Unspoken

Johan. She wants to talk. Maybe it’s a way for her to work through the whole thing. It’s her own decision. She’s unhappy with the police work and wants to say something about it. She also wants to appeal to the public for help in finding the murderer.”
    “Fanny was found yesterday. That’s less than twenty-four hours ago. I can think of better ways to work through things than by talking on TV. In all good conscience, I don’t think we can do it.”
    “For God’s sake, Johan. I told her that you’d be at her sister’s house in Vibble at two o’clock.”
    “Max, you can’t trample on my journalistic integrity. I won’t do it. I simply won’t have this on my conscience. The woman is in shock and should be in a hospital. She’s extremely vulnerable right now, and I think it’s rotten if we try to take advantage of her weakness. She doesn’t realize the impact of TV. We have to make certain decisions for people if they’re not capable of doing it for themselves.”
    Johan glanced at Peter, who was standing next to him and rolling his eyes. He told Johan to give Grenfors his greetings and say that he refused to film an interview with the girl’s mother. At the same time Johan could hear Grenfors breathing harder on the other end of the line.
    “Just do the interview and we’ll make the ethical decisions back here in the newsroom,” shouted Grenfors. “See to it that you go out there to meet her. I want it on tonight’s program. I’ve already promised the interview to Aktuellt, Rapport , and 24 .”
    “And all of them want it?” asked Johan dubiously.
    “You bet they do. So get going. Otherwise she might change her mind and talk to somebody else!”
    “Fine. Let TV3 interview her, or the newspapers if they want to. But I won’t do it.”
    “So you refuse?” Grenfors went on.
    “What do you mean by ‘refuse’?”
    “You won’t carry out the assignment that I’ve asked you to do. That’s a dereliction of duty, damn it!”
    “Call it whatever you like. I’m not going to do it.”
    Johan closed his phone, bright red in the face. His breath was visible in big billowing puffs all around him. He turned to Peter and the farmer.
    “What a fucking pig.”
    “To hell with him,” said Peter, in an attempt to console him. “Let’s get back to work. I’m freezing to death.”
    The farmer, who had listened in astonishment to the phone argument while he waited to be filmed, was now interviewed. He told them about the car that he had seen driving along the tractor path one evening two weeks earlier when he was out in the barn tending to the evening milking. As he was crossing the barnyard, he saw lights from the road. No one ever drove out here so late at night. He couldn’t say what type of car it was. He had stopped and waited for a while, but when the car didn’t reappear, he gave up and went inside his house.
    Johan and Peter headed back to town. They were planning two reports, one that dealt with the police work and another that focused on the feeling of shock the day after among the schoolkids, the stable staff, the neighbors, and the ordinary citizens of Visby.
    Many had still been hoping that Fanny would be found alive, even though hope had dwindled with each day that passed. Now there was a great sense of sorrow.
    Back at the hotel that evening, Johan tried to get hold of Grenfors, but the editor refused to talk to him. He had found a trainee to do the interview with Fanny’s mother, but after discussions with the producer and editors, the piece was never aired. No one else seemed to be interested in it, either. It’s just a matter of prestige , thought Johan when a colleague later recounted on the phone the wrangling going on in the newsroom. Good Lord, sometimes his job was like kindergarten.
    The important thing was never to forget your purpose and to keep asking yourself why you were doing a particular story and whether it had general interest. And then you had to weigh that against the harm that you might cause people. He was sure that he had made the right decision when he refused to contact Majvor Jansson. No one could make him interview people who were in shock.
    That was one lesson he had learned after all his years working in TV. On a few occasions he had done what some overzealous editor wanted and interviewed people who had just lost a loved one or who had been involved in an accident. Just in order to be accommodating. Afterward he had realized that it was wrong.