Chapter 41
The cold makes Daniel draw his jacket more tightly around his body as he leaves the Carlsson house. The ?re valley is enveloped in a gray fog; ?reskutan is barely visible.
“What was your impression of the Carlssons?” he asks Hanna as soon as the front door closes behind them.
He is thinking in particular about the way ?ke did his best to play down his visit to the neighboring house.
When the five friends were interviewed yesterday, several of them said that he had been extremely unpleasant.
Olivia even claimed that he had pushed Filippa so hard that she fell over.
He had chosen not to mention that to the police.
“?ke comes across as a bad-tempered old bastard,” Hanna replies. “If you’ll excuse my language. I actually felt kind of sorry for his wife.” She smiles without a trace of regret, but immediately becomes serious again. “But what Karin had to say was very interesting.”
Daniel can only agree. Karin could be an important eyewitness.
“If it’s true,” Hanna goes on, “and providing Filippa’s death wasn’t due to natural causes, then Karin’s information suggests that the perpetrator deliberately carried Filippa’s body outside and placed it in the spot where she was found.
” She shivers and pushes her hands deep in her pockets. “Jesus, it’s cold today.”
In the background they can hear the sound of the snowplow on Sadelv?gen, the road that snakes its way through the area.
When Daniel checked the weather forecast earlier, it didn’t look good.
Gales are on the way, blowing in across Western J?mtland, even though it is misty and there isn’t a breath of wind at the moment.
He looks at his watch, nine thirty; the house search is due to start shortly, although there are no police cars outside the Lowengren house. No sign of any activity—maybe no one is up yet.
In which case it’s probably best to wake them—it seems more humane than leaving them lying in bed when their colleagues are about to go through the whole place.
“Shall we go over and have a chat with the group? Speak to Emil about the assault conviction before Carina and her team get started?”
“I was just about to suggest the same thing,” Hanna says. “Since we’re here anyway.”
She sets off toward the house. It is so close it’s almost attached to the Carlssons’ garage.
“At least Karin’s statement gives us an idea of the time,” Daniel says. “She thought it was around two, two thirty when she got up to fetch a glass of water.”
“We ought to speak to the son too,” Hanna says. “He might have seen something, even though his parents say he was asleep all night.”
They have Peter Carlsson’s contact details; he had already left to go skiing when they arrived.
“I can do that this afternoon,” Daniel offers. He is about to knock on the Lowengrens’ door.
“Do you think the father could have been involved in Filippa’s death?” Hanna suddenly asks. “?ke Carlsson?”
Daniel freezes with his hand in midair. Hanna often does this—thinks out loud without taking much notice of the facts. It is one of the major differences between them. He is more circumspect; he prefers to have all the available information at his fingertips before he starts speculating.
“I read the transcripts from yesterday’s interviews,” Hanna continues. “Maybe he went back later that night and took out his anger on Filippa?”
“There’s no point in guessing at this stage,” Daniel says firmly. “We still don’t know if we’re dealing with a crime.”
Hanna gives him a skeptical look, as if she is growing tired of his cautious approach. “Most of the evidence points to murder,” she says. “Even you have to admit that.”