that?'
'Because he was going out on the town, of course,' said Kihlgard with a grin. 'He was going to make a night of it, now that his wife is out in the country.'
'Unless he had some other purpose in mind,' said Knutas. He tried Mellgren's home phone number. Still no answer. He phoned Susanna Mellgren as well, but she hadn't yet heard from her husband.
'We might as well go and get something to eat,' suggested Kihlgard. 'I'm starving.'
'Can't you ever think about anything but food?' snapped Knutas. 'I'm driving out to Larbro. Are you coming with me, or should I call Wittberg?'
By the time they arrived at the farm, dusk had set in. Lights were on in all the windows, and a car was parked in the yard. The front door of the house wasn't locked, so they went in. The house was well lit but silent. They peeked into all the rooms, and it didn't take them long to realize that no one was there.
They went back out to the yard and saw that the barn door stood open. The only sound was the sporadic clucking of the chickens.
It looked as if the barn hadn't been used in a long time. At the far end a small door was ajar. Light was coming from inside. The three detectives exchanged glances. Surreptitiously they crept closer to the door. The rank smell of urine and ammonia came from what had to be the chicken coop. When they stepped across the threshold, they came face-to-face with a sight that was both unexpected and ghastly.
From a hook in the ceiling above the hens asleep on their perches hung Staffan Mellgren. He was naked, and someone had made a long cut in his abdomen to make the blood run out, but only a small pool had collected on the floor below. Knutas gasped for breath. In his mind he saw a sudden flash of a similar scene. Martina hanging amid the summer greenery. Youth and evil, a sudden death. Here it was red blood against white feathers.
It all had to do with contrasts.
TUESDAY, JULY 27
Everyone was in attendance at the police meeting the following morning. The murmuring faded away as Knutas, looking solemn, sat down at the head of the table. He started by pouring himself a cup of coffee. To his satisfaction he saw that the coffee was nice and black. He gave Kihlgard a grateful look. He was the only one who brewed the coffee as strong as Knutas liked it. Right now he certainly needed it. He hadn't slept much last night.
'As you all know, we have another murder on our hands,' Knutas began. 'Last night, when Karin and Martin and I went out to Mellgren's place to look for him, we found him dead in the chicken coop. There's no question that it's a homicide, and it appears to be the same MO used to kill Martina Flochten. The farm has been cordoned off, and the body will remain there until the ME arrives later today. Fortunately, the rest of the family wasn't home. They're visiting Susanna Mellgren's parents in Ljugarn, and that's where they'll stay for the time being. The Mellgrens have four children, as you know.' He fell silent and turned to Sohlman.
'Without having any specific technical evidence, since none of the tests are ready yet, I still say that all indications are that it's the same perpetrator who murdered Martina,' said Sohlman. 'The similarities speak very clearly. The marks on the body indicate that Mellgren, just like Martina, was killed before he was hanged with the noose, and the cut in the abdomen was done last of all. Then the blood was presumably collected, since very little was found on the floor. The MO has not been made public, so it can't be a copycat crime. Mellgren was also naked when he was found, and his clothes are missing.'
'How was he killed? Was he also drowned?' asked Wittberg.
'It appears so. There was an old bathtub filled with water inside the barn. The water had splashed over the sides, and we found hair and blood in it. Most likely he drowned there when the perpetrator pushed his head underwater.'
'That means that the killer must be very strong,' said Jacobsson. 'Mellgren was not a small man.'
'Unless he was drugged first. We don't know that. Or knocked unconscious, but he has no injuries to indicate as much.'
'How long had he been dead when his body was found?' asked Smittenberg.
'An hour at most. Our colleagues must have been right on the killer's heels.'
'What sort of evidence did you find?'
'Not much. The most interesting traces are footprints that he left after walking around in the blood. The barn has a bare cement floor, so the prints are quite clear. His shoe size is interesting, too. He was wearing wooden clogs, about a size eight.'
No one spoke for several seconds.
'So we might also be talking about a woman?' Jacobsson gave Sohlman a look of surprise.
'Yes. We can't rule it out, at any rate. It's rather unusual for a man to wear such a small shoe, don't you think? I'm only five foot nine, but I wear a size nine shoe.'
'I know a guy who wears a size seven,' said Wittberg.
'What about the wife?' said Kihlgard. 'What do you make of Susanna Mellgren? She's quite a big woman, and muscular. She seems very fit. Maybe she would be capable of doing it.'
'But why go to so much trouble?' countered Jacobsson. 'Why chop off a horse's head and drain out the blood if really all she wanted to do was kill her husband and his lover?'
'It could be a very sophisticated way of misleading us,' suggested Wittberg.
'Maybe she wanted to shift suspicion onto someone who might make use of similar methods,' suggested Kihlgard.
'What do we actually know about the Mellgren family? To be honest, I don't think we've looked into their background very thoroughly,' said Jacobsson. 'Especially not the wife's.'
'No, we didn't consider her especially interesting, and I have a hard time believing that she would be capable of these crimes,' said Knutas. 'If she was the one who put the horse's head there, why would she call in the police when her husband refused to do so?'
Jacobsson shrugged her shoulders. 'To divert suspicion from herself, of course.'
Knutas directed his next question to Agneta Larsvik. 'What do you think about all this?'
'From what I've heard, there's much to indicate that we're dealing with the same perpetrator, but I'd like to see the victim and the crime scene before I draw any conclusions. The fact that he's naked and his clothes are missing also points in that direction. Presumably the perpetrator keeps the clothes to hold on to the feeling that he gets from killing. A sort of fetish. Just like the blood. But there's one other question that's important to focus on here.'
They all gave their full attention to the forensic psychologist.
'I wonder why Staffan Mellgren didn't call the police himself about the horse's head. There must be some reason for this. Could it be that he knew or at least suspected who had put the head there? Maybe he thought that he could resolve the situation himself by talking to the person in question.'
'And just who might that be?' Kihlgard tossed out the question without getting any answer.
Knutas broke the silence.
'Susanna Mellgren has been summoned for questioning. I'm going to meet with her at ten o'clock. I hope that then we'll be able to clear up a thing or two. Of course her alibi for the night of the murder has to be checked also- as well as for the time of Martina Flochten's death.'
'This means that we have to take a fresh look at the incident of the horse's head at Gunnar Ambjornsson's place,' said Kihlgard. 'His life could very well be in danger, too. Should we contact him?'
'At the very least he's going to need protection the minute he gets back home,' said Knutas grimly. 'We need to go out and meet him at the airport.'
He was interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. When he finished the conversation he gave his colleagues a solemn look.
'Martina's cell phone was found under the porch at the Warfsholm hotel. She must have dropped it on the night of the murder. Her calls have been checked. The last one was a message that was received by her voice mail on the night of the murder at 11:35 p.m. Guess who called her.'
