queers jumping each other! Damn!”
“I realize that you don’t think they’re terribly amusing to watch. But you have to. We can’t miss a single film. Think about the movies we found in Copenhagen!”
“Yes, but all of Tosscander’s movies are commercial videos. Not home movies,” Jonny tried to protest.
“Watch them! All of them!” Andersson ended the discussion.
Jonny continued to mumble discontentedly, though in a somewhat lower tone.
“Hannu will have to help Irene look for that Basta guy. And Tommy has informed me that there are some developments in the search for Jack the Ripper,” Andersson continued.
Irene sent a questioning look at Tommy, who responded with a thumbs-up. It would be great if they could catch that idiot. He hadn’t been out on the prowl the previous weekend. Maybe the young women in Vasastan had become more careful. Or maybe something else was keeping him off the streets.
“Fredrik is at Financial Crimes. Apparently there’s a good chance of pulling in Robert Larsson for economic fraud. Since we don’t have witnesses anymore we’ll never get him for murdering Laban,” Andersson informed them before they rose from morning prayers.
THE FIRST thing Irene did when she returned to her office was to dial Erik Bolin’s number. There was still no answer. She remembered that he had a family. He might still be at home. After a brief search in the phone book she found Erik, photographer, and Sara Bolin, dental technician, at an address very close to where she lived.
Irene only heard one ring before the phone was answered.
“Sara Bolin,” a strained woman’s voice said in a proper Göteborg dialect.
“Good morning. My name is Irene Huss. I’m looking for Erik Bolin.”
“Who are you?”
Irene was surprised by the question but answered, “I’m an Inspector with the Crime Police and I’ve been in touch with Erik about a case and . . .”
“For goodness’ sake! Don’t be so long-winded! Have you found him?”
Irene was dumbstruck and couldn’t come up with anything more intelligent than “Who?”
“Erik, of course! I called early this morning!”
“Wait a second. Has Erik Bolin disappeared?”
It became quiet for a moment before Sara Bolin’s shaking voice could be heard again. “Yes. Didn’t you know?”
“No. I’m looking for him with respect to a case . . . a person he knew.”
Now Sara’s voice became guarded. “I understand. Marcus.”
“Exactly. Did you know him?”
“No. I’ve never met him. He was . . . Erik’s.”
There was a pause.
“Did I understand you correctly? You have reported Erik missing?” she asked carefully.
“Yes. When I woke up this morning, his bed was empty. He didn’t come home last night.”
“Is he gone overnight occasionally?”
“Yes. But he always calls. And he always calls if he’s going to be late. He often is, at his job.”
“Didn’t you miss him last night?”
“Yes. But he called earlier yesterday afternoon and said that he would be late. So I wasn’t all that worried when it was nine o’clock and he hadn’t come home. I was mostly irritated. I called the studio but he wasn’t there. So I went to bed. I was very tired and must have fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.”
Irene agreed it was worrisome that Erik Bolin was missing. “Do you have a key to the studio?”
“No. Erik has the only key.”
Irene was about to ask why they didn’t have an extra key at home, but realized that was a question she should ask Erik and not his wife.
She made up her mind. “I’ll go to the studio and see if I can get inside.”
“Thanks.”
She almost collided with Hannu on the way out.
“Come on. Erik Bolin has disappeared,” she said quickly.
Without asking any questions, Hannu went to get his jacket.
DURING THE car ride to Kastellgatan, Irene briefly went over what she knew about Erik’s disappearance, which wasn’t all that much.
“He quite simply never came home last night,” she concluded.
“So, according to the wife, he’s often late but always calls home,” Hannu ascertained.
“Exactly.”
“So he has time to meet boyfriends.”
“You mean in the evenings? Before he goes home to his family?”
“Yes.”
Hannu was right. The previous day, Irene had had a strong feeling that she should have dug deeper into Erik Bolin’s relationship with Marcus and Basta. Now she regretted her omission.
“Could it be a triangle drama?” she asked.
Hannu asked, “How so?”
“If Marcus loved Basta and Erik loved Marcus and Basta loved Erik . . .”
She stopped and thought the sequence through to see if she had said it correctly. She had. Resolutely, she continued, “. . . then maybe Basta murdered Marcus. In