The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö Page B

took out his nightstick and started to hit my friend with it. I tried to protect my friend and so I too received several blows. Both of them now had their nightsticks out and were pummeling us as hard as they could. I kept hoping the taxi would come so we would be able to get away, but it didn’t come and finally my friend yelled, “They’ll beat us to death, we’d better get out of here.” We then ran up to Karlavägen where we took a bus to my apartment. We were both of us black and blue and my right wrist started to swell when we got home. It was badly bruised and discolored. We decided to report the incident at the police station where we supposed the two patrolmen had come from and took a taxi there. The two policemen were nowhere to be seen, but we were able to speak to a chief inspector whose name was Nyman. We were told to wait until the patrolmen came in, which they did at one o’clock. Then all four of us, the two policemen and the two of us, were called into Inspector Nyman’s office and we repeated our story of what had happened. Nyman asked the policemen if it was true and they denied it. The Chief Inspector naturally believed them and told us we had better watch out for trying to blacken the names of honest hard-working policemen, and that it would go hard with us if we did it again. Then he told us to get out.
    I now wonder if Chief Inspector Nyman acted properly. What I have described is absolutely true, as my friend can testify. We were not drunk. On Monday I showed my hand to our doctor at work and he wrote the enclosed certification. We never found out the names of the two patrolmen, but we would recognize them
.
    Respectfully,
Olof Johansson
    Rönn didn’t understand all the terms in the doctor’s report, but it appeared that the hand and wrist were swollen from an exudation of fluid, that the swelling would have to be punctured if it didn’t go down by itself, and that the patient, who was a typographer, should refrain from working until one or the other had occurred.
    Then he read through the official comment.
    Chief Inspector Stig O. Nyman recalls the incident. He claims he had no reason to doubt the testimony of PatrolmenBergman and Sjögren, as they had always shown themselves to be honest and conscientious. Patrolmen Bergman and Sjögren deny that they used their nightsticks against the complaintant and his companion, who, the patrolmen claim, were defiant and unruly. They gave the impression of being inebriated, and Patrolman Sjögren claims to have noticed a strong smell of alcohol from at least one of the men. No action.
    The woman had stopped slamming file drawers and came over to Rönn.
    “I can’t find any more from that year involving this Inspector Nyman. So unless I go further back …”
    “No, that’s okay, just bring me the ones you find,” said Rönn cryptically.
    “Will you be much longer?”
    “I’ll be done in a minute, just want to look through these,” he said, and the woman’s steps moved away behind him.
    He took off his glasses and polished them before he went on reading.
    The undersigned is a widow, employed, and the sole support of one child. The child is four years old and stays at a day-care center while I am at work. My nerves and health have been bad ever since my husband was killed in an automobile accident one year ago.
    Last Monday I went to work as usual after leaving my daughter at the day-care center. Something happened at my place of work during the afternoon which I won’t go into here, but it left me very upset. The staff doctor, who is aware of the state of my nerves, gave me a hypo and sent me home in a taxi. When I got home it didn’t seem to me the sedative was having any effect, so I took two tranquillizers. I then went to get my daughter from the day-care center. When I’d gone two blocks, a police car stopped and two policemen got out and shoved me into the back seat. I was feeling a little drowsy from the medicine and it’s possible