His voice is suddenly very low.
"... He was in his car. He had taped the plastic tube that he bought to the exhaust pipe."
Surprised, he holds out the phone in his outstretched arm again and looks at it.
"She hung up on me!"
He presses redial and hears her voice again. She"s crying.
"No, honey, there"s no way we could"ve known at the time. I don"t think we could have imagined him doing something like this last night. I"m really surprised that he would do such a thing."
He almost drops the phone.
"You did... Did he? But I think he looked perfectly normal last night. No, honey, you"re making that up. He looked completely normal. Well, yes, I guess we all look a little tired sometimes. We can"t all go around laughing all the time. But, but. Well, I didn"t notice. You should have said something if you suspected that he was going to kill himself."
He sounds really annoyed now.
"Stop blaming yourself."
He stops when he can hear that his wife is crying.
"In any case, there"s nothing we can do now. He"s dead."
The shop owner looks down at the ground.
"How he looks?! Uh, rather normal. No, honey, dead people don"t look that different... He looks peaceful. No, no. Don"t come out here. You need to take care of the shop."
He stops to take a breath after talking so much.
"Vince says I can"t leave. But I can"t do that. Vince is the police and you can"t take over for me here. Honey, honey...?"
He stares at the phone in disbelief. Then he presses redial again.
"Come on, pick up!"
His one foot starts to twitch nervously and he doesn"t hear the car until it stops next to him.
His voice is really loud and Vince carefully pulls the handbrake before he gets out of the car and looks at him.
"It"s my wife. She"s on her way out here to see how Nathan looks when he"s dead. Can"t you stop her?"
He gasps.
"She"s probably leaving already..."
"Well, we can"t have that."
Vince walks back to his car.
"And you stay right there until I"m back. Not a step in any direction. Have you been standing there the whole time?"
"Almost."
"Well, you stay put now."
Vince picks up the police radio and after a couple of short sentences he turns to him and smiles.
"There, that"s taken care of."
"Thanks, Vince. I appreciate it."
He sighs deeply.
"Don"t move."
The shop owner stops. A small sound by the car behind him makes him turn around and he sees a squirrel that has just landed on the hood of Nathan"s car. It"s running around on the shiny black paint and looks in through the windshield. Then it"s suddenly gone again.
"Denize loved squirrels."
"You still can"t move."
Vince"s voice is starting to sound tired.
Chapter 24.
Fredericsson jumps in his seat when the phone rings and quickly answers it. He"s still feeling incredibly tired.
"Hmm."
It"s quiet on the other end.
"Is that Peter Fredericsson?"
"Yes."
"Were you sleeping?"
"Yes."
"So you"re home?"
"No."
"Oh, sorry."
"I"m in my car."
"But you said you were sleeping?"
"Yes, in my car."
It"s quiet again.
"I drove a witness to the station around four last night. Do you know if the sketch artist has arrived? The witness had to be back at work by eight."
"No."
"Hmm, I was really hoping you would say yes to that question. Is our witness still waiting?"
"I don"t know."
"A man... With a round face. Very nice and accommodating. He"s wearing sweat pants."
It"s quiet again. Fredericsson blinks and looks at his watch.
"It"s eleven now, so you must know if the witness has been waiting."
"We have another dead body, Fredericsson. You were at Nathan Wilkin"s place yesterday. There"s a report that someone has possibly committed suicide on Nathan Wilkin"s property in the mountains. Looks like it"s Nathan Wilkins."
The line is quiet again.
"You have to drive up there."
"Are you kidding me? I haven"t slept in my own bed since... I don"t even know when, and..."
He"s interrupted.
"Yes, I know who Nathan Wilkins is... Isn"t it just a suicide?"
Fredericsson listens.
"Yes, I see. OK, I"ll drive up there."
He pokes around the glove compartment and then looks around in the car.
"Yes, I have some paper now."
"Yes, yes. Uh, I need you to check something for me. Then find someone else! I need a background check on Evy Schmidt, Stuart Pettersson, Nathan Wilkins, and a private investigator called Marc Jones."
He listens for a while.
"I have no idea how it"s connected, but they keep turning up in the cases you keep giving me. Oh, yes, since everything is connected, could you also check out Petra Jennings. No idea if she"s involved, but still."
The smile on his face suggests that his interest isn"t exactly related to the case.
"Will you also see if the sketch has been made?"
"Yes, right, but..."
Fredericsson scratches the side of his neck. "Ouch, ouch!"
"Yes, I"m on my way."
He breaks off the call and throws the phone on the seat next to him. In the rearview mirror he takes a look at his red neck. He strokes it with his hand and looks out at the view. He thinks of his wife"s face and wonders how his life would have been if she had still been alive.
Chapter 25.
"Vince!"
Vince sticks his head out the open door.
"I can"t just stand here. My feet are hurting. I don"t know how long I"ve been standing here."
"You"ve been standing there for two hours."
"Two hours! d.a.m.n it, come on, Vince."
"You stay until they arrive."
"Can I at least sit down?"
Vince gets out of his car and a gust of wind makes his grey hair dance around his head. His slender and toned figure doesn"t reveal that he has just turned 60 a few days ago. The whole town had celebrated him. Vince smiles at the shop owner as he approaches.
"Sure."
He checks carefully that the shop owner doesn"t move outside the area where his shoe prints have already made patterns on the dry ground. Then he walks back to his car. The tired shop owner sits down on the ground. He can see Nathan"s face and the staring eyes that seem to follow him. He turns around so he faces away from them.
"What are you doing?! Are you trying to get me fired?! Stay put."
"I am, Vince, but I can"t stand the way he stares at me."
He nods in Nathan"s direction.
"OK.".
The officer slowly gets back in his car.