More Bitter Than Death A Novel by Camilla Grebe & Asa Traff

Author:Camilla Grebe & Asa Traff
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Thriller
ISBN: 9781451654608
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2010-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

MEDBORGARPLATSEN

NOVEMBER

I’m sitting in my office at the clinic, the one we call the Green Room.

Aina is holding my hand, firmly.

For once she’s the weak one. Tears running down her red, splotchy cheeks, she wipes her nose on the sleeve of her purple mohair sweater and shakes her head, resigned.

“Anyone, but Hillevi. It isn’t fair. Who’s going to take care of her children now? Their abusive father?”

I squeeze her hand without responding to her questions, because what is there to say? That was the first thought I had after the shock wore off. Hillevi’s children, those three little boys, the ones who are so afraid of their father that one of them wet his pants when he found out his dad was going to pick him up from school. What would happen to them now?

I feel the damp slip of paper in my free hand, glance at Aina again, into her bloodshot eyes.

“Make the call. Now!” Aina says.

I nod and reach for the phone, smooth the slip of paper out on the desktop, read the hastily jotted-down number, the number for the manager at Solgården, the women’s shelter where Hillevi was staying with her kids.

It rings five times, and then a high-pitched voice with a Spanish accent picks up.

“Solgården, Mirta speaking.”

I explain why I’m calling in a voice that is quiet and maybe a little frantic. I explain that Hillevi was in my counseling group, how she had told us about the abuse, that we were there when she died, and that I’m wondering what will happen now.

“It’s the children, I’m wondering what will happen to the children. I can’t . . . stop thinking about that. The kids’ father hit one of the boys too. You know about that, right? It’s very important that the boys not be placed with him.”

“It’s such a tragedy,” Mirta says, as if she hasn’t heard me. “In all the years I’ve worked here, I’ve never lost a single woman, not one. My clients have been beaten and raped, but never killed. Dios mío, we couldn’t protect her.”

“But it wasn’t her husband who killed her.”

“Oh, the violence men perpetrate against women,” she begins, but then stops short and sighs deeply. “What can I do for you?”

“Uh, the children . . . ?”

“The children are being looked after by the child welfare authorities. They’ve been placed in a foster home in Nacka while they wait for the investigation to be completed.”

“The investigation?”

“Yes, the oldest son, his name is Lukas, well, he said his father had hit him. So we informed social services, which we are always required to do if we find out a child has been abused. That’s the law. Now the family group at social services will conduct a sort of expedited investigation. But if you ask me, I think the kids will be back with their father in a couple of weeks. That’s usually what happens. It’s just really hard to prove the boy’s accusations, you know? And the father is the sole guardian now .

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