The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

was any opening for Mr Karlsson. It was true that the assistant who made the coffee for the academics at Atomic Energy PLC had never been to Los Alamos, but Dr Eklund thought that she nevertheless managed to do a good job. Besides, Greta even found time to clean the offices and that must be seen as a plus.
    Allan sat there in silence for a moment, and wondered whether he ought to point out to the Doctor that, unlike all of Dr Eklund’s academics, and probably Greta too, he actually knew how to build an atom bomb.
    But then Allan decided that Dr Eklund didn’t deserve his assistance if he hadn’t the sense to ask the question. Besides, Greta’s coffee tasted like dishwater.
     
    Allan didn’t get a job at Atomic Energy PLC, his qualifications being seen as woefully inadequate. But he felt a quiet satisfaction as he sat on a park bench outside the Grand Hotel, with a nice view of the Royal Palace across the water. And how could he feel otherwise? He still had most of the money that the prime minister had been so kind as to give him. He had been staying in a fancy hotel for a while now. He ate in a restaurant every evening, and on this particular early January day he sat with the sun in his face and felt how it warmed his body and soul.
    Of course, it was a bit cold for his bottom, and so it was a little surprising when a man sat down right next to Allan.
    Allan greeted him with a polite ‘Good afternoon’ in Swedish.
    ‘Good afternoon, Mr Karlsson,’ the man answered in English.

Chapter 14
    Monday, 9th May 2005
    When Chief Inspector Aronsson reported his findings to Prosecutor Conny Ranelid in Eskilstuna, the prosecutor immediately decided to issue a warrant for the arrest of Allan Karlsson, Julius Jonsson, Benny Ljungberg and Gunilla Björklund.
    Aronsson and the prosecutor in charge of the case had been in close touch ever since the centenarian climbed out of the window and disappeared, and the prosecutor’s interest had continued to grow. Now he was reflecting upon the spectacular possibility of getting Allan Karlsson convicted for murder, or at least manslaughter, even though they hadn’t found any victims. There were one or two cases in Swedish legal history that showed it could be done. But you needed exceptionally good evidence and an extremely skilful prosecutor. The latter was no problem for Prosecutor Conny Ranelid, and as for the former he intended to construct a chain of circumstantial evidence, where the first link would be the strongest and no link would be really weak.
    Chief Inspector Aronsson felt a little disappointed at the way things had developed. It would have been much more fun to save a geriatric from the clutches of a gang of criminals, rather than – as now — failing to save the criminals from the geriatric.
    ‘Can we really prove that Allan Karlsson and the others were involved in Bylund’s, Hultén’s and Gerdin’s deaths when we still don’t have any corpses?’ asked Aronsson, hoping that the answer would be ‘no’.
    ‘Don’t sound so downcast, Göran,’ said Prosecutor Conny Ranelid. ‘You’ll see, that old fool will spill the beans as soon as you catch him for me. And if he is too senile, I’m sure the others will contradict each other and that’ll give us all we need.’
    And then the prosecutor went through the case again with his chief inspector. First he explained the strategy. He didn’t think they would be able to lock up all of them for murder, but there were still other charges – manslaughter, or assistance to commit this and that felony, or causing a death, or protecting a criminal. Even offences against the law concerning corpses could come into play, but the prosecutor would need a bit of time to think that through.
    Since some of the suspects had become involved in the events later than others, and would be more difficult to convict, the prosecutor intended to focus on the man who had been in the thick of it all the whole time, the centenarian Allan Karlsson.
    ‘In his case, I think we will be able to manage a life sentence in the true meaning of the word,’ prosecutor Ranelid joked.
    To start with, the old man had a motive for killing Bylund, Hultén and Gerdin. The motive was that otherwise he risked the opposite — that Bylund, Hultén and Gerdin would do away with him. The prosecutor had evidence that the three men from the Never Again organisation had a tendency to resort to violence.
    But that didn’t mean that the old man could claim