Part 10 (1/2)

'It is' said Moller. 'But I presume you know I can go over your head if I feel I have to.'

Martin Beck did not answer.

The Stockholm chief went over to the wall mirror and began adjusting his white silk tie.

'Gentlemen' said the Commissioner, 'the conference is over. The fieldwork can begin. I've complete confidence in you all.'

A little later that day, Martin Beck was visited by Eric Moller, an event that had never occurred before.

Martin Beck himself was still at Kungsholmsgatan, although he ought to have been either at his office in Vastberga, or in Rotebro, or Djursholm. He was anxious to crack the Petrus case before this new a.s.signment began to take up too much of his time, and he still had nowhere near the same faith in Benny Skacke as he'd had in Lennart Kollberg. Lennart Kollberg had been an excellent criminal investigator, systematic and inventive. In fact, Martin Beck had sometimes had the feeling that in many respects Kollberg was a better policeman than he himself.

There was nothing wrong with Skacke's ambition and energy, but he had never shown any blinding ac.u.men, and he would certainly never be brilliant. He might well develop, considering his relative youth - he was just thirty-five and was already showing signs of admirable persistence and a total fearlessness - but Martin Beck would probably have to wait a long time before he could hand over difficult cases to Skacke with complete confidence. On the other hand, Benny Skacke and sa Torell were not a bad team at all, and would certainly make some headway as long as they weren't hampered too much by Marsta-Parsta's directives.

Nevertheless, he would soon have to transfer Skacke temporarily to this new a.s.signment and thus further weaken the Murder Squad. He himself was capable of dealing with two complicated jobs at once, but he very much doubted Benny Skacke's capacity to do the same.

As far as he was concerned, his double a.s.signment had already started. They had already discussed where their headquarters was to be - Command Headquarters, as Stig Malm had martially expressed it - and just now he was discussing the composition of the escort with Gunvald Larsson, simultaneously thinking about the villa in Djursholm.

In the midst of this discussion there was a knock on the door and in came Moller, paunchier and more fox-like than ever. He glanced blankly at Gunvald Larsson, then turned to Martin Beck.

'I presume you've already contemplated what the escort will look like?'

'Have you got secret microphones in here, too?' said Gunvald Larsson.

Moller totally ignored him. Eric Moller was unflappable. If he hadn't been, he would probably never have become the head of Sapo.

'I've got an idea,' he said.

'Really?' said Gunvald Larsson.

'The senator will, I presume, be travelling in the bulletproof limousine?' said Mdller, still addressing himself only to Martin Beck.

'Yes.'

'In that case, my idea is that we let someone else go in the limousine, while the senator goes in a less ostentatious car, a police car, for instance, further back.'

'Who would that other person be?' asked Gunvald Larsson.

Moller shrugged. 'Oh, anyone.'

'Typical,' said Gunvald Larsson. 'Are you really so d.a.m.ned cynical -'

Martin Beck saw that Gunvald Larsson was beginning to get seriously angry and hurriedly interrupted.

'It's not a new idea. It's been used many times, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. In this case it's clearly out of the question. The senator himself wants to ride in the bulletproof car, and anyway the television broadcast will show him getting in.'

'There's lots of tricks,' said Moller.

'We know that,' said Martin Beck. 'But we're not interested in your tricks.'

'Oh, I see,' said the chief of Sapo. 'Goodbye, then.' And he left Gunvald Larsson's complexion slowly returned to normal. 'Tricks,' he said.

”There's no point in getting annoyed with Moller,' said Martin Beck. 'It doesn't affect him. It's like pouring water on lard Now I really have to get out to Vastberga.'

The days went by and grew into weeks, and as usual the much-longed-for summer seemed to be pa.s.sing much too swiftly.

But now it was still July, the peak of summer, with its cold and rain and very occasional sunny days.

Martin Beck had little time to notice the weather. He was fully occupied and some days hardly ever left his office. He often stayed long into the evenings when the police station was silent and virtually uninhabited. Not that this was always necessary; he often stayed simply because he didn't want to go home, or because he wanted to think about problems he hadn't had time for during a hectic day of constant telephone calls and visitors.

Rhea had taken her children for a three-week holiday in Denmark, where their father lived.

Martin Beck missed her, but she would be back in a week, and meanwhile he filled his life with work and calm solitary evenings at home in the Old City.

The death of Walter Petrus occupied a large part of his time and thoughts. Over and over again, he studied the voluminous collection of material that had been gathered from various quarters, with an irritating sense of constantly reaching a dead end. Now, after a month and a half, the case was being handled mainly by Benny Skacke and sa Torell. He could rely on their judgement and thoroughness and he left them to work largely on then-own.

The Drugs Squad had made a report after long and careful inquiries. They found, first, that Walter Petrus had not handled drugs on a large scale and there was nothing to indicate that he was a dealer. Presumably the quant.i.ty he had possessed had never been very great Second, they found that Petrus personally had not been a drug user on any great scale, though he occasionally smoked hash or took stimulants. In a locked drawer at his home they found packages bearing the names of various foreign drug manufacturers which he had probably brought back with him from his trips abroad, but there was no sign of any extensive smuggling.

He was a known customer on the Stockholm drugs scene and seemed to have gone to three different suppliers for his somewhat modest purchases. He had paid the going price and returned at fairly long intervals without any of the signs of desperation common to addicts.

They had also interrogated several girls with experiences similar to those of the two girls sa had questioned. They had all been offered drugs, but only during visits to his office. He had definitely refused to give them any to take away with them.

Two of the girls questioned by the Drugs Squad had been in one of his films; not the great international production with Charles Bronson in the main part as Petrus had promised, but in a p.o.r.nographic film with a lesbian theme. They admitted that during the filming they had been so under the influence of drugs that they had hardly known what they were doing.

'What a b.a.s.t.a.r.d!' sa had cried when she read the report.

sa and Skacke had been out to Djursholm and spoken to Chris Petrus again, and to the two children who were home. The younger son was still abroad and had not been heard from, although the family had cabled his last-known address and had also put an advertis.e.m.e.nt into the personal column of the International Herald Tribune.

'Don't worry, Mother, he'll show up when his money runs out,' the elder son had said acidly.

sa had also had a talk with Mrs Pettersson, who by and large gave one-syllable replies to all her questions. She was a faithful servant of the old school, and in the few words she actually uttered she spoke highly of the family.

'I felt like giving her a lecture on women's liberation,' said sa later on to Martin Beck.

Benny Skacke had spoken to Walter Petrus's gardener and chauffeur, Sture h.e.l.lstrom. He was as taciturn as the maid when it came to opinions on the Petrus family, but he was happy to talk about gardening.

Skacke also spent quite a lot of time out at Rotebro, which was really sa's territory. No one really knew what he was doing out there, and one day when they were having coffee in Martin Beck's office, sa said teasingly, 'You haven't gone and fallen in love with Maud Lundin, have you, Benny? Watch out for her. I think she's a dangerous woman.'

'I think she's pretty mercenary,' said Skacke. 'But I've talked quite a bit to a guy out there - the sculptor who lives across the street. He makes things out of sc.r.a.p iron, really nice things.'

sa also disappeared for long periods of the day without saying where she was going. Finally Martin Beck asked her what she was up to.

'I go to the movies. Watch dirty films. I take them in small doses, one or two a day, but I'm determined to see all of Petrus's films. It'll probably make me frigid, on top of everything else.'

'What do you want to see them for?' asked Martin Beck. 'What do you think you can find? One was enough for me - that Love in the Glow of the Midnight Sun, or whatever it was called.'

sa laughed. 'That was nothing compared to some of the others. Some of them are considerably better from a technical point of view - colour and wide screen and all that. I think he sold them to j.a.pan. But it's no fun to sit and watch them. Especially for a woman. You get downright angry.'

'I can understand that,' said Martin Beck sincerely. 'But you didn't answer my question about why you think you have to see them'