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

Jamie walked into Polis HQ just after eight the next morning.

Falk had sent her a text asking her to come in, and as she strode between the empty desks on her floor, Hallberg rose from behind a computer screen.

‘Jamie,’ she said, looking a little surprised.

‘Hallberg,’ Jamie replied, slowing. ‘You get a text from Falk too?’

The woman looked back at her quizzically. ‘No, I didn’t.’

‘Then what are you doing here?’

‘I always come in by eight,’ she said brightly, finding a smile, even in the midst of all this.

Jamie resisted the urge to scoff. That’ll wear off soon enough, she felt like saying. ‘Got to get a head start on that paperwork, eh?’ she said instead, struggling to find any enthusiasm herself.

‘Right,’ Hallberg said, laughing. Jamie detected some nervousness there, and she knew why. She saw a lot of herself in Hallberg. Eager to please, boundless energy and absolutely nothing else in her life except for work. She woke up in the morning thinking about work, and went home at night missing it. It was early to bed because there was nothing else to do, up early because you’d been in bed since nine, and then in work at eight because sitting around your flat in your clothes for another hour seemed like the worst kind of torture available.

Jamie didn’t know whether to tell her what was in store, or let her work it out for herself. The saddest thing of all was that she was looking at Jamie like the girl aspired to be her. Like she thought Jamie had it all together. That a string of cracked cases under your belt and the battle scars to prove it were worth all the shit that came with it.

It wasn’t. But when you were this far in, there was nowhere else to go. A normal life, a normal job… They were the only things that seemed even less appealing than stopping. All this was just another kind of addiction. Some liked the bottle, others pills. Some people liked sex. But for Jamie, and for this poor girl in front of her, it was the job. The only thing that kept them going was the thought of nailing one more piece of shit to the goddamn wall.

That fix.

Fleeting as it was.

Jamie cleared her throat and glanced at Falk’s office. She was sitting behind her desk, staring at Jamie.

She took the cue, gave Hallberg a nod, and then headed for the glass office.

Jamie was halfway through the door when Falk held her hand up. ‘No, go get Hallberg,’ she said flatly.

‘She said she didn’t have a text,’ Jamie answered automatically, caught a little off guard.

‘That’s because I knew she’d be here,’ Falk replied, raising an eyebrow.

Jamie folded her lips into an apologetic smile and nodded. All it took was a glance over her shoulder at Hallberg, and the girl was already on her feet and heading over.

Jamie went inside and Hallberg hung at the door, looking expectant.

Falk nodded to the chairs in front of her desk and they both sat down.

She looked at Jamie, then Hallberg, then leaned on her elbows and interlinked her hands on the nape of her neck, hanging her head. She took a long breath and then sat up straight, letting her hands fall to the desk and clasp together. ‘There’s no point skirting around this. Wiik is being investigated by the SID for misconduct. Which means the case is on hold until I say otherwise, alright? I’ve told Wiik to take a few days off, to prepare himself. I don’t want him working while SID are sniffing around. That will only make things worse.’

Jamie stayed silent. She’d been in the office of a senior officer enough times to know when it was time to talk and when it was time to listen. Hallberg obviously hadn’t.

‘An investigation?’ she asked incredulously. ‘For what?’

Die-hard loyalty for a man who treated her like a doormat. Jamie had to respect that. But that’s what a love of the job did. Hallberg was in that frame of mind where she thought it was a rite of passage. That she had to earn Wiik’s respect. The ironic thing was that when she stopped trying so hard, she would.

Falk took a second and then responded, hoping Hallberg would apologise for asking and retract the question. She didn’t.

‘Following the death of Tomas Lindvall, the Special Investigations Division are looking into whether there’s a solid link between his treatment while in police custody and his suicide.’

Hallberg shook her head. ‘Lindvall was high. Judging by the drugs recovered from his flat, he was mixing, too. They will have done a blood panel when they admitted him at the hospital,’ she said confidently. ‘That will show what he’d taken – and whether he was mixing it with, or had stopped taking, his antipsychotic prescription. We can’t be held accountable if—’

‘We are not being held accountable,’ Falk said evenly, holding her hand up to silence Hallberg. ‘Wiik is. Lindvall was clearly not of sound mind, and knowing his history before he went into that interview room, he should have exercised restraint. The investigation will be into whether he used excessive force or caused Lindvall’s psychotic break. Luckily, Johansson here,’ Falk said, glancing at Jamie, ‘seemed to quell him before he did anything really stupid. So I’m hopeful that, as you rightly pointed out, the SID see that Lindvall has a long history of both violence and self-abuse, that he was mixing his medication with illegal drugs, and that it was negligence on behalf of the hospital that led to his death. Lindvall was not being restrained, despite being admitted while in custody. It seems that they put him in for a battery of tests while unconscious and didn’t restrain him afterwards.’

‘So it’s their fault,’ Hallberg said, nodding assertively.

Falk sat back and opened her hands. ‘That’s not for us to decide. A string of events like this will have everyone pointing fingers. We apprehended Lindvall with less than circumstantial evidence—’

Jamie cut in now, unable to resist. ‘He did run from us.’

‘And from Wiik’s report, you shoved him to the ground and then kicked him in the stomach,’ Falk retorted.

Hallberg looked shocked.

‘Well, not while he was on the ground,’ Jamie said in her defence. ‘And he did try to punch me in the face. What would you have preferred me to do? Get hit?’

‘I would have preferred that you’d apprehended him without the use of unnecessary force.’ Falk wasn’t budging.

‘I thought it was necessary.’ Jamie wasn’t either.

‘Great. That means so much coming from the British detective who’s working under my authority as a civilian consultant, who is also currently on administrative leave for shooting a suspect.’ Falk’s cold gaze bored a hole right through Jamie’s chest.

She quietened, realising then that she’d overstepped. She was surprised that Falk didn’t have her on a plane already. In fact, why didn’t she?

Falk exhaled slowly. ‘Look – there’s going to be a lot of accusations. Lindvall’s family are looking for someone to point the finger at. And as far as they’re concerned, both the SPA and the health service have deep pockets. We’re on the defensive here, and the hospital will be trying to push them towards us.’

Jamie found she was shaking her head. ‘They can’t seriously be trying to lay the blame for Lindvall’s death on us?’

‘Who do you think tipped off the SID?’

Jamie was speechless.

‘Look,’ Falk said, softening. ‘I wanted to bring you two in early so you were aware of the situation. Wiik is meeting with Legal this morning to go over some things. But our hands are tied. SID have governance now. All we can do is see what they say.’

That hung in the air for the moment, and then Hallberg spoke again. ‘So we just abandon the case?’ she asked in a tone that suggested Falk either didn’t care or didn’t know what was going on.

‘The case is on hold, for now.’ Falk reiterated it carefully, but sternly enough that Jamie wouldn’t have asked again.

Once again, Hallberg exhibited what she thought was tenacity, but Falk was no doubt reading it as borderline insubordination. ‘But you know that we just got evidence to suggest that Emmy Berg was abused by Jan Hansen. And William Martinsson is being brought in this morning for questioning. And Jamie was approached by a potential witness in the original case last night, who’s attesting to Leif Lundgren abusing Hanna Lundgren. We can’t just let these guys—’

Instead of raising her hand again, Falk simply leaned back and spun around on her chair so that she was facing out of the side of her office instead.

Hallberg stopped speaking and then looked at Jamie for an explanation. Jamie offered her a shake of the head that quite clearly said, Shut up. Whether Falk was a career pencil-pusher or not, she was smart, and Jamie had no doubt that she’d already thought about all of these things. The bags under her eyes that the make-up she was wearing was doing its best to hide told Jamie that Falk had had a late night, or an early start, or both, and had no doubt agonised over the plan moving forward.

Hallberg exhaled, unable to contain herself. ‘These men are targets. Jamie said that the witness, Rachel Engerman, said that Hans Sjöberg said’ – she was chopping one hand into the other with each item of information she was reciting – ‘that men like that get what’s coming to them in the end. We can’t prove abuse with any of the other victims yet, but if there’s a pattern here, then we could be looking at a potential vigilante-style case.’ She was showing no signs of letting up, but Falk didn’t seem all that interested. ‘We need to put more protection on Lundgren and Hansen – bring them in for questioning. Get them talking. Show the killer that we’re ahead of him. If we don’t then—’

Falk spoke from her position facing away. ‘Then perhaps the killer won’t know that we know.’

That seemed to throw Hallberg, but Jamie was right there with Falk. ‘You’re using them as bait,’ Jamie said as everything came into focus.

‘I had a call from a solicitor representing Jan Hansen about thirty minutes ago. William won’t be brought in for questioning. And any questions we have for Jan Hansen will be dealt with through his legal counsel. Much in the same way that any questions we have for Mikael Gunnarson are. And as for Leif Lundgren… This investigation is spreading everyone thin. But we’ll keep a car close by.’

‘That’s…’ Hallberg began. ‘You’re… hoping that the killer comes after them?’

Falk turned back in her chair now. ‘And condemning these men to death?’ She was stony-faced. ‘Of course not. That would be unethical.’

Jamie watched Falk carefully and put her hand on Hallberg’s knee, squeezing hard enough that she finally got the message.

Falk laid it to bed once and for all. ‘We have an unmarked car parked outside both Hansen and Lundgren’s house. They’ve been there since you told me about the evidence on William Martinsson’s tablet and about Rachel Engerman’s testimony. As for Mikael Gunnarson, he’s spending his time in his penthouse flat in the city, but is well connected enough to look after himself. I don’t think that the killer will make an attempt on his life again so soon. As for Hansen and Lundgren – if the killer sticks to his pattern, then we’ll be there to intercept.’

Hallberg didn’t know what to make of this. Jamie could see it in her face. She was right that not telling them that their lives were potentially in danger wasn’t completely ethical. But Falk was right in saying that the killer was more use to them not knowing the extent of their knowledge.

And anyway, even if Lundgren could be brought in on the two-decade-old withheld testimony of a friend – who was a child herself at the time – and questioned, they had no evidence to take it anywhere unless he confessed. Which Jamie didn’t think he was about to. And as for Jan Hansen, all they had was some circumstantial evidence pulled from a child’s tablet. Something that any solicitor worth their salt would get thrown out of court in a heartbeat.

They had nothing solid to bring any charges with, and dragging them in here would only serve to upset the investigation.

No, as hard as it was, right now, all they could do was nothing. They had all the devices from Hansen’s house. The techs would scrub through them and catalogue everything they found. But it would take a while to beat their security measures into submission and extract what was hidden inside. An innocent man would provide the passwords to expedite the process. But Jan Hansen wasn’t an innocent man. And the longer it took, the longer he had to come up with some bullshit to cover his ass.

It was a waiting game now.

But that was almost worse.

Jamie had worked enough cases like this to know one thing for certain.

Wait long enough, and people die.