The Double Silence (Andas Knutas 7)

retorted: ‘Not on your life. That will really make me look like an old lady.’
    She does, in fact, look like an old lady, thought Knutas as she sat there in her worn-old bathrobe with her glasses perched on the tip of her nose. She was deeply immersed in reading about personal relationships in the special inside section of
Dagens Nyheter
. She wasn’t especially interested in the news or politics. Her attention was most often caught by someone’s tragic fate, people’s relationship problems, or the diseases they were suffering from. The sort of thing that Knutas found unbelievably upsetting. Absentmindedly she reached for her tea cup, all the while keeping her eyes fixed on the newspaper. She had eaten only an egg, a slice of ham, and a tomato for breakfast. Every once in a while Lina would go through a weight-loss craze, but it never lasted more than a couple of weeks. During that time she would completely change her diet and start working out. She had tried everything, from power-walking to African dancing, but she never stayedwith any programme consistently. During their entire marriage, Lina had always been about 10 kilos overweight, and she periodically managed to lose a few of them. At the moment she didn’t seem to care. It had never bothered Knutas. He thought she looked great with her plump curves, her soft white skin, and her freckled arms and legs. She gave a big yawn, without covering her mouth.
    Lately they hadn’t found as much to talk about. They were each so busy with their own jobs. Lina seldom told him about her work any more. In the past she had enthusiastically talked about everything, until it almost became too much for Knutas. Sometimes he would shut her voice out, letting her talk while he settled into his own thoughts and stopped listening. Suddenly it occurred to him that he had no idea how his wife spent her time these days when she wasn’t at work.
    ‘I’ve got to go into the office for a while this morning. What are you going to do today?’ he asked.
    ‘What did you say?’ she murmured distractedly.
    He repeated his question.
    ‘You know very well what I’m doing. I’m taking the eleven o’clock flight to Stockholm.’
    Knutas raised his eyebrows.
    ‘I didn’t know about that. Why are you going there?’
    Lina looked up from the newspaper with a reproachful expression.
    ‘I told you a long time ago. I’m going to see Maria.’
    ‘Maria?’
    ‘Maria Karlsson. The photographer. I’m going to help her with that documentary book about childbirth in various parts of the world. We need to discuss the contents and how to divide up the work.’
    In a far corner of his mind Knutas recalled Lina once mentioning this trip to him.
    ‘Oh, right. Of course.’
    ‘What’s wrong with you? I’m going to be gone all weekend. Did you forget about that?’
    ‘No, no. Of course I remember. Now that you mention it.’
    ‘Good.’
    Lina went back to her article. An uncomfortable silence settled over them. Knutas got up and cleared the table.
    He thought about the conversation that he’d had yesterday with his contact at Interpol, who had told him that they’d had some reliable tips that the double murderer Vera Petrov and her husband were in the Dominican Republic. A Swedish tourist had contacted the Dominican police, claiming that he thought he’d recognized the couple in a restaurant in the town of Puerto Plata. The local police were investigating. Knutas could only hope that the witness was right. The man had managed to photograph the pair, and sometime today the photo would be sent to Sweden.
    Knutas really didn’t have time to ponder his marital problems. He just wanted to get to the office.

EVERYONE HAD HIGH expectations of the bus tour that would take them in Bergman’s footsteps. At ten o’clock on Saturday morning, a motley group had assembled outside Fårö’s former school, which now served as the information centre during the Bergman festival week. The group consisted primarily of people with ties to the film industry or the cultural world. Stina recognized Jan Troell and his wife, Jörn Donner with a well-known TV newsreader, the cultural director for the Gotland district, a Swedish author, several actors and a cinema owner from Visby. The bus tour was led by Gotland’s own film consultant, a colourful and beautiful woman. With great enthusiasm she told them about the filming that Bergman had done on Fårö and the various locations that he had used.
    Andrea