The Disappeared by Kristina Ohlsson Read Free Book Online Page A

was short but invigorating. Fredrika decided to go via Hantverkargatan, and enjoyed breathing in the fresh spring air. It always seemed lighter and cleaner than the air at any other time of year. Good for the soul.
    The clinic was located on the first floor of the magnificent building that resembled a British stately home; it was right by the water. Fredrika gazed at all the mothers-to-be, sitting in the waiting room with their big bellies, several of them with older children in buggies. How could people cope with more than one child? She just didn’t get it. Neither she nor Spencer wanted any more children; at least that was how they felt at the moment.
    ‘One is more than enough,’ Spencer had muttered one night when Saga had a cold and kept on waking up over and over again.
    Fredrika showed her ID to the nurse on reception and explained why she was there. The nurse hesitated when she asked to see any notes they might have on Rebecca.
    ‘I’ll be back in a moment,’ she said, and returned after a short while with an older colleague.
    Fredrika explained the situation again, and the midwife listened attentively. With long fingers she searched through the suspension files in the filing cabinet. She nodded silently to herself as she took one out.
    ‘I was the one who saw her the last time she was here,’ she said, pointing to a note in the margin. She screwed up her eyes.
    ‘I see so many women every day, it’s difficult to remember them all.’
    You don’t have to remember them all, Fredrika thought. Only this one.
    ‘But I think I know who you mean,’ the midwife said, much to Fredrika’s relief. ‘She was here to renew her prescription for the pill, but suspected she might be pregnant. She was terribly upset, if I remember rightly.’
    ‘So what happened?’
    ‘She was pregnant, of course. I think we worked out she was probably in the third month. She was terrified.’
    ‘Then what?’
    ‘She left, saying she was going to get rid of the baby. I have no idea whether she did or not; she never came back.’
    Fredrika glanced through the notes.
    ‘Is there anything else you recall from your meeting with Rebecca?’
    ‘Only that she seemed anxious. And she asked me whether it was possible to have a termination even if the child’s father might want to keep it.’
    Fredrika put down the file.
    ‘Did she, indeed?’
    ‘Yes. I thought it was a stupid question. It’s obvious that it’s the woman who decides whether or not she wants to be a mother.’
    But it wasn’t obvious, and both Fredrika and the midwife knew it. Fredrika began to feel concerned. Why had Rebecca felt the need to ask the question? Who was the man she suspected would want to keep the child?
    ‘Håkan Nilsson,’ Alex said when she called him.
    ‘That’s what I thought.’
    ‘But?’
    ‘But that would be too easy.’
    ‘He’s been in touch with Diana, expressed his condolences and so on. Asked if he could come over.’
    ‘What did she say?’
    ‘She said no.’
    They ended the call, and Alex carried on going through the previous investigation. There was a wealth of material, but hardly any leads.
    A young woman, expected at a party at the university, leaves home and gets on a bus travelling in completely the opposite direction. Secretly four months pregnant, possibly afraid that a termination will antagonise the child’s father. Did that mean she had told him about the baby?
    Where were you going that evening, Rebecca?
    Peder appeared in the doorway; he came in and sat down. He had spent a considerable amount of time speaking to Rebecca’s closest friends on the phone, and to her father and brother.
    ‘I’ve given Ellen a list of the people you highlighted in the investigation into Rebecca’s disappearance,’ Peder said. ‘I’ve asked her to check the names against our records to see if they’ve been mixed up in anything suspect since then.’
    ‘Good,’ Alex said. ‘And what about the interviews you and the other