“Why is it suddenly so important to talk to him?”she queried, wondering what might have occurred to Jiro to make him so intent all of a sudden.
“I need to find out if it’s possible for someone to enter his property without his knowledge.”
“What do you mean?”Aurora tilted her head to the side, but she was already processing this new train of thought.Was he talking about an abduction?Why would anyone want to abduct an old man?
“The only other way for him to have left the property would have been in some sort of vehicle.Either a car or a snowmobile.Yes?”he continued.
“It’s possible,” she agreed.“But if that were the case, any tracks or signs of a vehicle would’ve been lost by now underneath all the other foot traffic and vehicle tires of the searchers.”The hair on the back of her neck was standing at attention.This was a whole new train of thought, one that she didn’t think had really been considered.As far as they were concerned, this was a case of an old man wandering off and getting lost in the snow.
“Which is another reason we need to talk to the owner.If he knows this property as well as you say he does, then he’d be able to tell us that sort of thing.”Jiro stared at her, waiting for her answer.
“If you think he’s been abducted, then it’s important we tell Dalström straight away.”While she was beginning to dislike Dalström, she wasn’t about to stretch protocol that far by withholding vital information.She stood, looking over at her superior.He was speaking into a mobile phone, half turned away from her, but the look on his face was thunderous.What would he do if she took this new information to him?Would he follow it up or ignore her?But he was the lead on this case, and she had to follow the chain of command.
Jiro reached for her arm, tugging on her sleeve to stop her.“No, please don’t,” he pleaded.She turned to face him and was arrested by the intensity of his dark gaze.He was leaning in so close, she could almost see the individual pinpricks of stubble on his upper lip.She was caught between duty and wanting to help him.Between the pull of the appeal in his eyes and the tug of responsibility.Before she could make a decision, Moreau clomped noisily back into the room, followed by five other police officers, all rugged up in jackets and beanies and covered in snow, stamping their feet trying to get warm.They crowded around the detective inspector, muttering between themselves.He finished his phone call, jutting out his chin and standing up taller.
“Come over here.”He beckoned imperiously to Aurora and Jiro, waiting until they stood at the back of the crowd before he spoke again.It looked like she’d missed her opportunity to speak to him.For now.But at least they were hopefully going to find out what the next move was.
“That was the chief on the phone.The search has been called off until first light.There’s more snow forecast tonight, which will hamper any efforts, and we can’t take the risk of anyone else getting lost out there.”Dalström spoke with authority, as if this had been his idea all along, as if he hadn’t just been about to send them all back out into the freezing snow.Moreau, who was standing beside her, gave a quiet sigh of relief.
She’d believed that his partnership with Dalström had been a good one; an equal one.But now she had another insight into their dynamics and decided that Moreau must be very good at handling his superior’s mercurial moods and downplaying any repercussions.She felt a little sorry for him.Everyone had to handle difficult people at one stage or another in their career, but it must be hard for Moreau to keep a smile on his face with a partner like this.Perhaps this was an aberration.Dalström was clearly used to getting his own way, and on any normal day it was probably easy to keep him happy.Perhaps Moreau was used to this and took it in his stride.He was definitely more easygoing than Aurora, and maybe that was the way he handled things most of the time.Except this time he couldn’t let things pass.
“So, you’re just going to leave my father out there to die in the cold?”Jiro pushed his way between two officers, and Aurora’s focus snapped back to her charge.Jiro might not have understood much of the Swedish conversation, but he clearly hadn’t missed the underlying message.
“We don’t want to call this search off any more than you do.”Surprisingly, Dalström answered in English, with cool equanimity, for once staying in complete control, and even sounding slightly sympathetic.“But the facts can’t be ignored.It’s snowing hard out there now.”He gestured to the other officers still shaking snow off their jackets.“It’s dark, and the temperature will drop to at least -20C tonight.You could walk right past him if he were lying in the snow and not even know he was there.”
Jiro put his head in his hands and let out a moan.“And what if heislying in the snow in these freezing temperatures all night?Do you think he could survive that?”
Dalström didn’t answer.
Aurora made a quick decision.It was now or never.She owed Jiro this much at least.If no one else was going to help him, then she would.It was out of character for her to act so impulsively.Yes, she was always eager to take on any job, to learn as much as she could about policing.But she always did it in a considered manner.Some called her a perfectionist, but she liked to think of it as being meticulous; she needed to have every detail straight in her head to make sure she was making the best decision.There was no time to think this through, however.
She stepped forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jiro.“Sir, can I have permission to take Mr.Nashimori back to town in one of the cruisers?He will need a hotel to stay at.I’d like to make sure he’s safe and comfortable,” she spoke in English and kept her voice level, making sure her request sounded completely reasonable, not letting on she had an ulterior motive.
She wished Mårten were here.She missed his evenhanded guidance.Right at this exact moment she realized how lucky she’d been to be partnered with Mårten as a rookie cop.He was everything an honorable cop should be, and he showed her daily how to do the job with integrity.He wasn’t afraid of using force when it was required, but she was learning the valuable lesson from him that subtlety usually got you farther than violence.Mårten was good at considering every angle before he made a decision, so that he was sure he knew what he was doing.He never stormed the front door of a house to arrest a drug dealer unless he knew the back door was also guarded.If they attended a domestic abuse call out, he would always sit down to hear the victim’s story first, but he never jumped to any conclusions until he’d also spoken to the perpetrator.And he was teaching her to do the same.But right now, in this situation, and without Mårten’s advice, all she could do was follow her gut.She really hoped she wasn’t fucking this up.
Dalström’s sharp gaze landed on her.His features softened slightly as he studied her, finding no guile in her blank gaze.“Yes, why not?I will allow that,” he replied in English for Jiro’s sake.
“Thank you, sir.”Aurora let out a quiet breath.She took Jiro by the elbow to lead him out the door.
“Oh, and Constable.”Uh oh, was he going to change his mind?The detective inspector waited until she was facing him once more.“I’m sure Inspector Viskten will have work for you to do tomorrow.I can’t see that we will need you again.Thank you for your help.”Dalström dismissed her with a magnanimous flick of his hand.
If Aurora hadn’t had another plan in mind, she might well have spat back a retort.She was known for her caustic comments while on the job; she’d never suffered fools gladly.But this time she held her tongue.There was no way she was going to be shuffled off this case without a fight.But she would leave that fight until tomorrow.
“Yes, sir,” she replied, head held high, and steely eyes fixed on the door.“Let’s get out of here,” she muttered to Jiro.
CHAPTER FOUR
JIRO WARMED HIS hands on the mug of coffee as he watched the big man take a seat at his kitchen table.Jiro had been impressed when he’d first been introduced to Dávvet Lindgren by the tour guide as they descended from the bus this morning.In Jiro’s head, he was everything a Swedish mountain man should be.He must be six foot five if he were an inch, and his blond beard, and long blond hair pulled back into a man bun made him look imposing.Now, seeing him close up, he was even more impressive.He must lift weights because his biceps were enormous, threatening to bust through the flimsy fabric of his long-sleeve undershirt.
Jiro and Aurora had sat in the police cruiser pretending to look at her phone until all the other cops had left the scene.Then he’d followed her as she strode through the dark forest to Dávvet’s house, and once they’d determined the lights were still on, she’d knocked on his door and sweet-talked their way in.Dávvet had reluctantly agreed, but asked them to be quiet as his wife was getting their three young children ready for bed upstairs, reminding Jiro that it was still early, only just past eight o’clock.He felt that it should be much later; these long winter nights really screwed with your head.
He glanced over at Aurora and wondered how many rules she was breaking by talking to this guy without strict instruction from that asshole detective inspector.He was glad she was helping him, don’t get him wrong.But he wondered why she’d decided to withhold Jiro’s suspicion that someone else may have been involved in his father going missing from her supervisor.To stay behind and follow up with his request, when all she probably wanted to do was go home to her warm house and have a hot meal.
As he stared at her, Jiro was distracted by the tiny silver, heart-shaped studs Aurora wore in both ears.He’d never thought about whether female cops wore jewelry or not before.But on Aurora, the dainty earrings made her look…more feminine?No, that was probably too blunt an observation, and also quite sexist.Perhaps it was more that they gave an extra edge to her beauty.She was beautiful in an unconventional way.He suddenly wondered what it meant that they were heart-shaped?Was she a closet romantic at heart?Or was it something more mundane like a boyfriend had bought them for her?He shifted in his seat, aware that thought made him uncomfortable.He shouldn’t care whether Aurora had a boyfriend or not.She was here to render assistance, to help find his father; that was all.He shouldn’t be viewing her as anything else but another Swedish police officer doing her job.A means to an end.So why was he so interested in what sort of earrings she wore?
“You have questions for me?”Dávvet said, breaking Jiro’s reverie, and bringing him back to the present.Concentrate on finding his father, not on some irrelevant silver earrings, he reminded himself.
“Yes, if that’s okay with you,” Aurora replied, pulling out the small notebook and pencil from the top pocket of her vest.She’d done the same earlier this evening as they’d been sitting in the barbecue hut; keeping notes on the case, which he found strangely endearing.
