The presentation had lasted almost an hour and nothing indicated that Arthur Elvang was nearing his conclusion. Unfortunately, the information offered did not contribute significantly to making a breakthrough in the investigation. The lengthy explanation was caused mainly by the number of dead, but each individual relationship was useful. First, the time of death had been established to Wednesday, between twelve thirty and two o’clock. The cause of death had also been established: four men had died by hanging and the last by strangulation. The latter had probably fainted when the noose was fastened around his neck. Apart from that, there was almost nothing that cast any light on the identity of the dead, nor had they discovered any shared characteristics among the men apart from their mutilated sex organs. The ages ranged from forty-five years to approximately sixty-five, and the muscle mass of two of the victims indicated regular physical activity and therefore manual labor, which was not true of the other three.
But there was one glimmer of light. Arthur Elvang was working with a provisional set of names for the men, which Simonsen intended to borrow. The professor had established that looking from the main door to the back wall of the gymnasium was due north, whereby he came up with the following names for the dead: Mr. Northeast, Mr. Northwest, Mr. Southwest, and Mr. Southeast. The last person was called Mr. Middle.
When the lecture came to an end at long last, the three police officers had a chance to ask detailed questions and Arne Pedersen was the quickest off the mark.
“Could you repeat what you said about the use of anesthetic?”
The professor repeated himself. Simonsen noted that his choice of words was basically identical to the first time, only spoken somewhat slower.
“All five men were partly anesthetized with Stesolid about two hours before they died. Stesolid is a tranquilizer or sedative. Depending on the amount used, it can cause either unconsciousness or drowsiness. The medication is administered by intravenous injection. All five bodies have a prick mark on the left or right arms and there are also marks on their upper arms most likely resulting from a tourniquet. The concentration of Stesolid in their blood is identical almost down to the decimal point, which indicates that they have received individually calculated doses determined by their body weight. The doses have been calculated and administered by a professional. One can deduce this if only because of the fact that all five injections hit a vein on the first attempt. My assumption is that a physician or nurse or the equivalent has handled the injections.”
Pedersen followed up. “You said partly anesthetized.”
“Yes, the concentration was not particularly strong, and its effects will have been limited. I assume that the aim was to make the men cooperative. Easily manipulated, if you will.”
“You mean passive?”
“Something like that. Slow and dull for a couple of hours is more precise.”
“You say that their body weight has been taken into account; were they weighed?”
“Not necessary. A competent assessment of their weight from their height and build is more likely.”
Then it was Simonsen’s turn. He had jotted down a couple of questions on his pad and now discovered that he could neither read nor recall the first. The odd pause caused the others to give him quizzical looks, and Kurt Melsing briefly woke up in the ensuing silence. Simonsen went to his second question.
“In regards to the identification, is it correct to assume that we have a partly intact dental impression?”
“From Mr. Northwest, yes, with an emphasis on partly. But combined with his approximate age it should be enough to establish an identification, if you can locate his dentist.”
“You said that Mr. Northeast had a pacemaker inserted about forty years ago, when he must have been in his early twenties. Is that something that can be traced?”
Arthur Elvang paused before he replied, “He may have suffered from rheumatic fever. I’ll give one eye that this is one of our homegrown surgeries. A Danish hospital inserts a pacemaker on a man, nineteen to perhaps twenty-five, sometime between 1961 and 1968. He was given a blood thinner. Marevan or Marcoumar. We’ll analyze that later. Much speaks for the fact that he would have had his INR values measured quarterly in order to monitor his status and most likely at a hospital. That’s not a bad point of departure for an identification. There can’t have been many such operations at the time.”
Pedersen interjected, “Will you help us?”
It was a rational thought since the professor was the ideal man for such a task, but given the work that still lay before him, it was unrealistic. In view of the man’s age, which one often forgot, the question became unreasonable.
Simonsen modified it: “… To find someone that we can work with on this?”
Arthur Elvang looked in confusion from one to the other.
“Stop with the Donald Duck talk. Who is asking what?”
They both dropped the request.
The time was now ripe to put Kurt Melsing back into action, and they got some life back in the man, who was soon in the middle of an enthusiastic monologue on the subject of one hundred kinds of bloodstains, with a focus on arterial spurts and splatters. As opposed to the professor, his level of eloquence was relatively low and relatively disjointed, and apart from what Simonsen had noticed-that the floor in the gymnasium had been covered in plastic and signs-he offered nothing useful. That the man knew about blood was nothing new. Finally, it was too much even for Arthur Elvang.
“No one wants to hear about your bloodstains, Kurt,” he interrupted. “Let’s hear your conclusion. That is something they are more interested in.”
Kurt Melsing redirected himself cheerfully and took out a piece of paper from which he read, in an admission to his evident limitations in expressing himself off-the-cuff.
“Our measurements of interfaces and angles as well as bloodstains on the corpses show that the chainsaw was operated from right to left at an angle of about sixty degrees to the ground. The person who used the saw was located about one meter higher than the body he was cutting. It is also evident that the men were standing on a raised platform of some kind before they were hanged. It is also clear that the spray of blood has often been intercepted by a flat surface. Taken together, this information leads us to believe that a kind of podium of about one and a half meters above the floor was erected. A scene with five trapdoors. Nothing short of an execution ceremony.”
“Damn.”
That was Pedersen. His tone was muted but it spoke for them all. For a moment all was quiet, as if angles, rotational speed, intestinal residue, and dental records retreated to the background and the full impact of five people’s horrendous death hit them. Arthur Elvang broke the silence.
“Yes, it certainly can’t have been very pleasant. The victims were transported to the gymnasium and up onto the podium in a more-or-less advanced state of sedation. Their clothes were removed. Where and how we don’t know. Naked, with hands bound behind their backs and legs tied, they were placed apart from each other, a noose around their necks. We have found traces of glue on their ankles and in several cases on their underarms, most likely from strong tape. Then they were hanged, and immediately after the hanging but before the next person was killed, the victim’s hands were cut off. There are also a number of slashes made on the person’s face. The bloodstains and angles of the wounds are the grounds for the forensic conclusion we have already mentioned. We can only offer an educated guess as to the order of executions. We think it was Mr. Southwest, Mr. Northwest, and Mr. Southeast. As previously mentioned, Mr. Northeast is an exception, and Mr. Middle was last. The mutilation of the victims’ genitals occurred only after the podium had been dismantled.”