Blue Blue Eyes: Crime Novel

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Blue Blue Eyes: Crime Novel Page 9

by Helena Anderson


  ”Good.”

  Daphne was rubbing her tired neck and continued with a calm voice: ”We’ll have to wait for what Neo has to say after the autopsy and see if he finds any other connection except for the eyes and burns. But it does look as though we are dealing with the same offender, doesn’t it? Then we’ll have to try and identify our latest victim.” She scratched her skull with a pen, put it behind her ear while looking out through the gridded window. The sky was blue and a few patches of clouds were passing by. According to the weather forecast the extreme heat would stay for at least another week.

  ”And as usual we have to wait forever for the report from Forensics”, Carlos added and went for the juicy honey cake.

  ”Is it OK if I take the last one?”

  Nobody answered and Carlos put the cake in his mouth.

  ”Maria and Stavros always give their reports really fast so stop picking on them.”

  ”Have we finished?” Sam got up and quickly pushed the chair behind him.

  ”Yes, I think so unless somebody wants to add something?” The Chief said while leaning over the conference table. After a moment of silence he continued.” Well, as soon as you find something, give a shout so the rest of us will know.” He finished his coffee, pinched the last cheese sandwich and dragged his feet to his own little den.

  Katerina was sneaking a bite of the puff pastry and opened the Coke Light she’d brought in front of the computer. Her eyes were still on the screen while she stuck the straw in the narrow opening with her hand. She had a sip of the sweet drink and happily looked around the room to make sure nobody would know what she was up to. Although Katerina could feel the tight trousers digging into her waist she couldn’t help having another bite of the cake. Her chubby fingers automatically went down to the button on her trousers, opening it so her pale fat stomach welled over the waistband like an unbaked loaf of bread. With a sigh of relief she pulled down the burly edge of her lacy vest trying to hide it all.

  ”So, here you are sitting indulging yourself”, Daphne said with a twisted smile.

  ”Not at all, it’s not mine”, Katerina lied in terror. Fast as lightning she put back the puff pastry in the paper bag and put it aside on the desk.

  ”If it’s not yours then why are you eating it?”

  ”Mind your own business and not that of others”, Katerina hissed angrily.

  ”I was just wondering since you’re always complaining about being overweight. How many points does that pastry actually contain?”

  Katerina groaned and irritated fumbled with her hair clip. ”What do you want?”

  ”Do you have the list of those reported missing?”

  ”As a matter of fact I do”, she muttered and gave Daphne a darting look. She picked up the paper from the printer. ”Here you are.”

  ”Thanks, and by the way everybody knows you are indulging yourself with cookies and sweets so you can stop it. Eating in secret that is.”

  ”Didn’t I tell you to mind your own business?” Katerina hissed once again while sitting down. ”I’m going to show you that I can become slimmer than you.”

  ”I gladly accept that challenge. You see, I think you are using your body as a rubbish bin at the moment and I’d like to see a change. What date should we choose?”

  ”Eh, date?”

  ”Yes, what date are you going to be slimmer than me?” Daphne said and stroked the front of her neat little body with her hands.

  ”Let’s say Christmas Eve. By Christmas Eve I will be as slim, or slimmer, than you. How much do you weigh, by the way?”

  ”Deal” Daphne said and smiled. I’m fifty-five kilos to my 165 centimetres. You and I are more or less the same height, so there’s your point of reference.” Daphne happily turned around, went to the kitchen and made herself a cup of green tea. She studied the whirls made by the spoon in the mug, leaned against the cupboard and let her shoulders sink a bit. She was tired. Her daughter didn’t sleep the nights through yet and it made her feel perpetually exhausted. Carefully she closed her eyes and let the sunbeams coming in through the window caress her face for a moment. When she dropped the documents on the floor, she jerked and surprised opened her eyes. She had almost fallen asleep. Embarrassed Daphne bent down, picked up the paper and started reading. There were only two people who had been reported missing. A 27-year old man from Nicosia and a 71-year old woman from Tala, both of them Cypriots. She sipped the hot tea and was just about to go in to Carlos’ when she heard Katerina and Sam talking in the corridor with their voices raised.

  ”Carlos actually had a hysterical woman here yesterday who was reporting her husband missing. I think she was a foreigner”, Katerina said with flushing apple-shaped cheeks. ”How could I forget it?”

  ”Carlos!” Sam shouted strained.”Come here!”

  Carlos heard his name echoing in the corridor and tiredly got up from the office chair. Damn it, couldn’t they just leave him alone for a while, he thought quietly to himself and went out to the reception.

  ”What do you want now?”

  ”Didn’t you receive a report from a crying woman yesterday? You know that elderly woman who was so elegantly dressed.”

  ”Eh, well yes”, Carlos hesitated and pulled up a handwritten note from the breast pocket of his light blue uniform shirt. ”Well I’ll be damn” he exclaimed.

  Sam turned around and looked at Carlos with irritation. ”Let me see.” Sam read what was written on the note and sighed loud. ”Why isn’t he on the list of missing people?”

  ”Eh, I didn’t think of putting him in the damn system. I’m bloody in the middle of a murder investigation. Two as a matter of fact.”

  ”What? You’re joking, right?” Sam gave Carlos a toxic glance with his black eyes while his boss turned his back on him. ”You are always bothering us to be careful and update the system as soon as there are any changes, and then you don’t do it yourself? And you’re supposed to be the Chief….”

  Daphne who had also heard the shouting in the corridor joined the others by the reception.

  ”What’s going on?” She asked curiously and felt the tension in the air.

  ”Did you know that Carlos got a report yesterday about a missing man who might be the victim we found today?” Katerina sarcastically spat out the words before folding her arms and giving Carlos a challenging look.

  ”Yesterday?” Daphne asked surprised.

  ”Yes, and besides he didn’t put the report in the system? Sam

  ”How come you are surprised?” Daphne said with irritation. ”Unfortunately our complaining doesn’t help since Carlos will never change anyway. But I agree with you, to work against the wind is not that bloody fun.”

  ”Damn it, how much you are complaining. I bloody have the note here.” Carlos was waving the paper in his hand and really looked surprised. ”What is there to talk about or get excited about? I bloody have the note here in my hand, I haven’t thrown it away. It’s here and we can continue our work.”

  Everybody kept quiet and looked at each-other until the sound of the fax machine broke the silence. Katerina as usual wobbled to the ancient fax on her too high, narrow heels and picked up the paper.

  ”OK, listen to this, we’ve got new information from the police in Gothenburg. It’s about Sten Arvidsson.” Katerina, embarrassed, pulled down her jumper which had gone up over her stomach and cleared her throat before starting to read.

  ”Give it to me”, Carlos brusquely interrupted. ”It’s not your duty to deliver news at my station.

  ”If you ask me nicely.”

  ”Hey, that’s not my style. I take what I want”, Carlos said and went up to her, snatching the fax from her hand.

  ”That was really brazen, you…” Katerina turned around and offended wobbled back to her seat.

  Carlos quickly glanced through the document. ”Let’s go into the confer
ence room again.” He nodded specifically at Daphne and Sam.

  ”Detective Hogstrom informs us that Sten Arvidsson has had his mail forwarded to an address in Coral Bay since the beginning of April” he said and nodded at Daphne. ”You and Sam go there and make some enquiries. Don’t forget to speak to the neighbours, too. Detective Hogstrom has also found that Sten Arvidsson is not in the police register in Sweden. You can read more in this fax.”

  Carlos put the document on the conference table, went up to the white-board and wrote down Sten Arvidsson’s Cypriot address under known facts.

  The next second Katerina carefully knocked at the closed conference door and came in with yet another document for Carlos.

  ”This fax just came from CSCP, I thought you might want it.”

  ”Good.” Carlos was quickly glancing through the document and displeased raised his bushy eye-brows. ”Unfortunately it seems like the offender has used gloves, so in other words he is still unknown.”

  ”Let me see.” Daphne stretched out her hand, took the paper and read it through before sighing loudly. ”But...they did find your DNA on several cigarette butts, Carlos. Why am I not surprised?”

  ”What? Are you no longer allowed to smoke?”

  ”Can’t you learn how to behave at a murder scene and here at the police station for our sakes? Don’t you get it that you are not only making a fool of yourself but you put all of us in difficulty because of your behaviour.” Sam violently got up from the simple chair and nodded at Daphne. ” Let’s go, I’m suffocating in here.”

  ”Where are you going?” Carlos shouted in surprise.

  ”We’re going to have a look at Sten Arvidsson’s house.”

  ”But take it easy now”, Carlos asked factually. ”We haven’t bloody finished in here yet. We still have the report of this man, Karl Hofv….”

  ”That’s for you to handle”, Sam hissed. He continued quickly out of the door to the corridor with Daphne following closely behind.

  The Chief remained there quietly swearing. He looked at the note with Karl Hofvenskold’s name written on it and tried pronouncing the surname again and again but to no avail. A meowing caught his attention and he followed the sound with a hint of a smile on his lips until he saw the Panther sitting on Katerina’s lap. He sulkily looked out through the window but couldn’t quite shake off the feeling of having been betrayed.

  ”Call the wife of the missing man and ask her to come to the station as soon as possible.” Carlos gave Katerina his sloppy handwritten note and was expectantly hanging over the high reception counter.

  ”OK” Katerina sulkily said and dialled the number to Barbro Hofvenskold. Panther reluctantly jumped down on the floor and twisted around her legs a few times before disappearing through the door.

  ”She is getting into her car at once, and will be here in about 20 minutes”, Katerina said and pulled at her rugged, bleached fringe. ”Don’t forget to show some consideration to the woman, she sounded devastated on the phone.” Katerina looked in a pointed way at Carlos before disappearing in front of the computer again.

  ”Thanks for letting me know”, he muttered and went out to the parking to light up a cigarette. What was wrong with the staff today? As if I don’t know how to behave. Nonsense. Swearing he went around the house and finally threw the cigarette among the other butts on the gravel. ”Bloody heat, I can’t damn stand it anymore.” Irritated he dried a few drops of sweat from his bushy moustache and blew the snot out of his enormous nose. Five minutes later when the Chief returned to his office he saw the Panther on his back sleeping in his greyish office chair.

  ”Hello, sweetheart, are you OK?” He tenderly scratched the cat on his soft belly and wished that all his colleagues would be like the Panther. Life would be easy then. Carlos yawned and closed the shirt button over his bulky stomach for the tenth time that day. The dust in the room was dancing in the sunlight and he stopped for a while by the gridded window. Outside the grapefruit tree was slowly moving in the breeze and there were no clouds in the blue sky. Sighing he turned around and went to his desk, lifted up the cat and sat down with the Panther on his lap. With one hand he automatically moved his fingers to and fro behind the cat’s ears while getting the camera with the other. He easily clicked on the pictures of the latest victim and chose carefully which photos to show Barbro Hofvenskold. He stopped at a close-up of the victim’s face and couldn’t understand what kind of maniac they were dealing with.

  Did the murderer want to say something by removing the eyes? Carlos thoughtfully scratched his head and felt a churning headache approaching. He looked for a pack of painkillers in the top desk drawer and swallowed the tablet with some old, cold coffee still on the desk. Without hesitating he scrolled back to Sten Arvidsson’s body and looked carefully at the picture again. The injuries somehow were identical even though Sten Arvidsson had been filled with concrete. The back of his head was pounding intensively and Carlos somehow came to think of his reading glasses. He hadn’t used them for a while, without knowing why. With the cat under his arm he went up to the book-shelf and got his black eyeglass cover which was next to the dusty law-book. At the same time the phone rang with a deafening signal.

  ”Yes?” Carlos answered while taking out his reading glasses from the cover.

  ”Barbro has just come inside. You’d better handle her carefully and show her some respect. She looks very frail.”

  Carlos shook his head. ”Stop fussing and send her in.”

  Katerina accompanied the elegant woman through the station and for the first time she felt ashamed of how run down it was. She also felt like a giant next to the small, stylish lady who was both well dressed and smelled fresh. Katerina tried getting rid of the feeling of inferiority but she couldn’t. Carefully she knocked on the door and smiled sweetly.

  ”Barbro Hofvenskold.” Carlos stretched out his hand and shook her slim hand far too hard. He noticed all the jewellery shining on the slim fingers and thin wrists and strangely enough he too felt a bit inferior. The woman was very beautiful, slim and with an aura of elegance. The dark blue dress looked expensive, fitted perfectly and her silver coloured hair was put up in a tasteful French twist. The discreet make-up highlighted her grey eyes but the look in them was one of despair and worry.

  ”Please, have a seat.” Carlos’ voice was deep and calm in order to put the old lady at ease. He tried smiling his best smile but felt a little bit insecure faced with all the elegance. As a reflex he patted his hair down by the sides, felt with his fingers around his mouth to make sure there were no crumbs left. Then he swept his tongue over the teeth and blew air through them so that any possible left-overs would disappear.

  Barbro Hofvenskold carefully sat down on the wooden chair opposite the peeling desk.

  ”Do you know anything about my husband’s disappearance? Is that why you asked me to come here?” Her thin voice was shaking and she anxiously clasped her tanned hands on her lap.

  Carlos cleared his throat and remembered what Katerina had told him.

  ”We are not quite sure yet…but earlier this morning an elderly man was found.” Embarrassed he twisted a bit, wondering how to continue.

  ”Well, where is he then?”

  ”No, no, he isn’t here. Unfortunately…ehm…we found him dead.” Carlos looked carefully at Barbro and saw how she suddenly stopped breathing.

  ”Dead? But my husband is not dead.” Barbro looked questioning at the Chief and didn’t understand how it was pertinent to her.

  ”No, that’s not what I mean.” Carlos was nervously touching the graphite-gray camera, turning it here and there before continuing: ”Just for the sake of it. Do you think you could manage to look at a few pictures of the man we found dead today. I mean, it would really make it easier for us if we could write your husband off as today’s victim, since you’re sure he’s alive.”

  Barbro Hofvenskold curled h
er mouth, giving it a thought while nervously picking at her diamond studded necklace with her fingers. ”I’m not really sure. I’ve never seen a deceased person before.” She took a paper handkerchief from her handbag and quickly wiped the corner of her eye.

  Carlos browsed through the pictures in the camera for a while. He chose a close-up which was less scary, although all of them were more or less creepy. The dead man was lying naked in the sea with his hair floating around him like a wreath. That the eyes were gone he couldn’t do anything about and he didn’t quite understand how he would be able to convey this to the distraught woman. Cautiously he looked at Barbro and noticed how affected she seemed to be. Would she really manage this?

  ”I guess it’s better to get it over with”, Barbro said and turned nervously.

  ”You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to”, Carlos kindly replied and tried to delay it. He didn’t like the way the eyes were staring empty on the photo.

  ”Of course I’ll help the police if I can. I also have to know that it’s not my beloved Karl in the picture.” She sobbed while getting her reading glasses from the handbag.

  ”Take as much time as you need.” Carlos tone of voice was soft as he put the camera in the woman’s hands.

  Barbro stared into the camera. Her shoulders quickly dropped and she wailed. The camera fell down on the floor and big tears were pouring down her cheeks.

  ”But how are you?” Carlos got up and looked lost. The woman hid her face in her hands and sobbed desperately.

  1977

  The cold of winter had affected the brothers badly. Big brother hadn’t grown many centimetres this past year and the school nurse had started an investigation into why he was losing weight.

  Little brother had been petrified before his tenth birthday and didn’t know how to make time stop. He hadn’t forgotten Daddy’s promise of initiation in the house of torment next summer.

  Mother had continued ignoring all the physical and psychological abuse and usually just stayed in bed with a bottle of valium close-by. The brothers who previously had been lively and happy had become more and more introvert and withdrawn. The bond between them had grown even stronger and with each-other they felt secure. Big brother had started dreaming about defending himself and he had started exercising in secret before going to bed. Little brother had tried joining him but he got a nose-bleed whenever doing the least effort.

 

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