Mons Kallentoft - Autumn Killing

The solicitor and the art expert.

They were in quite a state when Malin, Sven and Zeke arrived an hour or so ago, but they had had the sense not to go too far inside the chapel, before pulling back cautiously from the immediate vicinity.

The reason why they were there was obvious. And they hadn’t seen or heard anything.

No reason to detain them.

Karin Johannison and her two male colleagues from the National Forensics Lab are searching the scene, looking for fingerprints, picking up things invisible to the naked eye and putting them in plastic bags.

Karin, on the subject of Fredrik Fagelsjo once his body had been put inside its black plastic bag: ‘He appears to have died from a blow to the head. The wound looks like it could have been inflicted by a hammer. It struck him cleanly, so it isn’t possible to say if the perpetrator is right- or left-handed. No other obvious signs on the body, no violence against the genitals as far as I could see from a quick look.’

‘Was he murdered here or moved here?’ Malin asked.

‘In all likelihood he was moved here. There are definite signs of blood by the entrance. Even if his clothes are missing, I think he was undressed here. The fibres we’ve just found on the floor look like the ones I found on the body when I first checked it.’

‘So murdered somewhere else, but undressed here?’

‘Probably, yes.’

‘What about why he was brought here to the chapel, to this grave?’

‘Memorial stone.’

‘Same thing. What do you think about that?’

‘That’s not my area, Malin. I don’t think anything.’

‘And the way he was killed?’

‘It must have been a very hard blow.’

‘In anger?’

‘Maybe. But the murderer didn’t lose control, because then you’d expect more than one blow.’

And now Karin Johannison makes a sign to her colleagues.

The two men carry Fredrik Fagelsjo’s body out of the chapel.

What are you trying to say? Malin thinks as they pass her.

What do you want to tell us?

The family vault in front of her.

Fredrik Fagelsjo gambling away the fortune, the family estate. Is this your father Axel and your sister Katarina getting revenge? But why would they do it now, when the family has just inherited a lot of money and in all likelihood will be able to buy back the estate from Jerry Petersson’s father? Or was it the family that got rid of Petersson and now had to get rid of Fredrik because for some reason he can’t keep quiet or knows too much?

Or is this something else entirely? Does Fredrik have any connection to Goldman? It feels like a hell of a long shot. Or did Fredrik play a bigger part in the tragedy of that New Year’s Eve, did he do more than just arrange the party? Or has Fredrik been murdered because he murdered Jerry Petersson?

Why is all this happening now? If Jochen Goldman is somehow behind it all, it may simply be because he hadn’t got around to it before now. Who knows how much someone like that might have to tidy up from his past? Maybe he’s sent a lot of people to the bottom? Sent a lot of photographs?

Unless these murders aren’t connected at all? What enemies did Fredrik have? The tenant farmers?

Jerry, Fredrik. Did anyone have a reason to hate both of you?

The icons on the walls seem to glow, as if encouraging her to carry on.

In spite of the cold and rain, in spite of all the crap, Malin feels her brain starting to work again, trying to make sense of the possibilities presented by a double murder.

Her detective’s soul kicks in again.

There are no doubts, no grief any more. Just focusing on a mystery that needs to be solved.

‘Shall we go inside the house and run through what we’ve got?’

Sven’s voice doesn’t sound tired, but expectant, as if his police officer’s soul has come to life.

‘Good idea,’ Zeke says, turning away from the scene of violent death.

Malin, Zeke and Sven are standing in the castle kitchen going through the options, everything that Malin thought out in the chapel, and a few more possibilities besides.

‘Different methods,’ Sven says. ‘But I still think we’re dealing with the same murderer.’

Malin nods.

‘There are too many connections between the murders. The location, the victims’ histories. I’d be astonished if it weren’t the same perpetrator.’

‘Maybe the first murder was committed out of rage, and the second planned?’ Zeke ponders.

‘Unless Fredrik committed the first murder and was himself murdered in revenge,’ Sven says. ‘We simply don’t know. But the chances are that we’re dealing with one and the same murderer.’

‘And we can write off the parents of the kids in the car crash,’ Malin says. ‘They had no reason to want Fredrik dead. If they wanted to kill him for organising the party, they’d have done so long ago.’

They mention Jochen Goldman, agree that the connection is a long shot, but that they can’t dismiss the possibility entirely.

The three detectives are silent for a while, considering all the possible scenarios, sensing how elusive and multifaceted the truth is.

‘You two go and tell Axel Fagelsjo,’ Sven goes on. ‘Johan and Waldemar can inform Katarina.’

‘And question them. We’ll handle the old man,’ Zeke says. ‘After all, they could well have had something to do with this.’

‘True enough,’ Sven says. ‘They might have wanted Fredrik out of the way because of his business dealings, or they could be guilty of Petersson’s death and he was on the point of cracking and talking.’

Malin shakes her head sceptically, but says nothing.

‘And we’ll have to take a closer look at Fredrik’s life. His dealings with the bank,’ Sven says. ‘Maybe he didn’t only lose his own family’s money? He could have enemies. More work for Johan, Waldemar and Lovisa in Hades.’

‘What a bloody mess,’ Zeke says. ‘How the hell are we going to get anywhere with all this?’

‘They can check all the business stuff in Hades. A bad deal seldom occurs in isolation,’ Sven says, then he gives Malin a sympathetic look that annoys her and makes her want to say: ‘Stop worrying so fucking much. I’ll be fine,’ then she thinks: What if I’m not, what if I can’t hold on? What happens then? And then the indistinct concept of rehab pops into her head like a small firework.

‘And we’ll have to talk to Fredrik’s wife,’ Zeke says. ‘She hasn’t reported him missing.’

‘You do that,’ Sven says. ‘He might have told her he was going somewhere. Any other thoughts?’ Sven goes on. ‘The car crash?’

‘Dubious. But we have to ask ourselves why he was laid on the family vault naked,’ Malin says. ‘Almost like a sacrifice.’

‘Do you think the murderer’s trying to tell us something?’

‘I really don’t know. Maybe he or she is trying to make us believe that there’s something to tell. Get us to look in a particular direction. Possibly towards the Fagelsjo family themselves. It’s all been in the papers, after all.’

‘You mean it could be someone in the family who wants to be discovered?’

Zeke, questioning, beside her.

‘More the opposite,’ Malin says.

‘How do you mean?’

‘I don’t know,’ Malin says. ‘It just feels like there’s something here that doesn’t make sense.’

‘You’re right about something not making sense. Well, we’ll have Karin’s report tomorrow, and we’ll take it from there,’ Sven says. ‘And we need to map out Fredrik’s last twenty-four hours. We haven’t exactly got very far with Petersson. Unless there really isn’t anything to fill in that we don’t already know about, apart from his encounter with the murderer.’