Читать книгу The Stranger - Season 1 - Claire S. Duffy - Страница 4

Alexander held her hand, because he didn’t know what else to do. No one else would come near her. Of course it would be weeks, perhaps months, before an official verdict was declared, but no one would look at the mother.

The first detective, a veteran known for his quiet humour and sharp mind, quit within ten minutes of arrival. He had a little girl of around the same age, he explained, with his most recent ex-girlfriend, and he just, couldn’t. No one was surprised when Lia Svensson arrived to take charge of the investigation. She won’t quit, they thought.

The day care teacher, Josefin Björkstedt, in faded workout gear and neon trainers, jabbered her statement to Per Nordgren, one of the newer members of Lia’s team. Josefin’s fingers trembled as she unconsciously picked at a loose thread on her clothes.

Per was almost two metres tall, with a shaved head and the chain at the top of the gigantic anchor tattoo that covered his muscular back was visible creeping up his neck above his police uniform. She had been worried about Oskar for months, Josefin said softly. He was often dropped off late, always grubby, regularly in the same stained clothes he had been wearing for days. It was the day care’s policy that parents hand each child physically to a teacher, but Oskar often toddled in by himself with no sign of Kati.

‘She swore to me that they would come on time today,’ Josefin muttered, her strained voice barely audible. ‘We had a development talk arranged for this morning and she had already cancelled three, so I reminded her every day this week and she said — she said…’

Josefin’s breath caught painfully in her throat and she moaned over and over, “ how could she how could she how could she how could she…”

In the kitchen, Alexander watched as the abyss of emptiness reached Kati’s eyes. Her tousled blonde hair, so chillingly reminiscent of her son’s, hung limply around a chalk-white face that reminded Alexander of a porcelain doll. Kati turned to meet his gaze, the first time she had moved since he sat down next to her. A brief expression of confusion flitted across Kati’s face before all understanding drained from her eyes and she was gone.