The Invisible Man from Salem by Christoffer Carlsson

whom.
    When the scandal broke in the press, everyone went looking for a scapegoat. The police’s methods were exposed as risky and illegal, and everyone in the organisation hid behind someone else — except me, who had no one to hide behind. I was deemed to have had some kind of breakdown, and was kept under strict observation in Visby before being loaded onto a boat to the mainland under the supervision of two guards. One was called Tom, and when I asked him for a cigarette he looked at me as though I’d asked to have a go on his Taser. I went to the toilet and locked myself in, and spent most of the crossing in there with my head in my hands, not knowing what might happen next. The boat rocked constantly, making me so seasick that I vomited, causing the two guards to smash down the door. They thought I’d tried to kill myself. I was dragged off the boat and into an unmarked police car that took me to Sankt Göran’s hospital in Stockholm. I heard someone, perhaps a colleague, whisper in my ear that I wasn’t to talk to anyone.
    I got my own room. There were no curtains on the window, because they were worried that patients could use them to hang themselves. On a table next to me there was a plastic glass and matching plastic jug. The ceiling was white, like fresh snow.
    Levin came to see me later that same afternoon, and looked regretful. He pulled a chair over to the bedside, put one leg over the other, and leant forward.
    â€˜How are things, Leo?’
    â€˜They’ve pumped me full of pills.’
    â€˜Do they make you feel better?’
    â€˜Good as new.’
    He laughed.
    â€˜Good. That’s good.’
    â€˜What happened?’
    â€˜I was going to ask you the same thing.’
    â€˜There were no weapons,’ I mumbled. ‘Just toys and newspapers. I don’t know which side started shooting, but once it started, it just carried on.’ I hesitated and looked at Levin.
    â€˜I was down in the harbour the night before.’
    â€˜Okay?’
    â€˜Lasker was there.’
    Levin didn’t react.
    â€˜He told me to get out of there,’ I went on. ‘That something was wrong.’
    â€˜What did you say?’
    â€˜Nothing.’ My lips were dry, and I licked them with the tip of my tongue. ‘I thought he’d just got scared. But he probably knew something was going to go wrong.’
    â€˜Or not. Lasker was a paranoid bastard — you know that yourself. He might well have said the same thing even if everything had gone according to plan.’
    â€˜That’s what I’ve been wondering. What was it that was supposed to happen?’
    â€˜You’re wondering if someone set you up?’
    â€˜Did they?’
    â€˜No.’
    I looked at Levin and tried not to blink. When that failed, I looked the other way.
    â€˜Why weren’t there any weapons?’
    â€˜No idea.’
    â€˜Someone must know.’
    â€˜Someone must. Someone always does. But I don’t know who that might be.’
    I didn’t believe him, but I didn’t know why. Something wasn’t right. Everything went quiet. He looked at his watch and poured some water from the jug, then drank it, before filling the cup again and giving it to me. I shook my head.
    â€˜You need to drink water.’
    â€˜I’m not thirsty.’
    Levin pulled a notepad from his jacket pocket and wrote something, then pushed it over to me.
    I think the room is bugged
    I looked at him.
    â€˜Now you tell me?’
    good they’re getting your version
    â€˜Who are they?’
    Levin didn’t react. I leant back again, and sighed. The room tilted, and I felt drawn towards the window, but I was too tired to move.
    They were worried that I might talk, I think, even though I’d been told not to. Exactly who ‘they’ were remained a mystery. They were police — that much I did understand. In the circumstances, controlling the flow of