to be alone.’

‘I know the feeling. Life can be tough at that age,’ Jamie said honestly. Her childhood had been better than some, but worse than others. But compared to girls like Emmy, it had been a breeze.

Anna nodded her confirmation. ‘After the phone – Jan said we couldn’t give her anything like a laptop, or a TV, so Emmy read mostly when she was here.’

Jamie swallowed. ‘Mr Hansen said she went out a lot – do you know where? Was it in the day, at night?’

‘At night, mostly – she would go out before Jan came home, come back after he’d gone to bed. He would always lock up – said it would teach her to tell the time. But I’d always leave a key out.’

‘She was lucky to have you,’ Jamie said, trying to keep her voice straight. ‘Did she ever say where she went?’

Anna shook her head again, stifling the sobs. ‘No. She didn’t talk to me much.’

Jamie gritted her teeth now. They were going around in circles. No phone, no laptop. Nothing. No friends. No contacts. She coughed into her fist to shift the lump in her throat and asked the question she needed to. ‘Was Emmy religious? Do you think she might have been going to a church, or—’

‘A church?’ Anna looked up now, her expression quizzical. ‘No, I don’t think… she was— she liked science, and I never heard her talk about it – Jan and I aren’t religious. And I didn’t read anything about it in her file – and they always include things like that. Any requirements or beliefs – allergies, religions, things they like and dislike. What you can do to make their stays easier, you know?’

Jamie nodded, taking it in. Then how the hell did she connect to Eriksson? ‘Thank you,’ Jamie said. ‘I’m sorry this has happened.’

Anna quietened then and looked down at her hands. ‘I just wanted to help, you know?’

‘I know,’ Jamie said, thinking about her own youth – those formative years. Where she remembered everything that passed between her mother and father so vividly. The arguments, the tears, the screaming. ‘But sometimes, children don’t want to be helped. No matter how much they need it.’

‘It’s not about helping them – it’s just about loving them.’

Jamie let that hang in the air for a few seconds, listening to the footsteps ringing down from above. ‘Is William here now?’ Jamie asked after a moment.

‘Yes, he’s in his room,’ Anna said.

‘How was his relationship with Emmy?’ Emmy wasn’t talking to Anna and certainly not to Jan, but kids often spoke to each other. Though William was only eight, so Jamie wasn’t holding out much hope. Still, she had to try. All they knew so far was that Emmy would be out of the house for long periods of time, would steal and sell what she could to get by and that she was abducted while she was out of the house. It was clear she was trying to scrape money together – probably for a train or a bus ticket. For something. A fresh start, maybe – to get away? Jamie didn’t know. But she’d only come back when she ran out of money or realised she wasn’t going to make it. Except for the last time. She was going somewhere. She was meeting someone.

The Angel Maker’s MO wasn’t to just abduct girls off the street. They were chosen. They were groomed or coerced. They went willingly into the cars. There were no signs that any of the victims had been harmed physically other than the sexual assaults, which meant that either they knew their attackers or at least felt safe enough to go with them willingly. The reports – old and new – had shown the same thing. That the girls were assaulted, and then afterwards – but not immediately – they were suffocated, and then quickly mounted and displayed in succession. A picture was forming: either Sjöberg or Eriksson had groomed the girls in that church group, abused them, and then when they’d got bored, they’d killed them. Or it was a joint effort from the start, or one got off on the rape and the other on the murder. But either way, there was a connection here between Emmy Berg and Per Eriksson. All they had to do was find it.

Somehow, that sick fuck had managed to get his claws into this girl, and now she was dead.

Anna spoke then. ‘Their relationship was good, I think. William liked her – he liked having an older sister.’

‘We’ll need to speak to William, if that’s alright?’

Anna looked apprehensive. ‘Is that really necessary?’

‘I’m afraid so – he may not realise it, but he may know something important.’ She smiled at Anna. ‘Don’t worry, we can do it here if you’d prefer. Not now, but we’ll come at a time that suits you and William, and there’ll be a children’s welfare officer with us.’

‘A welfare officer? We treat William like one of our own—’

‘No, it’s nothing like that,’ Jamie said, shaking her head. ‘It’s just to ensure that William isn’t becoming distressed by the questions, and that we’re not pressing too hard. It’s just standard procedure. Nothing to worry about.’

Anna nodded slowly. ‘I can’t imagine that he’ll know anything – he’s only eight. Emmy wouldn’t have told him anything.’ Anna looked into space now. ‘William did all the talking – he was always asking her to sit with him, to watch him play his games.’ Anna smiled weakly.

‘What games?’ Jamie asked warmly, just trying to get a better picture of the situation here.

‘I don’t know – something on his iPad – where you build things with blocks, you know the one?’

‘Minecraft?’ Jamie asked.

‘I think that’s it, yes,’ Anna confirmed. ‘He’s always playing on it.’

‘It’s a popular game,’ Jamie said.

‘He was always so keen to show Emmy what he’d built, and she’d help him out, too – when he couldn’t do something. It’s over my head, of course. Jan understands it more than I do. He says they shouldn’t play on it, and that Emmy’s as likely to steal William’s tablet as she did her own.’

Jamie wasn’t listening, though. Something had twigged in her head. ‘You said that Emmy would help William out with his games?’

‘Yes – Jan didn’t want her to. But I thought it was a good way for them to bond.’

Jamie leaned forward now. ‘You said Emmy sold her tablet, didn’t you? Her phone too?’

‘That’s what Jan said.’ Anna looked at her, a confused expression on her face.

‘How did he know?’ Something wasn’t sitting right with her.

Anna sort of stuck her bottom lip out and shook her head. ‘I don’t understand what you’re asking.’

Jamie drew a slow breath. ‘It’s okay – don’t worry. I wonder if you can do something for me, though?’

‘What is it?’ Anna was apprehensive, kneading her hands.

‘Would you give us permission to search your home? And conduct a cursory examination of any computers, tablets, phones that we find.’ Jamie said it casually, as though it was just a simple request. She tried not to let on that everything might hinge on it.

‘Our computers and phones?’ Anna asked. ‘Why?’

‘We just need to check whether Emmy might have reached out to anyone. It’s all just standard procedure – nothing to worry about, I’m sure. But it could help us find out who took her. You want that, don’t you?’

Anna looked at the empty stairs, at the place Jan had been before Wiik had led him away.

‘Anna?’ Jamie said, her voice a little sterner.

The woman looked around at her.

‘You want to help us find Emmy’s killer, don’t you?’

She swallowed and then nodded, her head barely moving. ‘I do,’ she all but whispered.

‘Good,’ Jamie said, feeling the tension drain from her shoulders. ‘That makes everything a lot easier.’ She smiled at the woman. ‘You’re doing the right thing.’

She said nothing, but her quivering lip told Jamie she thought Jan would be angry.

In Jamie’s eyes, though, that was all the more reason to find out what he was hiding.