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financially speaking. She’s in the process of studying to be a massage therapist and wants to start her own business. I’m guessing that she’s probably planning to divorce him as soon as she can stand on her own feet.”
    Knutas frowned. “We’re going to have to talk to Mellgren about this again, since he said their marriage was so great,” he muttered, making a note on a piece of paper.
    Knutas then asked Larsvik to give them a report on how she viewed the perpetrator. She went to stand at the head of the table.
    “First and foremost, I want to emphasize that these are preliminary thoughts; nothing can be confirmed for sure at such an early stage. Take what I say as a screening instrument, a working hypothesis, nothing more. Yet there is much to indicate that we’re dealing with a perpetrator who is seriously mentally disturbed. He probably carried out these acts alone, which indicates that he possesses great physical strength. The perpetrator most likely had no personal relationship with Martina Flochten. I don’t think that they even knew each other. The crime doesn’t seem to have been directed at her. On the other hand, I think the way it was carried out indicates that he harbors a hatred toward other people and a contempt for women in particular. There is some sort of symbolism in this, although it’s hard to say what it might mean after only one homicide. I think he wanted to humiliate his victim and inject as much powerlessness into the situation as possible. By doing that, he becomes the one with power, and that’s something he enjoys. It’s possible to imagine that as a child he was abused or in some other way mistreated by one or both of his parents. Now he wants revenge by placing his victim in the same position of powerlessness that he experienced as a child. It wouldn’t surprise me if he has a complicated relationship with his mother.”
    “How the hell do we go looking for a bad mother-son relationship?” Kihlgård threw out his hands, almost knocking over Jacobsson’s plastic coffee cup.
    Agneta Larsvik smiled. “It might be a good thing to keep in the back of your mind during the interviews, for instance. In case anyone expresses scorn for women or has cut ties with his parents, especially his mother.”
    “You say that he wanted to put the victim in a position of powerlessness,” said Jacobsson, “but why would he keep tormenting her after she was dead? At that point she would no longer be able to feel her powerlessness.”
    “Keep in mind that the important thing is the feelings of the murderer—it’s not a matter of logical or rational thought processes. He’s so engrossed in his own emotional state of possessing power, and he’s enjoying it so much, that he can’t think along logical lines. He reduces his victim to a thing, an object, something that helps him to enter into the state that he’s trying to achieve. It’s a way for him to ease his own anxiety, at least for the moment.”
    “Then what do you think about the ritualistic element—the fact that the murder was carried out like some sort of ceremony?” asked Wittberg.
    “The one doesn’t have to exclude the other. He could be a fanatic who devotes himself to some type of ritual voodoo arts as well.”
    “What does it mean that she was naked?” asked Knutas.
    “Nudity makes us think that the murder has a sexual connotation, of course. Curiosity, perhaps. It might mean that he’s sexually inexperienced. We might also ask ourselves what he did with her clothes, and whether there could be some type of fetishism involved.”
    “The same thing with the blood. What the hell does he want with the blood?”
    “For him, collecting the spilled blood might be a way to hold on to the positive feelings the murder has given him . In the same way that a serial killer usually takes with him something belonging to the victim. A lock of hair, a piece of clothing, anything at all.”
    “A serial killer?” Jacobsson looked shocked.
    “Yes, exactly.” Larsvik had a serious expression on her face. “Of course it’s important not to get locked into one idea, but I think we need to consider the possibility that this murderer may strike again.”

SUNDAY, JULY 11
    THE ANTIQUITIES ROOM , which was the historical section of the Gotland Regional Museum on Strandgatan in Visby, was deserted on this Sunday morning. The entrance hall seemed chilly in contrast to the heat outside on the street, and there wasn’t a sound.