"I'll order sandwiches."
"Thank you."
With a pleased look on his face, Kihlgard sat down between Lars Norrby and Birger Smittenberg. It didn't take long before all three were engrossed in a lively discussion about which of the Greek islands was the best vacation destination.
Someone came in with a platter loaded with open-face shrimp sandwiches, as well as a tray with light beer and Ramlosa mineral water. A moment later chocolate cookies and coffee also appeared on the table. The team wasn't used to such extravagance. Knutas cast a glance at Jacobsson. She certainly hadn't spared any expense to make Kihlgard feel welcome.
He looked at his colleagues. Everyone was talking and laughing with the jovial inspector from the NCP, eager to hear the latest gossip from Stockholm. It was always the same thing. As soon as Kihlgard showed up, the meetings were transformed into some sort of social gathering.
Knutas loudly cleared his throat to get their attention. He welcomed Martin Kihlgard and Agneta Larsvik.
Then the team devoted more than an hour to going over what the investigation had produced so far. The interviews from the previous day were reviewed. The most interesting item that had emerged was the news about Staffan Mellgren's infidelities, as reported by the teacher Aron Bjarke. They agreed that it was a lead that merited investigation.
When they were almost finished, there was a knock on the door and Erik Sohlman came in. Judging by his expression, he had something interesting to tell them.
"I have something to add," he said when Knutas paused.
"Let's hear it."
"The divers who have been dragging the bay near Warfsholm have found a ring that belonged to Martina."
"Where?"
"In the water near the youth hostel, on the sea floor near the reeds, meaning in quite shallow water. It's a big, rather ungainly silver ring with several stones of various colors. We've cordoned off the area and are presently looking for more evidence. I have to go back."
"Where's the ring?"
"In the lab."
Knutas leaned back in his chair. "It matches the ME's theory. That's where she was drowned. Then the perp stuffed her body in his car and drove out to Vivesholm to complete his work."
"Presumably he held her head underwater for the requisite amount of time," said Sohlman. "She had sand and sludge under her fingernails. Most likely it got there when he was holding her under. The bottom is swampy there, so her fingers would have sunk in a bit. That may have been how she lost the ring. It's the kind with an opening in the band and has to be squeezed tight to fit."
A gloomy mood had settled over the room. Maybe they were all thinking about the same thing: the image of Martina, futilely fighting for her life in the reeds while her friends were partying only a few hundred yards away, having no idea what was happening.
"It sounds premeditated," said Kihlgard, "and ice cold. He must have counted on getting her alone so that he could carry out the deed. I mean, who goes around with a knife and a rope and things like that in his car for no reason?"
"Maybe he'd been spying on her for a while," Jacobsson tossed out. "We don't know how long he may have been waiting for the right opportunity. Maybe it was just a lucky chance that it happened that night."
"Can we be sure that it was Martina he was out to get?" asked Kihlgard. "Who's to say he wasn't just after some random victim, anyone at all?"
"That might also be the case," Knutas admitted.
"Another thing that strikes me is that this crime required time," Kihlgard went on. "He must have needed at least a couple of hours to get everything done."
"Then there's the ritualistic element. What does that tell us?" said Knutas. He turned to look at the forensic psychiatrist.
"It's much too early for me to make any sort of evaluation," said Agneta Larsvik. "I want to see more pictures of the victim and study more of the facts. I also need to wait for the autopsy report. In addition, I'd like to see the crime scene before I say anything specific."
"But what's your first reaction?" Knutas ventured.
"What we see here," she said with a glance at the photo of Martina, which filled the entire screen, "is an expression of extreme and improbable violence. It's a very strange act, which makes me think of a solitary, gravely ill perpetrator with a strong hatred for women. Possibly inexperienced sexually. The knife wound in the abdomen may signify a curiosity about the female body in the same way that other perps insert objects into the vagina to examine it. The fact that the victim is naked might imply a sexual association, but as I said, at this stage it's impossible to draw any definite conclusions."
"Do you think this is the perp's first crime?" asked Jacobsson.
"Probably not. I would guess it's a young killer who has committed violent crimes before. This sort of macabre crime is not something a person would do his first time out."
"Why do you think he's young?"
"An individual who is sick enough to be capable of a crime of this nature wouldn't be able to get along in society for very long. To put it simply, he wouldn't get very old before he was caught. But keep in mind that these are only my initial thoughts."
Knutas was looking resolute. "Can you say anything about the modus operandi?"
All eyes were fixed on Larsvik.
"The fact that the perpetrator hung the body up in the tree may mean that he wants to be seen. By exposing his victim, he's saying to us that he's dangerous, almost like 'Look what I can do!' It may indicate that the murderer wants to tell us that we'd better stop him in time, before he does the same thing again."
Late that afternoon the preliminary autopsy report arrived by fax from the forensic medicine lab in Solna. In his mind Knutas sent the ME words of thanks; then he closed the door to his office and started leafing through the pages.
It turned out that Martina had died from drowning after all. Her lungs were severely inflated; she had foam in her windpipe and seawater in her stomach. Traces of sperm were found in her vagina, but there were no injuries to indicate a sexual assault. The sperm sample had been sent to the Swedish Crime Laboratory in Linkoping. The knife wound in her abdomen was deep; it had injured the aorta and intestines. Her blood alcohol level was. 12, which meant that she was definitely intoxicated when the murder was committed.
The discovery of the ring and the autopsy results indicated that the murder had occurred at Warfsholm-to be more precise, at the shoreline in front of the youth hostel, not far from the front door and the parking area but hidden by the surrounding juniper bushes. The killer had presumably been so bold as to park right there. When Martina was dead it would have been a simple matter to carry her to his car. The bushes would have hidden him from view. After that he most likely drove straight out to Vivesholm. It would have been about 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. At that hour all the summer guests would have been sound asleep in their houses.
The perpetrator must have parked his car near the fence, far enough away that it wouldn't be seen from the gate or the summer houses. Then he lifted out the body and carried it into the grove of trees.
He had probably prepared the site earlier. Hoisting up a corpse was heavy work. It was unlikely that a woman could have done it, unless she'd had help. Of course, there could have been two or more perpetrators.
Why had the killer chosen to hoist up the body, thereby making it visible and easier to discover? For one thing, it decreased any lead he may have had. For another, executing the maneuver itself entailed a risk of discovery. Was it as the forensic psychiatrist had thought: that this was a way for the perpetrator to call attention to himself? Knutas had his doubts.
Then there was the matter of the abdominal wound. If it didn't have anything to do with Larsvik's assumption about sexual curiosity, what did it mean? Was the killer trying to desecrate his victim? Was it the assault itself that gave him some sort of satisfaction?