Page 18 of Hidden in Memories
As soon as Hanna sees the half-naked body and the blood-soaked sheets, she knows that the image will stay in her mind for a very long time.
Charlotte Wretlind looks like a rag doll. Her entire body is covered in knife wounds; someone had stabbed her over and over again, as if unable to stop themselves. Her face looks like a mask made of wax. The dead eyes stare into nothingness, her hair is messy, the ends dark with dried blood.
“Jesus,” Daniel says quietly by her side.
“It’s not a pretty sight,” Carina agrees.
Hanna instinctively clamps her lips tightly shut. The smell in the room is overwhelming, a mixture of blood and other unpleasant odors that are excreted by dead bodies. She is grateful that the mask covering the lower part of her face keeps out the worst of it, but she can still feel her stomach muscles contract as a wave of nausea wells up.
The violence of men against women,she thinks automatically, even though they have no evidence that the killer is male. But Hanna saw so many abused women during her time with the City Police in Stockholm, and she cannot avoid the immediate association.
It is also hard to imagine a woman losing control and stabbing another person to death like this. Such extreme violence is virtually unknown among female perpetrators.
Men are killed by men, and women are also killed by men.
The statistics tell a clear story.
In addition, the victim isn’t particularly short. Hanna guesses that she is perhaps five eight. She also looks pretty fit, judging by the muscles in her upper arms.
This also suggests a male attacker; it must have taken a certain amount of strength to overpower her.
“Any idea of the course of events?” Daniel asks Carina as he takes a step back, presumably to avoid the stench.
“Bearing in mind what she’s wearing and the location, I would assume that she had gone to bed before the attack. That should give us some kind of timeline. There’s also a phone and laptop in the living room, so you can see when they were last used.”
Hanna nods. It’s good to know that they won’t have to search for the victim’s phone and laptop.
“Cause of death?”
The question is superfluous, but Hanna asks it anyway.
“Loss of blood due to multiple stab wounds,” Carina replies in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.
She points to the gaping wound in Charlotte’s throat. The skin has peeled back, revealing both muscles and sinews.
“That alone must have been enough to end her life. Obviously the forensic pathologist will examine her in detail, but I would assume that she died pretty quickly when her windpipe was severed with such brutality.”
In spite of the smell, Hanna leans forward to look at the victim’s palms. They are smooth and white, with no visible signs of damage.
“I can’t see any defensive injuries,” she says. “Could she have been asleep when she was attacked?”
“If she was lucky,” Carina replies. “Although the bedside lamp ended up on the floor, which might indicate some form of struggle.”
“Or maybe the perpetrator knocked it over,” Daniel says.
“Possibly. Or perhaps the victim woke up when the attacker came into the room and fumbled for the switch, but knocked the lamp onto the floor instead.”
Hanna notices that Charlotte is lying on her back, wearing only a pair of lacy panties. She looks for a nightdress or T-shirt that may have been torn off, but finds nothing.
The blood-soaked panties haven’t been pulled down.
“Is there anything to indicate a sexual assault?” she wonders.
Carina grimaces. “Nothing that’s visible to the naked eye—you’ll need to take that up with the pathologist.”
Daniel nods. “Have you found any trace of the perpetrator? Or is that too much to ask?”
“We’ve gathered material as usual. It’s too early to say where it comes from.”
