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Buried Angels
Camilla Lackberg
No. 1 international bestseller and Swedish crime sensation Camilla Lackberg’s new psychological thriller featuring Detective Patrick Hedstrom and Erica Falck – irresistible for fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo.YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE PASTEaster 1974. A family vanishes from their home on an idyllic island off the Swedish coast. They have left everything behind – including their one-year-old daughter, Ebba.Now, years later, Ebba has returned to the island. She and her husband have suffered the loss of their only child and are looking to make a fresh start. But within days, their house is the target of an arson attack.YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE FUTUREDetective Patrik Hedstrom takes on the investigation, aided by his wife, crime writer Erica Falck, who has always been fascinated by the mystery of Ebba’s abandonment and the family’s tragic history.When dried blood is found under the floorboards of the old house, it seems that the cold case involving the missing family is about to be brought back to life. And soon, Patrik and Erica are consumed by the hunt for a killer who will stop at nothing to keep the past buried…
CAMILLA LACKBERG
Buried Angels
Translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally
Copyright (#ulink_e6898835-d909-5fc7-a889-16cb56481231)
HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2014
Copyright © Camilla Lackberg 2011
Published by agreement with Nordin Agency, Sweden
Translation copyright © Tiina Nunnally 2014
Cover design layout © HarperCollinsPublishers 2014
Cover photographs © Tony Watson / Arcangel Images (forest); Johner Images / Getty Images (girl)
Camilla Lackberg asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.
Source ISBN: 9780007419593
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780007419609
Version 2018-09-24
‘If one man can display so much hatred, imagine how much love all of us together could show.’
Table of Contents
Cover (#u704d6962-f6a7-59fa-a693-148f4c2e8d92)
Title Page (#u39096896-b837-555d-8ef5-54647e51be60)
Copyright (#u85136942-dfc3-5e21-8957-c82cb737cfaf)
Epigraph (#u3f5b4fdc-bbb2-5541-a58e-31a04e58c81f)
Chapter One (#u3dea2538-fcdf-5ccb-b362-7a703b7da0ae)
Fjällbacka 1908 (#u359aec52-b32f-5511-b54f-8c8fb6e8ed15)
Chapter Two (#u2593f87c-2948-5819-ac2d-49bd7a460528)
Fjällbacka 1912 (#u910c002e-9521-592e-8e04-b1ad696c5809)
Chapter Three (#ua820a554-60f1-50d2-884d-9f1302f7379a)
Fjällbacka 1915 (#u3de744cb-ec6c-5e9e-a5b0-3f7ac54767cc)
Chapter Four (#u08670ddd-b8ed-505f-b1fa-fc47a4aa11b9)
Fjällbacka 1919 (#u5d707ca4-9335-54bc-9d4a-ba8947580fd4)
Chapter Five (#ud69e3558-b882-58ef-b78c-fe012327fbae)
Fjällbacka 1919 (#u64678309-8ca0-50d4-9550-cae402c717b2)
Chapter Six (#ub9930941-245f-5fa5-8f54-330b2371a5f7)
Fjällbacka 1919 (#u0fd79e0b-310c-5309-80aa-da17445f17e4)
Chapter Seven (#uf413fa19-d1a9-59cf-be75-5dcfd8c42739)
Fjällbacka 1919 (#u9f570d38-ae57-56b1-8e06-e82d6a5cf6fb)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Fjällbacka 1920 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Fjällbacka 1925 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Stockholm 1925 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Stockholm 1925 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Stockholm 1925 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Långbro Hospital 1925 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Fjällbacka 1929 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Fjällbacka 1931 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Lovö Cemetery 1933 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
St Jörgen Hospital 1936 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Fjällbacka 1939 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)
The Karinhall Estate 1949 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)
Fjällbacka 1951 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)
Fjällbacka 1961 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Fjällbacka 1970 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Valö 1972 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Valö 1973 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Valö 1974 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Valö, Easter Eve 1974 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Valö, Easter Eve 1974 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Stockholm 1991 (#litres_trial_promo)
Afterword (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by Camilla Lackberg (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#ulink_a2fc7e7f-7a8f-55ef-8688-663ffc5ad3b8)
They had decided to renovate their way out of the grief. Neither of them was sure it was a good plan, but it was the only one they had. The alternative was to lie down and slowly pine away.
Ebba ran the scraper over the outside wall of the house. The paint was coming away easily. It had already started to flake off in big chunks, so all she had to do was help it along. The July sun was so hot that her fringe was sticking to her forehead, which was damp with sweat, and her arm ached because it was the third day in a row she’d carried out this same monotonous, up-and-down motion. But she welcomed the physical pain. The worse it got, the more it muted the ache in her heart, at least for a while.
She turned around and looked at Tobias, who was working on the lawn in front of the house, sawing boards. He seemed to sense that she was watching him, because he glanced up and raised a hand in greeting, as if she were an acquaintance he was meeting on the street. Ebba felt her own hand respond with the same awkward gesture.
More than six months had passed since their life had been shattered, but they still didn’t know how to react to each other. Every night they would lie in the double bed with their backs turned, terrified that some involuntary touch might release something that they wouldn’t know how to handle. It was as if the grief filled them to the point there was no room for any other feelings. No love, no warmth, no empathy.
Guilt, heavy and unexpressed, separated them. Things would have been easier if they could have defined it and worked out where it belonged. But it kept shifting back and forth, changing strength and shape, constantly attacking from new directions.
Ebba turned back to the house and continued scraping at the wall. Under her hands the white paint came off in big pieces, revealing the wooden boards underneath. She stroked the wood with her free hand. This house seemed to have a soul in a way that she’d never noticed anywhere else. The small terraced cottage in Göteborg had been almost new when she and Tobias had bought it together. Back then she had loved the fact that the whole place had shone so brightly, that it was so untouched. Now all of that newness was a thing of the past, and this old house with all its flaws was better suited to her present state. She thought again about the leaky roof, the boiler that regularly needed a good kick to get it started, and the draughty windows that made it impossible to keep a lighted candle on the windowsill. Rain and wind also swept through her soul, mercilessly blowing out the candles that she tried to light.
Maybe her spirit would be able to heal here on Valö. She had no memories from this place, and yet it was as if they knew each other, she and this island. It was just opposite Fjällbacka. If she went down to the dock, she could see the small coastal town spread out across the water. At the base of the steep granite cliff the little white buildings and red boathouses were lined up like a string of beads. The sight was so beautiful that it almost hurt.
Sweat was running down her forehead, stinging her eyes. She wiped her face on her T-shirt and squinted up at the sun. Seagulls were circling overhead. The birds called and shrieked to each other, their cries mixing with the sound of motorboats moving through the strait. She closed her eyes and let the sounds carry her away. Away from herself, away from …
‘How about taking a break to go swimming?’
