‘I can explain. My name is Jesper Humlin and I am an author. I take it none of you officers is a fan of poetry but you may have heard my name. My name appears in the papers with some regularity.’
‘We’ll get to the bottom of this at the station. Come with us.’
Tanya gathered her things together and put them in her backpack. Humlin saw that she intentionally left the two envelopes behind.
‘I protest!’ Humlin said. ‘I demand to be allowed to call Pelle Törnblom.’
One of the police officers grabbed his arm. Humlin could already see the next day’s headlines.
Humlin did not manage to convince the officer who filed the report to let him call Pelle Törnblom until four o’clock in the morning. Before then he had managed to spend a few moments alone with Tanya.
‘I’m going to tell them the door was already open when we arrived,’ he said. ‘And I won’t tell them anything about who you are. How did you learn to break open doors anyway?’
‘My father was a burglar. He taught me.’
‘Is that what you do, then? Are you a thief?’
‘How would I manage otherwise?’
‘Is that why you keep a crowbar in your boot?’
Her eyes glinted angrily.
‘I hate being poor. Do you even know what that is? To be so poor you start to despise your own existence? Do you know? No, how could you know.’
‘Is that why you left? You wanted to escape the poverty?’
‘I did not try to escape anything. I left Smolensk in order to become rich. I was tired of breaking into houses where there was nothing left to take. I wanted to come to a country where there was something to take behind the doors I was going to break open. And it happened to be Sweden.’
At this point they were escorted to different rooms. Humlin was placed in a room with a drunken ice-hockey fan who had thrown up on the floor and whose right eye had swollen shut. During the half-hour that followed, Humlin was forced to listen to a completely incomprehensible account of the brawl that had taken place at the Scandinavium arena. It was only when the ice-hockey fan was taken away that Humlin was able to gather his thoughts. What could he do? When Törnblom finally turned up at dawn Humlin had prepared an explanation that shielded Tanya. Törnblom stood and glared at him for a long time before speaking.
‘Why didn’t you just call me and ask me to come down and unlock the door?’
‘I left my phone on the train. Didn’t you ring to check what time the train was coming in and hear it was delayed?’
‘I was waiting for your call, you know. It was damned difficult to stand there and explain to everyone that you had simply stood them up.’
‘The train was delayed,’ Humlin repeated in hurt tones. ‘I didn’t let them down.’
‘Haiman had brought a rugby ball to give to you. When he realised you weren’t coming he said he regretted not having hit you even harder. Everyone was very disappointed.’
‘The train lost all power just outside of Herrljunga! How many times do I have to say this?’
‘Why didn’t you call?’
‘The phone was out of range.’
‘I hope you realise I find this all a bit hard to believe. There are a few too many convenient coincidences in your story.’
‘Every word I’m telling you is true. What happened anyway? I mean, when I didn’t show up.’
‘I had to explain that unfortunately you had revealed your true colours as a fundamentally unreliable person. We decided to cancel the whole thing.’
‘Cancel?’
‘I hope you realise how disappointed the girls are.’
‘This is ludicrous. You’ve heard my explanation. I haven’t let them down.’
‘Where did you find Tanya anyway?’
‘She was waiting for me outside your club.’
‘Why was she still there?’
It was at this point that Humlin used his newly fabricated story.
‘She was guarding your door since there had been a break-in.’
‘There was no break-in. Nothing was stolen.’
‘I wouldn’t know about that.’
Humlin was completely unprepared for Törnblom’s next reaction which was to reach out and grab Humlin by his shirt.
‘I don’t know what the hell you’re up to or what you’re thinking. But you leave my club alone!’
He slowly let go. Humlin was speechless. They were alone in the room. Humlin had to wait for the report to be completed before the police could let him go. He had no idea where Tanya was.
‘How many times do I have to tell you that I had nothing to do with your club being broken into?’
‘You’re probably enough of a worm to pin this on Tanya, aren’t you?’
‘I told you she was just guarding the door. I’m not pinning anything on her.’
Törnblom pulled out a pack of cigarettes although a sign clearly stated that all smoking was forbidden.
‘You can’t smoke here, you know.’
Törnblom calmly lit his cigarette and sat down.
‘This isn’t good enough. You’re not good enough.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You aren’t man enough to help these girls start to believe in themselves.’
‘And how could I do that? You just cancelled everything.’
‘I was humiliated when you didn’t show. Leyla was close to tears and all her relatives were upset. Even if you don’t care about them you don’t have to treat them like shit. You’ll have time to regret you did.’
