Gothenburg

Gothenburg figures in the narrative less as a visited place than as the destination in a fabricated travel alibi. A return ticket, a train departing on schedule, and plans to meet the afternoon train make the city’s name useful as apparent proof of a journey that she does not complete.

The planned journey

At half past five on New Year’s morning, she reaches Stockholm Central Station and studies the departure board before buying a return ticket to Gothenburg for the eight o’clock train. She pays by credit card, buys two packs of cigarettes, and waits at a café. The itinerary is concrete enough to leave a record: a ticket purchase, a scheduled departure, and a destination far enough away to account for her absence.

The journey used as an alibi

The train does leave on time, and she sits in its deserted buffet car with coffee. When the conductor comes to stamp her ticket, she deliberately spills the coffee, drawing him away to fetch napkins. As she leans forward to ask whether the stains show on her blouse, she makes herself memorable in case his recollection should later support her account. The train’s movement and the conductor’s presence supply witnesses to part of the story, but not to a completed journey to Gothenburg.

The return and its purpose

At Södertälje Syd, she goes to the toilet, changes her appearance with a tight bun and stolen reading glasses, and turns her black coat inside out to reveal its pale-brown side. She then waits for a commuter train back to Stockholm and Lasse. Later, she plans to return to Stockholm Central Station to await the afternoon train from Gothenburg and collect her car; the valid ticket, she calculates, should also persuade parking attendants to waive a fine and allow them to confirm that she had travelled to and from the city. The police never ask to see the stamped ticket, however, and accept her story without question. Gothenburg therefore anchors an alibi whose credibility depends on traces and anticipated witnesses rather than her arrival there.