“Of course! The mother is black,” interrupted Katarina.
“Obviously, I know that’s the reason why! But the old bag has threatened to put them to sleep if we don’t help her find homes for them.”
“A mix between a poodle and a terrier doesn’t sound entirely successful. Based on looks they will probably be absolutely adorable. But as for temperament and personality. . I don’t know,” said Irene, wondering.
“What have you done to your hair!” Katarina burst out. She hadn’t noticed her mother’s new hairstyle until that moment.
“The newest of the new. Perfect,” Irene asserted.
“And you complained when I cut my hair short,” said Jenny.
“Cut it short! You shaved it off!” Katarina reminded her.
Jenny didn’t continue with the discussion about her very short haircut of a few years earlier. Both girls sat quietly and inspected their mother’s new look. Irene looked back at her daughters. Twins, but still so different that people often didn’t think they were even sisters.
Katarina was the very image of herself at that age. Already one hundred and seventy-three centimeters tall and in good shape. She had Irene’s coloring, with dark brown hair and dark blue eyes, and a complexion that took to the sun easily. Jenny was the image of her father or, maybe more accurately, of her aunts on her father’s side. To her own exasperation she was the shortest in the family. Since the girls had already turned sixteen, they probably wouldn’t grow any more. Jenny’s hair was golden blonde, she had light blue eyes and a fair complexion that was very sensitive to the sun. She usually whined about how unfairly fate had affected her looks compared to those of her sister. The truth was that Jenny was beautiful, but she just couldn’t see it herself.
In order to put a stop to the daughters’ critical staring, Irene asked, “What’s for dinner?”
“It’s Wednesday. Vegetarian. I’m making a Thai vegetable stew with coconut milk,” Krister answered.
Irene sighed inside. Even though they had eaten vegetarian meals three days a week for almost two years, she still had a hard time getting used to such different food. It started when Jenny decided to become a vegan and Krister felt he needed to lose at least twenty kilos.3 The family changed eating habits. Jenny ate vegetarian dishes on the days when the rest of the family gorged on poultry, fish, and meat. Krister hadn’t lost his twenty kilos, but he was at least under a hundred. Because he was so tall, he didn’t give the impression of being heavy, just robust and impressive. But Irene knew that his knees had started protesting against all the extra weight. This kept him from going on long walks with Sammie, but he did swim almost two thousand meters every week at the Frölunda community center pool. He would turn fifty this fall. Irene didn’t hold out much hope that he would become thinner or have more energy; instead, she realized that she would have to satisfy herself with the changes in eating and exercise habits he had already made.
Chapter 3
THE SEARCH AREA HAD been widened every hour and the radius from Killevik continued to grow, but so far no one had made any new discoveries.
Superintendent Andersson tried to reach Pathology. Professor Stridner sent a message that she was busy and would get in touch as soon as she had time. Hannu was plowing through the register for persons who had been missing since New Year’s. He still hadn’t found any promising leads. None of this improved the superintendent’s frame of mind.
“We are standing here twiddling our thumbs. Someone must be missing this person!” he burst out.
Irene tried to calm him down. “It’s barely been two days since we found the sack, and the public isn’t aware of the tattoo. It might provide a clue to the victim.”
Andersson reflected as he rocked back and forth on the soles of his feet. Finally he cleared his throat with difficulty. “The tattoo. . my line of sight was disrupted, I didn’t get a good look. What was it a picture of?”
Since he had been standing several meters away from the examination table it was quite understandable that he hadn’t been able to see the tattoo. Tactfully, Irene refrained from pointing this out and turned to the remaining colleagues in the room. “Stridner believes that it’s a Chinese character encircled by a dragon biting its own tail. It wasn’t very easy to see since the dog had bitten right on the tattoo and the body was decomposing. . you know. But she described the character as an upside-down y, with two cross lines on the stem-one at the fork of the y and the other a bit higher up on the stem. The dragon is tattooed in several colors, and according to Stridner, it’s a real work of art.”
“I don’t think it’s an ordinary tattoo. I don’t think just anyone did it,” said Birgitta.
“Find the tattoo artist in order to find a trail to the victim,” added Fredrik Stridh.
“The best thing would be if we had a photo of the tattoo so that we could show it to all of the tattoo artists in Göteborg,” said Jonny.
“You don’t want to walk around with a picture of what it looks like right now. Believe me!” Irene assured him.
She thought for a bit before she asked, “Could we arrange to have a drawing instead of a photo? A drawing would be much clearer.”
Andersson brightened and nodded. “It’s a good idea. I’ll try and arrange it.”
He turned toward Fredrik. “How is it going with last night’s stabbing?”
“The victim has been identified as Lennart Kvist; in drug circles he’s known as Laban. He’s a guy who has been in trouble for years and has a lot of drugs on his conscience. It was probably the result of some argument over a deal. A witness heard loud cries for help from behind Flora’s Hill. He called the police on his cell phone. The patrol found Laban’s dead body in the park. On the ground under him there was a open bag full of ready-to-sell heroin. Most likely the culprit is a client who hadn’t gotten the credit he wanted.”
“Did the witness see anyone running from the scene?” asked Andersson.
“No. The murderer probably disappeared in the direction of the Big Theater via the park; he may have gone along the canal.”
“OK. You and Birgitta are in charge of that investigation. Get in touch with Narcotics if you haven’t already done so. Irene, Jonny, and Hannu will continue with the murder-mutilation case. We’ll meet this afternoon around five.”
SEVEN TATTOO artists had placed advertisements for their services in the Yellow Pages. It was possible to get piercing done at some of the places. Painful treatments, which people subjected themselves to voluntarily, thought Irene. Personally, she hadn’t even dared get her ears pierced.
“There’s no point in running around to tattoo parlors before we have a picture to show them,” said Jonny.
“I’ll find out if Andersson has found an artist and if Stridner has called yet.”
Irene needed to stretch her legs a bit. Neither she nor Jonny had any good ideas when it came to the continued investigation. They needed a way to trace the victim’s identity.
On the way to Andersson’s office she ran into Hannu. He politely held the door open and she curtsied jokingly as she passed through it.
“Do you have to make a fuss about just walking through a door?” the superintendent said sourly.
There was a distinct feeling in the air that nothing of importance had occurred. Irene hurried to ask her question.
“No. No artist. And Stridner hasn’t-” He was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone. He quickly grabbed the receiver. “Superintendent Andersson. Yes. Oh? Hmm.” Andersson listened to the voice on the phone. From his stiff facial expression and the chattering voice that could be heard, the two listeners could tell he was speaking with Stridner herself. The superintendent’s sulky expression was slowly replaced by one of surprise. He hemmed and hawed monosyllabically before he managed to interrupt the sharp voice on the other end of the line.