The Silver Road by Stina Jackson

Author:Stina Jackson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantic Books

Lelle downed the beer, but there was no feeling of intoxication. The sun’s rays were beating down on the small bus shelter, but the warmth didn’t reach him. His whole body trembled. How come he hadn’t heard of the Ringberg brothers until now? And if rumours were going around that Mikael Varg had admitted his guilt, shouldn’t the police know about them?

He threw the empty beer bottle into the waste bin and started running. He ran through Glimmersträsk shopping centre, deserted and slumbering in the dawn, ignoring the water that splashed up from the puddles and left dark streaks on his jeans. With Storgatan behind him he took a short cut over the football pitch, where the sprinklers were painting rainbows in the air.

His throat was burning when he reached the white house on the brow of the hill. A police car was parked on the drive and small clumps of violets shone in the flower beds. The sound of his feet on the gravel pounded in time with the beats of his heart and he bent double on the veranda to get his breath back. He leaned on the doorbell and when no one opened he began banging wildly on the door with his clenched fists. The sound echoed back from the edge of the forest.

When the door opened he stumbled headlong into Hassan’s naked chest. Hassan was in his underpants and his hair was sticking up.

‘What’s this all about?’

‘The Ringberg brothers,’ panted Lelle. ‘Jonas and Jonah. Do you know who they are?’

Hassan squinted in the night sunlight as if it hurt his eyes. ‘What the hell, Lelle? Have you been drinking? You stink of beer!’

‘One bottle. But forget that and listen to me. I was sitting in the bus shelter and got talking to a lad called Jesper. He told me the Ringberg brothers are going around saying Mikael Varg has admitted killing Lina.’

The words left a bad taste in his mouth and he turned and spat on the gravel.

Hassan scratched his chest hair and seemed too sleepy to understand the significance of what Lelle was saying. ‘Do you have any idea what the time is?’

‘Do you know the Ringberg brothers?’

‘Every social worker and cop north of Sundsvall knows those two. Small-time crooks who like peddling moonshine around here. Some burglary and minor theft. They’ve gone from one care home and foster family to the next since they could walk, basically.’

‘They say Mikael Varg has admitted the crime.’

Hassan sighed. ‘The Ringberg brothers are about as reliable as the weather. I wouldn’t trust anything they said.’

‘So you’ve heard they’re accusing Varg?’

‘Listen to me, Lelle. We’ve heard endless rumours concerning Lina’s disappearance over the years. You know that as well as I do. We went through the Varg property with a fine-tooth comb early on in the investigation, with forensics, dogs, the lot. We even went to their holiday cottage in Vittangi to have a look. We’ve heard the claims about an admission of guilt and we’ve interrogated Varg for hours about it.

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