B0031RSBSM EBOK

to do with contrasts.

TUESDAY, JULY 27
    EVERYONE WAS IN attendance at the police meeting the following morning. The murmuring faded away as Knutas, looking solemn, sat down at the head of the table. He started by pouring himself a cup of coffee. To his satisfaction he saw that the coffee was nice and black. He gave Kihlgård a grateful look. He was the only one who brewed the coffee as strong as Knutas liked it. Right now he certainly needed it. He hadn’t slept much last night.
    “As you all know, we have another murder on our hands,” Knutas began. “Last night, when Karin and Martin and I went out to Mellgren’s place to look for him, we found him dead in the chicken coop. There’s no question that it’s a homicide, and it appears to be the same MO used to kill Martina Flochten. The farm has been cordoned off, and the body will remain there until the ME arrives later today. Fortunately, the rest of the family wasn’t home. They’re visiting Susanna Mellgren’s parents in Ljugarn, and that’s where they’ll stay for the time being. The Mellgrens have four children, as you know.” He fell silent and turned to Sohlman.
    “Without having any specific technical evidence, since none of the tests are ready yet, I still say that all indications are that it’s the same perpetrator who murdered Martina,” said Sohlman. “The similarities speak very clearly. The marks on the body indicate that Mellgren, just like Martina, was killed before he was hanged with the noose, and the cut in the abdomen was done last of all. Then the blood was presumably collected, since very little was found on the floor. The MO has not been made public, so it can’t be a copycat crime. Mellgren was also naked when he was found, and his clothes are missing.”
    “How was he killed? Was he also drowned?” asked Wittberg.
    “It appears so. There was an old bathtub filled with water inside the barn. The water had splashed over the sides, and we found hair and blood in it. Most likely he drowned there when the perpetrator pushed his head underwater.”
    “That means that the killer must be very strong,” said Jacobsson. “Mellgren was not a small man.”
    “Unless he was drugged first. We don’t know that. Or knocked unconscious, but he has no injuries to indicate as much.”
    “How long had he been dead when his body was found?” asked Smittenberg.
    “An hour at most. Our colleagues must have been right on the killer’s heels.”
    “What sort of evidence did you find?”
    “Not much. The most interesting traces are footprints that he left after walking around in the blood. The barn has a bare cement floor, so the prints are quite clear. His shoe size is interesting, too. He was wearing wooden clogs, about a size eight.”
    No one spoke for several seconds.
    “So we might also be talking about a woman?” Jacobsson gave Sohlman a look of surprise.
    “Yes. We can’t rule it out, at any rate. It’s rather unusual for a man to wear such a small shoe, don’t you think? I’m only five foot nine, but I wear a size nine shoe.”
    “I know a guy who wears a size seven,” said Wittberg.
    “What about the wife?” said Kihlgård. “What do you make of Susanna Mellgren? She’s quite a big woman, and muscular. She seems very fit. Maybe she would be capable of doing it.”
    “But why go to so much trouble?” countered Jacobsson. “Why chop off a horse’s head and drain out the blood if really all she wanted to do was kill her husband and his lover?”
    “It could be a very sophisticated way of misleading us,” suggested Wittberg.
    “Maybe she wanted to shift suspicion onto someone who might make use of similar methods,” suggested Kihlgård.
    “What do we actually know about the Mellgren family? To be honest, I don’t think we’ve looked into their background very thoroughly,” said Jacobsson. “Especially not the wife’s.”
    “No, we didn’t consider her especially interesting, and I have a hard time believing that she would be capable of these crimes,” said Knutas. “If she was the one who put the horse’s head there, why would she call in the police when her husband refused to do so?”
    Jacobsson shrugged her shoulders. “To divert suspicion from herself, of course.”
    Knutas directed his next question to Agneta Larsvik. “What do you think about all this?”
    “From what I’ve heard, there’s much to indicate that we’re dealing with the same perpetrator, but I’d like to see the victim