“There’s one niggling detail about Linda,” Irene said. “She asked her partner to move out, since she no longer loved him. Was she in love with someone else, even though she denied it? Perhaps we should look into this separation some more. Of course, this doesn’t explain where Marianne comes into the picture, not to mention the murder of Gunnela Hagg.”
“It’s all about the hospital.” Hannu’s calm voice.
Irene was startled. She’d also had that feeling many times. “I agree. We keep circling around Lowander Hospital and what happened a long time ago—”
The superintendent groaned. “Please don’t bring up that damned ghost.”
“No, not the ghost. We’re searching not for a phantom but a killer. But there’s something connected to the story of Nurse Tekla. Remember, the killer hung Linda’s body in the same place where the nurse hanged herself fifty years ago. That must mean something.”
“Such as?”
“No idea. We have to keep looking into the stories surrounding the hospital. Maybe the dead can lead us to the killer.”
“Have you lost your mind? We can’t keep digging into old shit when we’re up to our knees in what’s going on right now,” Jonny exclaimed.
Andersson quietly looked from one of his inspectors to the next. The superintendent was inclined to agree with Jonny, but he also felt there might be something to Irene’s point of view. Resolutely, he proclaimed, “Hannu, Irene, and Tommy, you dig around the hospital history. Fredrik, Jonny, and Birg—I mean, and myself will keep talking to the living.”
“SO HOW SHOULD we go about this?” asked Hannu.
The members of Irene’s group, which Jonny had already nicknamed the “Ghostbusters,” were sitting in Irene and Tommy’s office.
“I’ll track down Sverker Lowander’s first wife, Barbro. She knew Sverker’s parents and certainly knows some of the hospital stories. And I’d like to hear more about her accusations against Carina regarding the fire at the doctor’s mansion,” Irene said.
Tommy nodded agreement. “I’ll try to speak to Siv Persson again. I want to track down any of Tekla’s relatives, if any are still alive. And I want to know exactly where in the attic she was supposed to have killed herself. Did Linda’s murderer hang her in the exact same spot? And then the obvious follow-up question: Why?”
“How could the murderer know the exact place?” Hannu said.
Irene felt absolutely sure they must follow this trail. Everything was tied up in the history of the hospital. The ghost disguise was a smart move, but it might be the murderer’s downfall. Knowing the exact spot where Tekla had died made for a limited field of suspects.
“I’ll follow up the patients at Lowander Hospital during the summers of ’83 and ’84,” Hannu said.
Irene nodded and tried to hide a yawn. It had been a long day, and tomorrow hardly promised to be a shorter one.
She’d have to remember to call her hairdresser for another appointment.
BARBRO LOWANDER WAS now a medical secretary at Sahlgren Hospital. Irene had called her first thing in the morning. Barbro did not want to speak to a police officer and wanted nothing to do with Lowander Hospital. Irene pressed her case, using a thinly veiled threat of interrogation in the police station, and Barbro gave in. They agreed to meet at 11:00 A.M. at the main entrance of Sahlgren Hospital.
This worked for Irene. She’d be able to attend Andersson’s morning prayer and catch up on some of her paperwork, not to mention calling her hairdresser for a new appointment.
“LET’S START WITH Gunnela Hagg. Was anyone at the autopsy?”
No one in the room had gone.
Andersson rustled two faxes and put on his reading glasses. He cleared his throat. “Gunnela Hagg. Born January nineteenth, 1950. According to the police report, found dead in a culvert underneath a bridge. Near the body a pair of large wire cutters was found, with traces of blood and hair. Massive fractures of the skull. Skull shattered near its base with a great deal of bleeding in the brain. Autopsy shows she died from that blow. The combined picture indicates a homicide. A complete toxicological examination will take place. Samples have been taken for forensic examination.’ ”
The superintendent finished reading and looked up over the top of his glasses, the cheap square kind that can be bought at any drugstore or gas station. He slowly folded them and took up the thread again. “I managed to reach Professor Stridner this morning before you arrived. She tells me that the murderer is right-handed and strong. Her theory is that the killer hit Gunnela Hagg with the side of the wire cutters many times, using much more force than necessary to kill the little old lady.”
The “little old lady” was thirteen years younger than the superintendent. Irene would refrain from commenting on that.
“The murderer felt threatened,” Jonny said.
“He knew that she’d seen him,” added Hannu.
“The newspaper article led to her death,” Tommy said.
Irene put in, “He knew that Gunnela saw him do something incriminating. Perhaps that he rode away on Linda’s bicycle and dumped it in the culvert?”
“Yep. That’s what I think. I also believe that the murderer took off the uniform under the cover of the bridge. Then he walked up onto the road and headed away. Maybe even in a car,” Tommy said.
“That sounds entirely possible.” Irene nodded.
“Can you park a car somewhere near the drive?” asked the superintendent.
“No, not at the actual drive,” Irene conceded. “But it hit me that there was a fantastic parking spot very close to the murder scene. In fact, barely thirty meters away.”
“Where?”
“Behind the grove of fir trees. Visitors’ parking.”
The others pondered and began to nod. Encouraged, Irene continued. “It’s the perfect place for the murderer to park. As he sneaked toward the hospital, Gunnela watched him from the lilac arbor. She knew the ghost story and of course believed that she’d seen a phantom.”
Irene looked around. It seemed to her that they were following her reasoning. “The most important thing is that Gunnela kept standing there. She saw Linda arrive at the hospital. She saw that the killer, dressed as a nurse, later came out, took the bicycle, and rode away. On the tape she says, ‘She took the bike. God punishes theft!’ ”
“How can we know that it wasn’t Linda coming back to get her own bike?”
Andersson started to say something and in his excitement hit his palm on the table. His paper cup of coffee overturned, and the coffee spread over the faxes. To save them he quickly wiped them with his sleeve. Irene sighed and went to get some paper towels from the bathroom. As she returned, she noticed Birgitta in the other end of the hallway. It appeared she didn’t see Irene—she definitely didn’t wave back.
As Irene reentered the room, she heard Andersson’s excited voice.
“Jonny and Fredrik, head back to the apartment building near the hospital. See if anyone noticed a strange car in the visitors’ parking lot around midnight on the night of the murder. If only we can get a make or model, perhaps this devil’s luck will finally run out.”
Andersson’s breathing was audible. Irene felt her usual worry over her boss’s blood pressure. But since he was touchy about that, she kept silent.
The superintendent lifted the second page of the fax and waved it in the air to dry it. He said, “Did anyone
