Unspoken

maybe more.”
    Tom Kingsley was busy wrapping the hind leg of a horse when they entered the adjoining stable. Knutas and Jacobsson kept back a safe distance.
    “We’ve heard that you know Fanny Jansson, the girl who has disappeared. Is that right?” Knutas began.
    “Well, I can’t say that I really know her. I’ve talked to her once in a while.”
    He didn’t look up, just went on with his work.
    “We need to ask you a couple of questions.”
    “Sure, I just need to finish this. I’m working on the last leg right now.”
    In spite of a distinctly American accent, his Swedish was fluent. When he was done, he stood up with a grimace and stretched out his back.
    “What do you want to know?”
    “How well do you know Fanny Jansson?”
    “Not very well. We talk occasionally.”
    “How did you happen to meet each other?”
    “Good Lord, we both work here. Of course we would see each other around the stables. We’re always running into each other.”
    “What do you talk about?”
    “Mostly about the horses, of course. But other things, too. How she’s doing in school and about her home, and things like that.”
    “How do you think she’s doing?”
    “Not great, actually.”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “She complains about her mother, says that things are tough at home.”
    “In what way?”
    “She told me that her mother drinks too much.”
    “So she has actually confided in you a great deal?”
    “I don’t know about that.”
    “Have you seen each other outside the stable?”
    “No, no. Just here.”
    “Do you know whether she has met anyone new lately? A boyfriend, maybe?”
    “I have no idea.”
    “When did you last see her?”
    “It was on Saturday.”
    “Where?”
    “Here, outside.” He nodded toward the stables.
    “How did she seem?”
    “The same as usual.”
    “Do you have any idea where she might be?”
    “Not a clue.”
    There was no one else at the stable to question. They left Tom Kingsley and went back to their car.
    “What do you think happened?” asked Knutas as they drove back to police headquarters.
    “It’s possible that she might have killed herself.”
    “I have a hard time imagining that. She’s too young. Fourteen-year-old girls who commit suicide are rare. They’re usually at least a couple of years older. Besides, she didn’t seem particularly depressed, even though things might have been worse than they seemed on the outside. I think all three men at the stable seem credible, although the trainer was damned irritating.”
    “I agree,” said Jacobsson. “I didn’t get any weird vibes from any of them.”
    By the afternoon Fanny had still not turned up. Her mother called Knutas to hear how the search was going. She was distraught. Her sister in Vibble, south of Visby, had stepped in to look after her. Knutas decided to begin searching the areas surrounding Fanny’s apartment, her school, and the stable. A bulletin was broadcast on the local radio station and immediately attracted the interest of the media. Radio Gotland and both of the local newspapers, Gotlands Tidningar and Gotlands Allehanda , wanted to interview him.
    Knutas tried to be generous with the press and agreed to brief interviews.
    He dealt with one journalist after the other, and they all asked basically the same questions. He kept the interviews short, telling them only when Fanny had disappeared, where she was last seen, and what she looked like. He asked the reporters to say that the police were appealing to the public for help.
    The search brought results. Fanny’s bicycle was found by a passerby. It had been tossed into a ditch less than a kilometer from the stable. It was immediately taken in so that the techs could examine it.
    Johan Berg also called.
    “Hi. Am I disturbing you?”
    “I’m very busy at the moment.”
    “I’m calling about the girl who disappeared. It just came over the wire service. What happened?”
    Knutas gave him the same information that he had given to the other journalists, but he also told Johan about the bicycle. He thought he owed him that much.
    “Do you suspect foul play?”
    “Not at the moment.”
    “Do you think she might have committed suicide?”
    “We can’t rule out that possibility, of course.”
    “What’s her home life like?”
    “She and her mother live alone in an apartment here in Visby.”
    “Is she an only child?”
    “Yes.”
    “The description says that she has a dark complexion. Was she adopted, or is her