The site was relatively protected. The girl was fully dressed in dark riding pants, a short quilted jacket that was unbuttoned, and a brown woolen sweater that was torn at the neck. Her face was dark against the snow. Her beautiful long hair, which was spread out on the ground, seemed strangely alive. Her eyes were wide open, staring up at the sky. When Knutas took a closer look, he noticed that there were red specks in the whites of her eyes. Dark bruises covered her throat.
Her body had been found by a woman who was out riding. She had fallen off her horse when it was startled by a fox. The horse had wandered off and led her to the clearing. The woman had hurt her back in the fall, and she was also in such a state of shock that she had been taken to the hospital in Visby.
On their way back to the city, Knutas’s cell phone started ringing. The third call was from Johan.
“What happened?” said the familiar voice on the phone.
“Fanny Jansson has been found dead,” said Knutas wearily.
Jacobsson was driving the car so he could devote all his attention to answering the journalist’s questions.
“Where?”
“In a wooded area out on Lojsta Heath.”
“When?”
“At eight thirty this morning.”
“Who found her?”
“A woman who was out horseback riding.”
“Was she murdered?”
“All indications are that she was, yes.”
“How?”
“I can’t go into that right now.”
“How long has she been there?”
“That’s something the ME will have to determine. I can’t answer any more questions. We’re going to hold a press conference later today.”
“When?”
“Sometime this afternoon. You’ll have time to get here.”
Johan and Peter landed right after lunchtime at Visby airport. The cab ride into town didn’t take long.
Police headquarters in Visby had changed radically since they were last there. The ice blue metallic facade had been replaced with a soft beige stucco. The rooms were now bright and airy, and they had been decorated in a typically Nordic style that was very tranquil, with natural materials and muted shades of white and blue.
The old and rather shabby room in which they had previously held press conferences was nothing but a memory. The journalists were now shown into a spacious room on the ground floor with rows of stainless steel chairs facing a podium. Thin curtains hung in front of the windows that faced the drab wall of another building. The press had already started setting up their microphones at the podium. Johan counted four reporters from competing TV networks.
He was grateful that he had been entrusted with the task of reporting for all the news programs on Swedish TV. There hadn’t even been any discussion about it. After Johan’s highly praised reporting on the homicides last summer, the national editors had no doubts: Johan Berg was the man for the job. He was pleased that his report would be aired on all the news programs that evening. He felt a great satisfaction knowing that he would be reaching so many viewers and have such an impact.
He took a seat in the front row while Peter set up his camera. His colleagues from the local media greeted him. He recognized some of them from press conferences that summer.
A moment later Anders Knutas, Karin Jacobsson, Martin Kihlgard, and Lars Norrby all took seats on the podium.
“Welcome,” Knutas began. “For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Detective Superintendent Anders Knutas, and I’m in charge of this investigation.”
He introduced the others and then went on.
“As you already know, the body of Fanny Jansson was found in a remote wooded area on Lojsta Heath. Her body was found around eight thirty this morning by an individual who was out horseback riding. Fanny Jansson was murdered. The injuries that she sustained could not have been self-inflicted, so there is no question of suicide, as we had previously speculated.”
“What were her injuries?” asked Johan.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss that,” replied Knutas curtly.
He sighed a bit. In spite of the fact that he had barely started on what he had intended to say, the questions had already begun. A number of hands were waving in the air. He had a hard time dealing with the eternal impatience of journalists.
“We’ll answer your questions in a moment,” he said, “but first I want to present some of the facts.”
He had no intention of allowing them to run the show. The reporters lowered their hands.
“The body had been lying at the site for some time. We don’t yet know how long. Fanny Jansson was fully dressed when she was found, and there are no signs of sexual assault. The crime scene has been cordoned off, and the area is being searched by our technicians. An ME will be here tomorrow to examine the body. The area will be kept under guard until the body can be moved and the technical investigation has been completed. That is all I have to say at the moment. Do any of you want to add anything?”
He gave his colleagues an inquiring look, but they shook their heads.
“Then we’ll take questions.”
“How long has the body been there?”
“It could be a matter of weeks, meaning the entire time that Fanny has been missing. But we’re not at all sure about that. We’ll have to wait for the ME’s report.”
“Was any sort of weapon found?”
“I have no comment.”
“Can you say anything about how she was killed?”
“No, I can’t.”
“Did the perpetrator leave any clues?”
“I can’t divulge that, out of consideration for the ongoing investigation.”
“Does Fanny Jansson have any connection to the place where she was found?” asked Johan.
“Not as far as we know.”
“Was she murdered at the site, or was she moved there?”
“We have reason to believe that she was killed somewhere else and that her body was later moved to the wooded area.”
“What makes you think that?”
“As I said earlier, I can’t divulge anything about any evidence or other information found at the crime scene,” said Knutas with forced composure.
“Who found the body?”
“A local woman. I don’t want to give her name.”
“Are there any witnesses?”
“It’s possible. We haven’t yet started interviewing anyone who lives in the area. But we’re going to appeal to the public for information. We want to talk to anyone who may have seen or heard anything suspicious, especially during the last few weeks, in connection with the place where the body was found. No information will be considered too insignificant. Everything is of interest.”
Knutas gave them the number for the police hotline and the press conference was over.
That evening Johan presented live reports on all the news broadcasts, giving the television viewers the latest update. He and Peter had a late supper at their hotel and then went to bed.
Again Emma didn’t answer her phone when Johan tried to call her. It had now been more than a week since they had last talked to each other. Her friend Viveka had explained to him that Emma was ill and wanted to be left alone. He would just have to wait until she decided to call.
The ME was expected on Gotland the following day, but that evening Sohlman was able to present to the investigative team a preliminary report along with some visual images.
