Anders Knutas 03 - The Inner Circle aka Unknown

by Mari Jungstedt

  He happened to think of a poem that he'd read in school and had saved ever since. It was by the great nineteenth-century Swedish author Carl Jonas Love Almqvist. You are not alone. If among a thousand stars only one looks at you, believe in the star's meaning, believe in the gleam in its eye...

  Someone was looking at him. Not just one, but many.

  Just as Knutas was considering calling it a day and heading for home, someone knocked on the door. It was Agneta Larsvik. She was normally so composed, but right now there was something agitated in her expression, and she moved in an abrupt manner as she sank onto the visitor's chair in Knutas's office.

  "I've just come back from the Mellgren place," she explained. "I was in Stockholm over the weekend and didn't get back until around three this afternoon. At any rate, I drove out to their farm in Lärbro, even though no one was home. I couldn't get hold of Staffan Mellgren or his wife, so I took a chance and just drove out there." She leaned forward. "This incident with the horse's head on the pole is a serious matter. Very serious. I think that Mellgren needs immediate protection."

  "Why?"

  "I interpret this as meaning that the perpetrator feels quite euphoric that he managed to pull off the first murder. It may be his way of announcing his arrival this time. He's sending a warning. At the same time, he's very self-confident, so confident he's going to get away with the crime that it doesn't matter if the individual receives a warning. On the contrary, that makes him all the more elated. I'm prepared to go so far as to say that the horse's head may very well represent a threat of homicide."

  "But Martina didn't receive a horse's head before she was murdered."

  "No, she didn't. For two reasons. Partly because he's gotten tougher. Partly because Martina lived with a lot of other people. It would have been more difficult to send her a personal warning."

  "In that case, your analysis would mean that Ambjörnsson's life is also threatened."

  "Of course. Most likely the only reason that nothing has happened to him yet is because he's out of the country."

  "It's lucky that nothing about the horses' heads has leaked to the press. At least we're not going to offer the perpetrator that sort of satisfaction. And no one outside this building knows anything about the horse's head found on Mellgren's property."

  "Good. Keep it that way. It's important that the news doesn't get out. That would just make him feel even more exhilarated."

  "So you seriously think that this man is going to murder more people?"

  "I'm afraid that he will. The question is: How long will it take before he does? There's a real risk that another murder is going to be committed soon. Now that he's had a taste of the experience, he's going to want to do it again."

  When the workday was over, Mellgren drove home. His wife had left a message on his cell phone, saying that she was taking the children over to her parents' house in Ljugarn. She didn't want to stay at the farm after the incident with the horse's head.

  He stopped off at the college to pick up some papers from his office. The green park of Almedalen, which was down by the water, was filled with sunbathers, dogs, baby buggies, and teenagers listening to music. Crowds of youths were on their way to After Beach, near Kallbadhuset, where they had brought in sand from beaches all over Gotland to create a fine-grained sand beach in the middle of town where the shore was otherwise rocky. After Beach was very popular. After listening to a band and drinking a beer, they could move on to the next pub only a stone's throw away. Mellgren almost felt like going over there himself.

  Inside the college he found the place deserted and the reception area locked. He picked up the papers and was on his way back to the car when a group of teenagers walked past. They were talking and laughing, and he thought that one of the girls, a cute little blonde, gave him an especially big smile. He stopped to watch them as they went into Kallbadhuset. At the same moment he heard the live band inside start playing. That was enough to make him decide. He hurried back to his office, grabbed a towel and a bar of soap from his closet, and went down to the locker room to take a quick shower. Upstairs again, he splashed on a little aftershave and changed into clean clothes. This was not the first time that he had chosen not to go straight home.

  Back out on the street he was in high spirits as he strolled over to Kallbadhuset. It was true that he was over forty, but he looked young for his age. He was tall, slim, and fit. His hair was just as abundant and thick as when he was twenty. Staffan Mellgren was looking forward to the evening.

  It was with a growing feeling of uneasiness in his chest that Knutas had listened to the forensic psychologist's opinion that both Gunnar Ambjörnsson and Staffan Mellgren were in danger. Ambjörnsson was expected back on Gotland in a week. As long as he stayed in Morocco he was probably safe. Mellgren, on the other hand, needed immediate protection. Knutas had made numerous calls to the cell phones of the investigative team, but without getting any response.

  According to Susanna Mellgren, who was staying with her parents in Ljugarn, her husband was working in Fröjel, as usual. He was then going to drive home. No one answered their home phone, even though the workday should have ended long ago.

  "Could he be the murderer?" Jacobsson's voice sounded doubtful as they got into the car to drive out to the excavation site.

  "I have a hard time believing that, but we've been surprised before," said Knutas tensely as he zigzagged between cars on the road. In July there was a lot of traffic on the coastal road between Klintehamn and Visby.

  Martin Kihlgård, who was sitting in the backseat, leaned forward to offer his two colleagues a bag of onion chips. The car reeked of them. Knutas made a point of declining the offer, then rolled down the window as Jacobsson cheerfully accepted.

  "I have a hard time imagining Mellgren as the murderer," muttered Kihlgård as he chewed. "It would be rather stupid to take the life of one of his own students, especially if he was having an affair with her. On top of that, it seems very unlikely that he would use his own pole to stick a horse's head on. And where the hell did he get the first horse's head from, since it wasn't from the same horse? Are there still no reports about any missing horses?"

  "Not a single one," replied Knutas curtly. "And no one is saying that Mellgren is the murderer."

  "I'd rather bet my money on the wife," Kihlgård went on, unperturbed. "She had both the opportunity and the motive. The guy is notoriously unfaithful, and he could very well have had an affair with Martina Flochten. We know that she was meeting someone in secret, and maybe that proved to be the last drop. Good Lord, the girl was only twenty-one, after all. Afterward, Susanna Mellgren tries staging the whole business with the horse's head in order to warn her husband, to threaten him. If she wanted to kill him, surely she would have done it at once. This is much more sophisticated. She wants him to realize that it's serious this time. If he doesn't stop his adulterous affairs, then he's going to meet the same fate."

  Obviously satisfied with his explanation, Kihlgård leaned back and stuck his whole hand in the bag of chips.

  "So you think that her intention is to frighten her husband out of his wits to such a degree that he won't look at another woman from now on?" Jacobsson sounded dubious.

  "It wouldn't be the first time in the history of the world, at any rate. As I see it, she's the only one with an obvious motive."

  "I must admit that I have a hard time seeing why anyone would want to kill Martina Flochten. A jealousy scenario could explain the matter," Knutas agreed. "But why would the wife use such a complicated method?"

  "That may be a red herring," said Kihlgård. "Trying to make the whole thing seem mystical and ritualistic even though that has nothing at all to do with it."

  They turned off at Fröjel Church and drove all the way down to the excavation site. They bumped along on the last part of the road. It looked disconcertingly quiet and deserted. The carts were all properly locked, and everything seemed to be closed up for the night. Several pits were covered with plastic
.

  "All right, then," said Kihlgård. "He's not here, at any rate."

  Knutas felt his irritation rising. We need to get hold of him, he thought, and quickly.

  "We'll drive over to the college. He might be there."

  He had a horrible premonition that they needed to hurry.

  It was seven in the evening when Staffan Mellgren left Kallbadhuset to drive home. The band had stopped playing, and the young people were on their way out to join the action in Visby's pubs. He had deliberately chosen to keep a low profile, since he recognized several students from the college. They had greeted him with a nod. That was one thing he detested about living on Gotland—the fact that he could never be anonymous anywhere.

  Even though he'd had two strong beers, he got behind the wheel. He drove out of the city as people walked past on their way to the restaurants and evening entertainments. The tourist season was at its peak, Visby was pulsing with life, and it was disappointing to have to leave it all behind and drive home to little Lärbro.

  His cell phone was still on the passenger seat, and he saw that he'd received quite a few messages, but he didn't feel like checking to see who they were from. It was probably Susanna, and he didn't have the energy to deal with her nervous carping right now.

  The hens were clucking loudly in the yard when he arrived. Of course, they needed food, too; he'd forgotten to feed them in the morning.

  In the refrigerator he found several old tomatoes that looked anything but fresh. They were good enough for the chickens. On a shelf Susanna had set a plastic ice cream container filled with eggshells, scraps of food, and stale bread.

  He picked up the container and went out to the old barn that was used only as a junkyard and as a garage in the wintertime. At the far end of the barn was the chicken coop. When he opened the door, he was careful where he set his feet so as not to trample to death any of the tiny golden chicks that were peeping around his legs. What a life. He put down the ice cream container with the food scraps and filled a bowl with chicken feed.

  Suddenly he heard the door to the barn slam shut. Cautiously he stood up from his squatting position and set down the feed sack. The hens kept up their clucking, making it impossible for him to hear anything. He slipped over to the doorway and peered into the barn.

  He let his eyes scan the bare walls, covered with flyspecks and cobwebs. The windows were so filthy that the twilight hardly came through at all. The old stalls, which were lined up with walls separating them, hadn't been used in a long time. The door must have slammed shut by itself, he thought. He was just about to go back when he noticed that something was different. The old bathtub, which for years had been upside down among the other rubbish, had been moved and was now right side up.

  Puzzled, he moved closer and saw to his surprise that it was filled to the brim with water, but he never managed to wonder who had been there or what the tub was going to be used for.

  The college was locked, and they had to phone the security guard to come over and let them in. The place was completely deserted; not a soul around on this hot evening in July. They took the stairs up to the floor where Mellgren had his office. The door was locked. The security guard searched through his big bunch of keys to find the right one.

  Mellgren's office was just as deserted as the rest of the rooms they had walked through. The faint scent of aftershave still hovered in his office.

  "It's the kind Mellgren usually wears," said Jacobsson. "I recognize the fragrance."

  Knutas quickly searched the desk but found nothing of interest. A wet towel was draped over the chair.

  "He must have been here recently," said Knutas, "and he took a shower. Why didn't he go home to do that?"

  "Because he was going out on the town, of course," said Kihlgård 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 Kihlgård. "I'm starving."

  "Can't you ever think about anything but food?" snapped Knutas. "I'm driving out to Lärbro. 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 Kihlgård 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 cemen
t 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 Kihlgård. "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 Kihlgård.

  "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?"