Chapter 64
It is almost three thirty by the time they gather for a briefing at the station.
For once Birgitta Grip is in the conference room when Hanna arrives.
The other investigators in ?stersund will be participating by video link, but Grip had a meeting with the municipal executive in J?rpen about the case, and decided to come to ?re afterward.
She is sitting at the top of the table, unbuttoning her thick jacket.
Hanna takes a seat opposite her while they wait for the rest of the team. Daniel is making a quick phone call, Anton has gone to the bathroom, and Raffe is on his way.
“How are you doing?” Grip asks as she removes her jacket.
Hanna has no intention of pretending that everything is fine. She carries with her the sight of Aada’s lifeless and abandoned body in the snow. It brings back memories of eighteen-year-old Amanda, who went missing in December just over a year ago.
Seeing a young person die is especially painful.
“Not great,” she answers honestly. “It’s been a tough day. The fact that another person has been killed feels like a failure. We should have been able to prevent it somehow.”
“I understand how you feel,” Grip assures her. “You never get used to that kind of crime scene.”
Many years of experience are reflected in her deep-set eyes. Hanna sees both sorrow and cynicism, but not a trace of defeatism.
Grip is the kind of police officer who never gives up, even though she has few illusions. She is due to retire in a few years. She is in the age group who really ought to go at sixty-five, but Hanna is hoping her boss will stay on for a few extra years as she is entitled to do.
“I want you to know that you are very much appreciated in the unit,” Grip adds unexpectedly, giving Hanna one of her rare smiles.
“Your background means you’ve brought a fresh perspective, which is valuable even for a faithful old servant like me.
You’re doing a good job, and we’re so pleased you came to join us. ”
Hanna feels her cheeks flush with pleasure.
She isn’t used to praise, and has no idea how to handle it—especially when it comes from someone who is known for keeping her distance and focusing on practical matters.
Just as the silence is becoming uncomfortable, Raffe walks in with a big Easter egg filled with candy. The bright colors are slightly jarring in view of the situation, but it’s the thought that counts.
“Nilla dropped by with this,” he explains, sitting down next to Hanna. At that moment she loves his partner—her body is crying out for something to boost its energy level.
The door opens and Anton comes in, followed by Daniel. The link with ?stersund is activated, and Grip puts down her phone.
“It’s been a tragic Easter week so far,” she begins. “Another murder connected with the hotel. Have the relatives been informed?”
“We’ve spoken to the police in Estonia,” Anton replies. “They haven’t been able to find any contact details for family members. It seems as if Aada’s father has never been present in her life, and her mother is in a nursing home.”
“That’s very sad.” Grip looks around the table. “Who would like to begin?” She nods to Carina, who has just joined them.
Hanna takes the opportunity to help herself to a handful of candies.
“We’ve completed our examination of the location where the body was discovered,” Carina says. “Unfortunately there wasn’t much to go on as it’s outdoors. Nor did we find any bodily fluids.”
She points to the wall, where photos of the new crime scene have been put up next to the images of Charlotte Wretlind.
“There were no concrete traces of the perpetrator. The snow around the body had already been trampled by the time we got there, and since the road is only about a hundred yards from the location, it seems likely that the killer took that route. In the opposite direction, into the forest, the snow cover was untouched.”
Hanna listens and chews. She sees her own disappointment at Carina’s sparse information reflected in Daniel’s eyes.
“The body is on its way to Ume? for the autopsy,” Carina concludes.
“Is it possible to establish where the murder actually took place?” Daniel asks. “There didn’t appear to be any signs of a struggle.”
“Correct—but you have to bear in mind that Aada Kuus was small and slender, only around five foot four. If we’re thinking it’s the same perpetrator who murdered Charlotte, and that he is relatively strong, given the ferocity of the stab wounds, then Aada wouldn’t have stood a chance.
It seems likely that she was killed where she was found—I didn’t see anything to suggest that is not the case. ”
“What about the witness who discovered the body?” Raffe wonders. “It was a dog owner, wasn’t it?”
“We spoke to her when we were there,” Daniel replies, “but all she’d done was raise the alarm. The dog reacted when they were out for a morning walk, and when they got closer, the owner realized what had happened.”
Grip looks thoughtful. “What does it mean that the body was simply left out in the open? The killer made no attempt to hide what he’d done.”
There is a logical answer to that question, Hanna thinks.
“Doesn’t that indicate that she was a problem for the perpetrator?” she suggests. “Once he’d solved the problem, it didn’t matter whether she was found or not.”
“It’s very bold,” Anton says. “Not even hiding his victim.”
Paul Lehto’s bitter face comes into Hanna’s mind. Could he be the one who left Aada Kuus in the snow?
Or is Bengt Hedin involved?
She reports on their conversation with Paul Lehto and their new theory that Aada Kuus might have witnessed Charlotte’s murder.
“If we assume she happened to bump into the perpetrator when he was running away from the Silver Suite, then we have a rock-solid motive for wanting her out of the way. And once it was done, presumably the killer was desperate to get away as fast as possible, before anyone saw him.”
“What did Aada Kuus say when she was interviewed?” Grip asks. “Didn’t she mention seeing something?”
Anton consults a list. “No one spoke to her. It looks as if the officers who are interviewing the hotel staff tried to get a hold of her, but didn’t succeed. I don’t know why.”
“Are there more employees who haven’t been questioned yet?” Hanna asks.
Anton nods. “A few.”
“We need to make that a priority,” Grip says firmly.
Hanna glances at her boss. It feels strange to have her here in ?re instead of on the screen. She has a strong presence even in a remote context, but today she dominates the room. She turns her attention to Hanna and Daniel.
“Do we know when she was last seen alive?”
“It was last night. She worked an extra late shift and finished at midnight. According to the hotel’s IT system, her card was used in room 343 at 23:50.
” Hanna glances at her notes. “The card was used only inside the hotel during Wednesday evening, which means that she never arrived home after work, but was murdered on the way.”
“You mean the killer was lying in wait for her outside the staff-accommodation block?” Raffe says.
“Something like that.”
“It’s not very far,” Daniel says. “Only a few hundred yards. If we’re dealing with someone who knew what time Aada was due to finish, and where she lived, he could easily have waited for her in the darkness.”
Hanna pictures the scene. The girl sets off from the hotel in the middle of the night.
She leaves the changing room, walks through the parking garage, and opens the side door, heading for the staff accommodation.
Presumably her attention is elsewhere—it’s been a long day.
She might not even notice her killer until he attacks her.
By then it’s too late.
Hanna looks at Daniel, wondering if he feels as frustrated as she does.
“Who would be familiar with Aada’s schedule?” Anton asks.
Hanna consults her notes again. “The manager told us there are three cleaning shifts. Anyone who was aware of that would know that she finished at midnight.” A scraping noise from outside makes her glance up—it sounds like a snow-clearing machine.
“Let’s talk about the MO,” Grip says. “A knife was used on the first victim, but Aada was strangled. Could that indicate that we’re dealing with two different perpetrators?”
Hanna has also considered this. From a purely hypothetical point of view, two different methods could suggest two different killers, but she finds it difficult to accept this theory.
The odds on two murders being committed within such a small geographical area, only a few days apart, are just too long.
There are also similarities. Both murders involved close contact between the killer and the victim, which is less common than you might think. Most people instinctively shy away from killing at close quarters. For example, it is easier to use a gun than your bare hands.
Someone who is capable of stabbing a sleeping woman, not once but over and over again, is probably also capable of strangling a young girl. They have also established that Aada was probably in the room next door when Charlotte was murdered.
“My feeling is that it’s the same person,” Daniel says before Hanna has time to speak.
This isn’t the first time they have thought exactly the same, and she gives him an appreciative smile.
It’s one of the things she likes most about him—the fact that they often reach the same conclusion, even though they might argue passionately along the way.
He shares his thoughts with the group, reflecting exactly what Hanna was thinking. When he has finished, Grip folds her arms and takes a moment to consider.
“I think you’re right,” she says eventually, making a note on her pad. “Where are we with other aspects of the case? Any more on that Facebook group?”
Hanna briefly reports on what Nadim in IT has found. So far he hasn’t gotten back to her on the mysterious IP address based in the council offices in J?rpen—she must remember to email him about that.
“If the IP address turns out to belong to Bengt Hedin, that would strengthen our suspicions against him,” Anton comments. He gives Hanna a meaningful look, and she nods.
“Our colleagues in Stockholm have checked out the alibi for Charlotte’s alleged lover, Stefan Forsberg,” Grip reports. “He’s spending the week in Sk?ne with his family, so we can rule him out.”
Hanna jots this down. At least that’s one less strand to investigate. They can focus all their energy on Paul Lehto and Bengt Hedin.
It sounds as if both men had equally strong motives to want to rid themselves of Charlotte, while poor Aada seems to have lost her life mainly because she got in the way.
Although if Hedin was the main perpetrator, he must have had help to get inside the hotel—or maybe he paid someone to carry out both murders?
Everything that has emerged so far, especially the need for a key card, indicates that an employee was responsible.
Could that man be Paul Lehto?
For once Hanna’s intuition remains silent.
“What about the financial links between Charlotte Wretlind and the council?” Grip asks. “By the way, I’ve asked the prosecutor to make a decision on tapping Bengt Hedin’s phone, so that should be happening soon.”
Raffe looks up. “A couple of interesting things have emerged. If we examine the various transactions in which Charlotte was involved, we can see that substantial sums were transferred to accounts that appear suspect and have no natural link to the Storlien project.”
“We could be looking at bribery,” Anton adds, “but we’ll need to dig deeper in order to connect Hedin to the transfers.”
Grip gathers up her papers.
“So let’s focus on Hedin and Lehto for the next couple of days, even though it’s almost Easter. Keep digging, see if there’s any connection between the two men and the victims.”
“What about the background checks on the rest of the hotel staff?” Nisse Sundbom pipes up from ?stersund. “Are they still urgent, given what you just said about Lehto?”
Needless to say he’s nowhere near finished, Hanna thinks.
“Absolutely,” Grip snaps. “We need to keep our options open.”
“Okay,” Nisse replies, his reluctance unmistakable. He doesn’t sound as if he intends to work any faster, even though several days have passed already.
Hanna feels her irritation rising. They risk missing important details because of Nisse’s laziness. There could be other employees they need to take a closer look at.
They definitely can’t ease off at this stage. Quite the reverse.
Because another woman has been murdered.