Page 70 of Hidden in Memories
Ogge is going to leave her.
Thursday, April 1 Maundy Thursday
56
Finding the murder weapon is a breakthrough,Daniel thinks as he sits in the conference room listening to Anton’s summary of the suspicions surrounding Bengt Hedin.
He tries to console himself with that thought, even though he is feeling inadequate both at work and at home. After all those memories that rose to the surface last night, he is still very low.
It is eight fifteen, and they have gathered for the morning briefing with their colleagues in Östersund. Daniel has just finished his second cup of black coffee from the machine. It took him a long time to doze off after feeding Alice. Maybe the lack of sleep is still affecting him, but for some reason the images of Charlotte Wretlind’s mutilated body are even harder to look at.
Daniel and Hanna have already gone over the events of the previous day for the benefit of everyone else, explaining how they found the knife in the forest thanks to Molly and Jarmo. It has been sent off for forensic analysis; Carina and her team have visited the location and examined the scooter tracks and footprints.
He glances out of the window. The sun is shining once more after last night’s snowfall. It is Maundy Thursday, which means that Åre is packed with tourists who have come up to celebrate Easter.
What will happen as far as his own celebrations are concerned is unclear.
His mother-in-law, Elisabeth, has invited them for dinner in Järpen on Saturday. He daren’t think about Ida’s reaction if he can’t go because of the case. He’s already warned her that he is going to have to work all day on Good Friday.
Although for once she didn’t seem annoyed. Actually she was very quiet yesterday evening when he got home. She went to bed early, said she was tired.
Hanna nudges him in the side—she can see that his attention is wandering. He gives her an apologetic look; he didn’t mean to let his thoughts drift, or to get caught. She gives him a tiny smile and nods toward the screen, where Grip’s serious face can be seen in close-up.
“We’ve started to go through Charlotte Wretlind’s financial links to Bengt Hedin,” Raffe begins, reporting on the situation. “We really need permission to look into his other finances and his cell phone traffic, if the prosecutor will go along with that?”
The question is directed to Grip, who nods. “I’ll see what I can do when we’re done here.”
The prosecutor, who makes the formal decision, has been delayed and is not in the meeting.
Today Grip is wearing a black jacket. This usually means there is going to be a press conference; otherwise she prefers knitted sweaters. Daniel is relieved that he doesn’t have to get involved in that kind of thing anymore. After his first and only appearance on the podium, when eighteen-year-old Amanda went missing after a Lucia party, he and Grip have agreed that his talents lie elsewhere.
He is hoping that his boss won’t find out about the encounter with the TV reporter at Copperhill on Monday.
Anton takes over.
“It’s looking like Hedin should be investigated for bribery and corruption. And he could well be mixed up in Charlotte’s murder.”
Daniel notices Hanna and Anton exchange a brief glance. They have both raised the possibility that there could be more than one person behind the attack on Charlotte—that the perpetrator could be a hired killer who carried out the murder for payment.
It wouldn’t be the first time. Daniel is familiar with this kind of scenario from his time in Gothenburg, where he worked on gang crime. Here in Åre it feels like more of a long shot, but the text message exchange Anton showed them is worrying. There also seem to be links between council employees and the Facebook group Preserve Storlien.
However, they need more evidence to establish a connection between Hedin and whoever killed Charlotte, if that is the case.
“How far have you got with the background checks on hotel employees?” Grip asks, turning to Nisse Sundbom.
He scratches the back of his neck as if he needs to think. He and Grip are roughly the same age; they have both turned sixty. The big difference is that Grip still has drive, while Nisse prefers to take things easy.
Daniel knows that Hanna isn’t impressed with their gray-haired colleague, who rarely makes more of an effort than he absolutely has to.
He wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in Stockholm!she snapped the last time Nisse infuriated her.
“We are working our way through the entire staff, but we’re talking about a hundred and twenty people,” he whines. “It takes time—you have to accept that.”
Hanna can’t keep quiet. “We already said the other day that we’re probably looking for a male attacker. It’s unlikely that a woman would have the physical strength required to cause those injuries.”
“Like I said,” Nisse continues, taking no notice whatsoever. “All these checks are very time consuming. So far we haven’t found anything out of the ordinary—speeding fines, late tax returns, and so on. Several employees have moved here from other countries, so searching Swedish records is no help at all. If we’re going to get any further, we’ll need to contact our colleagues overseas.”
Hanna isn’t giving up. “How about abuse? There might be someone who has a conviction for violence. From a purely statistical point of view, between three and four percent of the adult population are exposed to violence every year. Which means the same is true when it comes to perpetrators. If there are fifty male employees, then there should be two or three with evidence of violent tendencies. Start with them.”
