The Unlucky Lottery Read online

  But of course there wasn’t anybody who knew anything about him. Apart from her.

  So perhaps it wasn’t all that odd after all. She had begun to understand that was the case after a few days. That he wanted to take the blame, and that people believed him. There was a sort of logic. A twisted and back-to-front logic, but it made sense even so.

  But why had he gone to the trouble of buying an identical knife when they had already disposed of the real one? That was a genuine mystery. When she thought about it, she realized that this was the only thing she didn’t understand. Couldn’t make head nor tail of it. He could never have planned to use it. To stab that police officer? The fact that he actually did so could hardly be explained in any other way than his being possessed for a sudden second of an ability to act. Sudden and unexpected. Like a will o’ the wisp. Nothing else.

  That was presumably how things were. The knife was an idée fixe. The stabbing of the police officer a coincidence: an act on the spur of the moment. Something to show her – or Irene, in some obscure way – that he did have it inside him . . . But no, it was too far-fetched. Too logical. Mauritz could never plan and carry out anything like that. He could work something similar out with hindsight, perhaps, but he could never decide it in advance and then do it. He had never been able to think and act like that. That was the root of his weakness.

  When he came to visit her in a state of near nervous collapse that Saturday in October, he had declared that he was going to do it – he had just discovered all the horrors that had happened in the past, and was on his way to Maardam to give his father what he deserved. To take horrific revenge for their ruined youth and kill him without mercy. She had asked him why on earth he had come to her first, and then it was only a few minutes before he had collapsed in a heap on her sofa. Lay there, sniffling and shaking.

  It was when she saw that pitiable performance that she made up her own mind. Decided to carry out the deed herself. He didn’t even try to protest. Simply gaped at her with eyes shining in gratitude. Gratitude and desperate, desperate weakness.

  That was also the image she had in her mind’s eye when she did the deed. That damp-eyed, naked helplessness on the face of her brother. That pent-up hatred of their father.

  And now he was in prison. For a number of crimes. It was remarkable, no doubt about it. When she spoke to him a few hours ago, he had seemed just as calm and collected as he had been for the past few days.

  Reconciled, perhaps. Ready to take his punishment for the crime it had been his duty to commit, but which he hadn’t dared do. And for what he had done on the spur of the moment when in a confused state. Come to think of it, she couldn’t recall ever having heard him sounding as secure and harmonious as he did now. Not as a child, or as a youth, or as an adult. That was the fact of the matter.

  Perhaps there was a sort of meaning after all, Ruth thought. A point to it all. If her mother hadn’t managed to protect her daughter as she had intended – simply because Mauritz hadn’t been able to go through with the pretence – then perhaps there was no reason to prevent him from doing it. To take the blame as the vicarious murderer. If that’s what he wanted to do.

  Poor little Mauritz. Poor little brother.

  She shook her head. That was the fact of the matter. And there was quite a lot in what Elaine had said. All the cards were the wrong way round.

  Now she appeared in the doorway. Ruth observed her slim, naked body in the mirror. Her hot, slightly intoxicated gaze. Her black, almost bluish hair.

  I love her, she thought. Love, love, love. At least there is one member of the family left who is capable of doing that.

  In her own way.

  She smiled. Let the bath towel fall to the floor.

  Also by Håkan Nesser

  BORKMANN’S POINT

  THE RETURN

  THE MIND’S EYE

  WOMAN WITH A BIRTHMARK

  THE INSPECTOR AND SILENCE

  First published in Great Britain 2011 by Mantle

  This electronic edition published 2011 by Mantle

  an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

  Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

  Basingstoke and Oxford

  Associated companies throughout the world

  www.panmacmillan.com

  ISBN 978-0-230-76069-1 EPUB

  Copyright © Håkan Nesser 1998

  English translation copyright © Laurie Thompson 2011

  The right of Håkan Nesser to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  Originally published in 1998 as Münsters Fall by Albert Bonniers förlag, Stockholm

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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