Joona Linna: Stalker Part 21

'It's still too early to say anything about Filip,' Margot says with her mouth full. 'It could be him, I think that's a possibility, but ...'

'In that case, the orgies form part of his fantasy about killing,' Joona says, opening his eyes.

'We'll carry on with what we've got,' Margot declares. 'This evening is the only time we know where Eugene Ca.s.sel is going to be ... and if anyone can tell us where Filip is, it's Ca.s.sel.'

'Mind you, we can't just storm into a private orgy,' Adam says with a grin.

'Only one of us needs to go in. Find Eugene and talk to him, nice and calmly,' Margot says, then takes a large bite of her hamburger.

'You can't work out in the field, seeing as you're pregnant,' Adam says.

'Does it show?' she asks as she chews.

'OK, what the h.e.l.l, I'll do it,' Adam says.

'This isn't a raid,' Margot says. 'There's no obvious threat ... We'll call it a meeting with an anonymous informant, then we don't need to run it past management beforehand.'

Adam sighs and leans back.

'So now I've to go in among a load of ...'

He falls silent, stares into s.p.a.ce with glazed eyes, and shakes his head.

'Obviously it's a bit tricky, approaching people in a situation like that, but what can we do?' Margot says.

'I don't get it ... What sort of people would want to go to an orgy?'

'I don't know, I haven't had group s.e.x for at least ten years,' Margot says, dipping some fries in ketchup.

Adam stares at her open-mouthed as she chews, a slight smile on her face. She wipes her fingers on a napkin and then looks up at him.

'I was joking,' she says with a grin. 'I'm a nice girl, I promise, but I was actually involved in a raid on a swingers' club when I worked in Helsingborg ... As I recall, it was mostly just men in their sixties, with big bellies and skinny legs-'

'Enough!' Adam said, slumping down in his chair.

'I'll give your wife a call tomorrow and ask what time you got home, just so you know.'

'Fine,' Adam sighs, then grins.

'Think of it as a job, nothing more,' Joona says. 'The other people are irrelevant, you just go straight in and talk to Eugene, get him to tell you where Filip is, and arrest him as soon as you're sure you've got the information.'

'Arrest him?'

'To stop him warning Filip,' Joona says, looking Adam in the eye.

'If you find out anything about Filip,' Margot says, 'then ...'

'Then we call you,' Adam fills in.

'No, I'll be asleep,' she says, and puts the last of the food in her mouth. 'If you find out anything, hand it over to the rapid-response unit.'

The two men remain seated at the table after Margot has left the pub. A few elderly patrons get up from their table and go outside to smoke.

'Where are you staying?' Adam asks, looking at Joona.

'There's a campsite on the outskirts of Huddinge.'

'The Roma?'

Joona doesn't reply, takes a sip of coffee and looks out of the window.

'I've looked you up,' Adam says. 'I saw that ... the year before you were injured you taught the Special Operations Unit in military Krav Maga ... Sorry, but looking at you now, it's hard to believe you were a paratrooper.'

Joona looks at his own hands and thinks that what he liked most was jumping from a great height, plummeting down into a terrible storm.

'Have you ever been to Leeuwarden?' he asks Adam.

Joona was the only Swede to be sent to the Netherlands to be trained in unconventional close combat and guerrilla warfare. That was at a base north of Leeuwarden. He used to go for long runs along the sandy beaches of the Wadden Sea when the tide had gone out.

38.

The psychedelic room at the Birger Jarl Hotel that Linda Bergman described is actually known as 'the Retro Room', and can be booked just like any other room.

The hotel underwent a complete renovation at the turn of the millennium. All the rooms were gutted and the decor completely changed. Once the workmen had left, it turned out that room 247 had been forgotten.

The room had somehow been ignored during every refurbishment since the hotel was built in 1974.

It's still intact, like a small time-capsule from a bygone age.

In 2013 a murder was committed at the hotel, after a sofa in room 247 was changed. Naturally, everyone claims that there was no connection between the two events, but now the staff refuse to make any adjustments to the layout of the room.

Adam has been sitting in his car in front of the old electricity works for five hours, watching the entrance to the hotel. Joona has been standing outside, wrapped in his blanket, holding out a cup with some coins in it.

Thirty-five guests have gone in during that time, but no Eugene.

Further down the street a grey-haired waiter is squatting down outside an Italian restaurant, smoking. When the church bells slowly strike eleven o'clock, Joona limps over to the car.

'You'd better go in,' he says to Adam.

'Can't you come with me?'

'I'll wait here,' Joona says.

Adam drums his thumbs on the steering wheel.

'OK,' he says, and rubs his chin a few times.

'Take it easy in there,' Joona says. 'Just because they're there doesn't make them criminals. You're likely to see quite a lot of drugs, but ignore that. You should intervene only if you see signs of forced s.e.xual activity, or if there's anyone underage.'

Adam nods, and feels his stomach flutter as he gets out of the car and walks into the hotel.

The softly curved reception desk is empty except for a man talking on the phone.

Adam goes over to the desk, shows his ID, is given a pa.s.scard and continues towards the lifts. The Retro Room is at the end of the corridor, and on the door handle is a floppy plastic sign saying 'Do not disturb'.

Adam hesitates, then lowers the zip of his black leather jacket. His white T-s.h.i.+rt is tucked inside his black jeans, and his Sig Sauer is in a holster beneath his left armpit.

All he has to do is go in, nice and calmly, he tells himself. Find Eugene, take him to one side, and ask his questions.

Adam clears his throat and runs the card through the reader. The lock clicks and a little green light comes on. He opens the door, walks into a dark hallway, and shuts the door behind him.

He can hear music and m.u.f.fled voices, and a bed creaking.

The light is weak, but it isn't completely dark. He looks around. He's in a small lobby where people have left their clothes.

A woman with a boyish blonde haircut comes out of the bathroom and blinks at him in the darkness. She's wearing nothing but a pair of skimpy black silk panties, and she's so beautiful that his heart starts to beat faster.

She's got traces of white powder stuck in the lip-gloss at one corner of her mouth. She looks at Adam with big, black pupils surrounded by a narrow ring of ice-blue. She moistens her lips and says something that he doesn't hear, before going back into the bedroom.

He follows her, unable to stop himself staring at her naked, glistening back.

Inside the dimly lit room there's a sweet, smoky smell.

Adam stops and looks over at the bed, then looks away again immediately. He shuffles sideways along the wall, pa.s.sing a naked man with a gla.s.s of champagne in his hand, then stops.

No one has reacted to his presence.

A woman pushes past, her eyes focused on the floor. The wallpaper is pink and wavy, the carpet brown with a starburst pattern. There are no lamps on, but the light of the city outside reaches around the curtains, spreading across the ceiling.

The whole room is heavy with the smell of excited people. Wherever Adam looks he can see glistening genitals, open mouths, b.r.e.a.s.t.s, tongues, b.u.t.tocks.

Apart from the music, there's very little sound. The people having s.e.x are concentrating on that, intent on their own or their partner's pleasure. Others are resting, watching the orgy with a hand between their legs.

His pulse thuds in his ears and he can feel himself blus.h.i.+ng.

He needs to try to find Eugene.

Adam pa.s.ses a beautiful woman in her thirties. He can't help looking at her. She's wearing a batik blouse, and is sitting on the desk with her eyes closed. Her exposed crotch looks like it's been powdered. It resembles polished marble, with a line drawn on it in pink chalk.

None of it is as desperate or grubby as he had imagined. It's more introverted, more self-aware.

Adam carries on round the bed, wondering if this is all simply part of these people's trendy lifestyle.

He's the same age as most of the people there, but he's only there to do his job, and then go home to his wife in Hgersten, no doubt to remember what he has seen forever. He knows already that he won't be able to talk to her about it not seriously. He'll end up joking about it, or turning it into something disgusting.

He looks at the people around him, and thinks that he'll be able to tell himself that they're spoiled, that he feels sorry for them, but that isn't true, not right then.

A pang of envy runs through him.

39.

Adam carries on through the open sliding door to the next room. The wallpaper is darker here, with big, bold patterns, like pale green crystals.

The music is louder. Two naked men have put an orange plastic armchair on top of the bed. A woman with straight black hair is sitting on the chair, laughing as the others rock the armchair on the mattress. More men join in, someone grabs hold of her feet and starts to laugh louder.

The woman with the boyish haircut is kneeling in front of a gla.s.s-topped table, dabbing at the remains of some white powder and rubbing her finger on her gums.

He steps aside and almost stands on a large tube of lubricant lying on the floor. Dust and strands of hair have stuck to the goo that's spilled out.

In the window are ten gla.s.ses full of champagne. Drops of condensation are running down the stems and forming small puddles on the marble sill.

Further into the room Adam reaches a windowless pa.s.sageway containing wardrobes and a suitcase rack. The bathroom door is half-open. A naked woman is sitting slumped on the lid of the toilet, her stomach folded and one arm tensed.

'Are you all right?' Adam asks softly.

She lifts her head and looks at him. Her eyes are dark and moist, and he gets a strong feeling that he ought to leave the hotel.

'Help me,' she whispers.

'How are you feeling?'

'I can't stand up,' she mumbles.

A slim man comes towards them from the bedroom and stops in the doorway. His erect p.e.n.i.s sways as he moves.

'Is Paula here?' he asks.

He looks at them through half-closed eyes, and then disappears the way he came.

'Help me up,' the woman says, breathing through her mouth.

Adam takes her hand and pulls her up on to her feet. He backs away and she stumbles out of the bathroom, managing to pull a towel down from the rail. Only now does he notice that she has a d.i.l.d.o strapped around her hips. She falls towards him and puts her hand round his neck.