The Killer's Art by Mari Jungstedt Read Free Book Online Page A

interpretation of the facial wounds to the ME. He’s got to have something to do too.’
    Sohlman grinned.
    ‘How long has he been dead?’ asked Jacobsson, whose face had now returned to its normal colour.
    ‘Difficult to say. Judging by the body temperature, I’d guess at least six hours. But that’s just a guess, of course. You’ll have to wait for the preliminary post-mortem results from the ME.’
    ‘Any other evidence?’ asked Knutas.
    ‘We haven’t found much of interest in the gate area. A few cigarette butts and some chewing gum, but they could have been there before.There are some fresh tyre tracks near the gate and also some footprints. The Östergravar area is crawling with footprints, of course. We’ve had the dogs go over that section too, but so far there’s been nothing of interest.’
    ‘Could this be about something as simple as a robbery?’ said Wittberg, giving his colleagues an inquisitive look.
    ‘Even if the robber lost his head and ended up killing his victim, why would he go to the trouble of hanging him from the gate?’ said Jacobsson doubtfully.
    Sohlman cleared his throat. ‘If there’s nothing else right now, I’d like to get back to the crime scene.’
    He shut down the computer and turned the lights back on before he left the room.
    Knutas gave the remaining members of his team a sharp look. ‘Let’s leave the question of motive for the time being. It’s much too early to speculate about that right now. What we need to get started on is mapping out Egon Wallin’s life: his art business, his employees, neighbours, friends, relatives, his past – everything. Karin and Thomas will be responsible for that. Lars, you’ll handle the press – the reporters are going to be on us like hawks. The fact that the victim was hanged in this fashion isn’t going to make things easier. You know how much the tabloid hacks love a scandal – they’re going to be drooling over this.’
    ‘Shouldn’t we hold a press conference today?’ suggested Lars Norrby. ‘Otherwise we’re going to spend all our time on the phone. And everyone is just going to ask the same questions.’
    ‘It seems a little early for that,’ Knutas objected. ‘Wouldn’t a press release be sufficient for the time being?’
    ‘Hmm, I don’t know. It sounds like this could be a major case. Wouldn’t it be better to take care of everybody at once?’
    ‘OK. Let’s send out a press release right after the meeting, confirming that this is a homicide case, and then we’ll schedule a press conference for this afternoon. How’s that?’
    Norrby nodded.
    ‘And then we’ll put all our efforts into finding out as much as we canabout Wallin and what he did on the days leading up to his death. Who did he meet? What did he do on the day of the murder? Who was the last person to see him alive? This murder didn’t just happen by chance.’
    O n the plane Johan had time to think about Emma. Everything had happened so fast that he hadn’t been able to try ringing her again. Now they’d be seeing each other sooner than planned. In his mind he pictured her as he last saw her, with her dark eyes, pale complexion and sensitive mouth. He thought that she had looked at him in a new way when they parted. As if he meant more to her than previously. For three years they had struggled with their relationship, and yet he had been happier than ever before since Emma had come into his life.
    He leaned against the wall and looked out of the window. The fleecy clouds reminded him of the misty shore where Helena Hillerström had got lost and then met her killer three years earlier. She had been Emma’s best friend, and it was in connection with the murder investigation that they had first met. Johan had interviewed Emma, and then they began an affair. She was married at the time, and the mother of two young children.
How long ago that seems,
he thought. Now Emma had been divorced from Olle for over a year and had given birth to