The Shadow Woman

like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“She seems poor. Cheap no-name clothes. Stuff like that. Or else that’s not the case at all.”

“What does Beier say?”

“He hasn’t said anything yet.”

“I have someone who’s got a bit more to say.”

Winter thought about the silhouette in the parking lot. He had spoken briefly to the man before handing over the rest of the questioning to Ringmar and joining the funeral procession to the hospital. “Yeah. So, what’s he say?”

“He owns one of the cars in the parking lot.”

“What was he doing there at four in the morning? Could he explain that?”

“He claims that he’d been to a party down in Helenevik and might have had one beer too many, and that he didn’t dare drive farther into town, so he decided to pull into the parking lot at Delsjo Lake and sleep it off in the car.”

“That’s one hell of a tall tale. He tried to pull that one on me too, or parts of it anyway.”

“He claims it’s true.”

“Did you give him a Breathalyzer?”

“As soon as we could. But he wasn’t unfit to drive. He had been drinking but not enough.”

“Okay, okay. So, what’s he saying? What did he see?”

“After being in the car for a while, he had to go take a pee and wandered off a ways from the parking lot, and that’s when he saw her.”

“What did he say?”

“Before he had a chance to pee, he saw something lying a bit farther on, in the ditch, so he went over and found the body. He had his cell phone in his breast pocket and called us straightaway.”

“We’d better check up on that call.”

“Of course.”

“What time was it?”

“When he called? Quarter to four, give or take. Dispatch has the exact time.”

“So, what did he see? Anything else?”

“Nothing, he says. Nobody coming or going.”

“Find anything on the other cars?”

“We’re working on it.”

“Morning prayer has been pushed back half an hour.”

“You want everyone there?”

“Without exception.”

Back in the autopsy room, the woman on the steel slab remained a dead body with no name. Usually when somebody was murdered, there was at least a name that could be laid to rest and, the terrible ordeal over, be handed back to the family.

“Decent teeth,” Froberg said. “Some discoloration but in good condition.”

“That’ll only help us if she’s been reported missing,” Winter said. “I want the autopsy report just as soon as you can get it to me. Thanks.”

“As always.”

“You’re doing a good job, Pia.”

“That kind of talk makes me suspicious.”

Winter said nothing more. He walked toward the door. The dry air had made him feel thirsty and tired.

“What are you doing tonight, Erik?” Froberg asked when he was halfway out the swinging door.

He stopped and looked at her. She was clearing off the autopsy table.

“I thought you were remarried or whatever you call it.”

“It didn’t work out. Again.”

“I don’t think it’s a-”

“No. You’re absolutely right. And the main reason I asked was to tell you not to push yourself too hard right at the start of the case.”

“Tonight I’m going to sleep with Angela and maybe talk about the future.” He was answering a question that was no longer being asked. “And think about this one lying over here.”

“One last thing, just to give you something more to think about. This woman has given birth.”

“She’s got a child?” Winter repeated.

“I don’t know if she does now, but she has had at least one child, maybe more.”

“How long ago?”

“I can’t say, at least not yet. But she shows signs of-”

“You don’t have to give me all the details,” Winter said, “not right now anyway.” He felt a shiver spread across his head.

There could be some family out there. It could help in the investigation, or be a source of frustration, or maybe something worse.

7

THE WATCH COMMANDER WAS FANNING HIMSELF WITH A double-folded form, possibly “Lines of Inquiry in Felony Cases.”

The corridor smelled of sweat and sun, and the waiting room off to the right smelled of stale booze. Some joker had hung a poster of a beach with a palm tree next to a recruitment ad for the homicide department. Winter stepped into the elevator and rode up to his office on the third floor.

He had perked up again on the drive down from Ostra Hospital. Adrenaline was pumping through his body while sweat ran down his back. This was no ordinary murder investigation. He knew that much without knowing it. He felt the tension in his body. A tension that might not leave him for months.

He poured himself a mug in the coffee room and lingered there for a few seconds, gazing at the morning outside. The thermometer in the window showed eighty degrees, and it was only twenty past eight in the morning, but Winter knew that for him the swimming season was over.

The situation room filled up with people. The ones who’d been at it since the start looked tired; the others waited impatiently, their bottoms literally on the edges of their seats. On the whiteboard Ringmar had written, “Visualization relating to the murder.”

Well, here we are again, after the summer’s rest, Winter thought to himself.

He drew an X on the board.

“We’ve got an unidentified woman, approximately thirty years of age, probably strangled, discovered between three thirty and quarter to four this morning by a man whom we’re going to question further over the course of the day. For the moment, this man is not a suspect, but as you’re all aware, you never know.”

Winter fell silent and stared at his X, then began sketching out a rough map as he spoke. “She was found here.” He drew a circle at the spot where the body was dumped. “We’ll take a closer look at the map later, but I just want to mark out the relative positions. If you continue underneath the highway on Old Borasvagen, you come to a junction that leads toward Helenevik and Gunnebo, but we’ll wait on that. So here’s where she was found,” he repeated, and pointed at his circle.

“That’s where the lodge is,” Halders said.

“That’s right. As most of you know, the police department’s recreation lodge is located a bit farther down the road.”

“That’s where I had my fortieth birthday party,” Halders said. “Wasn’t there something going on there