Biljardpalatset

Biljardpalatset, at Sankt Eriksgatan 52, is the pool hall where Piet Hoffmann is arrested after police receive an anonymous tip identifying him as a wanted criminal. Its importance lies less in what happens there than in the way Hoffmann uses the place: he makes himself easy to find, and the arrest becomes the point of entry into the prison operation that follows.

Setting and appearance

The scene is associated with the familiar details of a pool hall: green felt, blue chalk, ashtrays, and the remembered atmosphere of cigarette smoke. Hoffmann pauses over that setting before acting, though the narration leaves open whether the smoke is actually present or only recalled. He drinks black coffee bought at a 7-Eleven on Fleminggatan, checks that the knife he usually carries is not in his back pocket, and goes to a window overlooking Sankt Eriksgatan.

The address is given precisely as the entrance to Biljardpalatset, Sankt Eriksgatan 52. The pool hall is deserted when police enter, leaving Hoffmann conspicuous at the pool table rather than lost in a crowd. Its ordinary furnishings and open street-facing window make it a practical place to stage a visible encounter with the patrol.

The arrest

Police have been summoned by an anonymous, untraceable phone call reporting that a serious wanted criminal will be at Biljardpalatset that morning. Hoffmann stands at the window, pretending to speak on his mobile phone until he is sure the occupants of a passing patrol car have seen him. The sequence presents the arrest as calculated exposure: he checks that he is unarmed and does not try to flee.

The officers have his name and a description of his appearance, including his grey hooded top, jeans, fair hair, and approximate height. They also receive a warning that he may be armed. When uniformed police enter the empty pool hall with guns drawn, Hoffmann turns from the table and keeps both hands visible. He does not comply with the order to lie on the floor voluntarily; officers force him down, and he later remembers handcuffs and being taken into custody.

From pool hall to prison

The arrest at Biljardpalatset begins a transfer into the prison system. Hoffmann is subsequently taken to Aspsås Prison, which he has studied from outside but has never entered. He has mapped its buildings from the church tower and, with Erik Wilson's help, learned about the staff and prisoners in Block G while on remand. Arrival nevertheless makes the prison's reality immediate: he is escorted through security, searched, issued clothing, and placed in a cell.

Ten days later, after spending most of each day alone in a small cell, he is given a tour of the unit and prepares for the other prisoners to return. The contrast with Biljardpalatset is sharp: at the pool hall, visibility is the means by which he controls the arrest's beginning; inside the prison, access to space, time, and other people is tightly regulated. The pool hall thus serves as a threshold between a public, deliberately arranged encounter and the closed environment in which Hoffmann must establish his place.

Narrative significance

Biljardpalatset is not merely the location of an arrest but the first visible stage of Hoffmann's planned prison entry. The anonymous tip, his position by the window, and his decision to remain rather than run make the encounter read as a passage he has prepared for, even though the identity of the caller is not established in the scene. His later choice to make himself conspicuous among the prisoners echoes that initial public visibility, now redirected toward gaining standing in the unit.

The pool hall also anchors a consequential reversal: the man who appears to be captured in a police operation is entering prison as part of an undercover undertaking. That transition brings the setting's brief role to a close while giving the arrest its larger narrative consequence.