The Double Silence (Andas Knutas 7)

navy-blue tennis sweater.
    ‘Tell me about your relationship with Andrea Dahlberg.’
    Boberg cleared his throat and again licked his lips.
    ‘We met a year ago when I moved to Terra Nova with my girlfriend of the time. We met Andrea, her husband, and some other neighbours, and we spent a lot of time with them. But we didn’t live there for long. Monica and I split up, and we moved away.’
    ‘How would you describe your relationship with Andrea?’
    ‘Good. Actually, it was fantastic.’ Boberg rubbed the bridge of his nose.
    ‘We know about the swinger parties you had. Was there anything in particular that happened between you and Andrea in connection with those parties? Did you meet at other times too?’
    ‘No. I wanted to, but …’
    ‘But what?’
    ‘She insisted that it was all just a game. That it was OK at the parties, because everybody else was doing it too. But she didn’t want to see me at other times.’
    ‘So you didn’t have sex outside of the parties.’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Not even once?’
    Sten Boberg shook his head.
    ‘Then how were you able to take pictures of her?’
    ‘I brought my camera to one of the parties. She was in some of the pictures. Then I secretly took other pictures of her.’
    ‘What’s your relationship with Andrea today?’
    ‘I love her, and I want to spend the rest of my life with her.’
    ‘And you feel so strongly about her that you’d be willing to kill her husband?’
    The man on the other side of the table met her eyes. He suddenly seemed perfectly calm.
    ‘No. I didn’t murder anybody. I’ve just been trying to get in touch with Andrea.’
    ‘Couldn’t you have found a better way to do that than spying on her in the middle of the night and taking a lot of photographs in secret? You could have phoned her, for example.’
    ‘I did that, but she didn’t want to talk to me.’
    ‘Why not, if the two of you have such a good relationship?’
    ‘There were problems. I’m sure you know all about it. Monica was jealous, and everybody in the group got upset and wanted us to leave. I tried to forget Andrea, but then I found the cardboard box with those photos of her, and all of the feelings came flooding back. I tried to contact her again, but I knew that she was afraid of what her husband would think. I thought that if I went out there, we might run into each other, but I didn’t want to scare her, so I started by just watching her.’
    ‘And you also took pictures, right?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘A lot of pictures. The fact is, you took a perverse number of photographs. We also have statements from witnesses who saw you sneakingaround in her garden, and you were even bold enough to enter her house.’
    Jacobsson was taking a gamble. The police knew only that a man had been seen sneaking around, but they didn’t know whether it was Boberg.
    He hid his face in his hands for a moment.
    ‘Yes, but it was only because I wanted to see her. Be close to her.’
    ‘Where is Andrea now?’ Jacobsson finally asked him.
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘You don’t know?’
    ‘No, I don’t.’
    ‘When did you last meet her?’
    ‘The day before yesterday.’
    ‘Where was this?’
    ‘Here in Visby.’
    ‘How did you happen to meet her?’
    ‘I’d been trying to contact her for a long time, but she refused to talk to me. Finally I managed to get hold of her, so I lied and said that I knew who had killed Sam and Stina. I thought that would make her want to see me. She was really shocked and wanted to know who it was. But I said we had to meet, and I would only tell her in person. So she agreed to meet me the following day.’
    ‘Then what happened?’
    ‘We had coffee together and talked. No more than half an hour. Then she left.’
    ‘What did you talk about?’
    ‘I tried to talk some sense into her, but it didn’t go very well.’
    ‘Talk some sense into her? What do you mean by that?’
    Suddenly the man on the other side of the table got angry. He rose halfway out of his chair.
    ‘Nobody, not even Andrea, can deny how good the two of us were together. There was a special chemistry between us, something you find maybe once in a hundred years; the odds are maybe one in a million that you get to experience something like that. She gave herself to me. Do you understand? Totally and completely! I could do whatever I wanted with her, and I mean anything. But somebody like you can’t possibly imaginewhat that’s like. I tried to get her to remember what we’d