been lying around. She became stiff from sitting for so long at the computer, so she took breaks and went in to chat with colleagues. The truth was that she felt lonely in the office she shared with Tommy Persson. She called him at home to find out how he was doing.
“I’m OK, thanks. It feels good as long as I don’t do any high jumps,” he replied.
“Then maybe you can come to work?” Irene said, hoping.
“Well, I don’t think I can quite keep up with you yet. The hernia was pretty big. They’ve done quite a job.”
“They didn’t take out your appendix since they were already inside?” Irene asked teasingly.
“No. The surgeon was sober.”
After an uninspiring Sausage Stroganoff for lunch in the employee dining room of the nearby building, Irene became restless. She considered heading up to Pathology. Professor Stridner probably wouldn’t be happy but she might let a bit more information slip about the victim. That was what was so frustrating about this investigation—the lack of information.
YVONNE STRIDNERwas in the process of inspecting Friday’s findings. The smell was just as nauseating as it had been during Irene’s first visit, but she braced herself. She walked up to the examination table with determined steps. When she saw what was lying on it she regretted this but it was too late. Professor Stridner had already lifted her head and seen her.
“It’s you again?” she said.
Irene tried to steady her voice when she replied. “Yes. I’m one of the officers working on the investigation.”
Stridner nodded. She cut off a piece of the gray flesh and placed it in a labeled test tube. “Just in case,” she muttered to herself.
Irene looked at the lower part of the abdomen, which was lying on the shiny steel surface. The genitalia had been completely removed. No intestines could be seen within the open abdomen. It was just as empty as the upper half of the torso had been. The thighs had been cut off at an angle just below the groin. Stridner looked up from her work.
“I’m almost done. You can go into my office.”
Relieved, Irene obeyed.
“THIS IS unusually nasty. We’re dealing with a very gruesome type of murderer, who is probably a sadistic necrophile,” Stridner opined.
They were sitting in her workroom, one flight up. The professor was enthroned on an expensive leather armchair, and Irene was sitting on a lumpy and uncomfortable plastic-covered visitor’s chair. It didn’t matter to her. The main thing was that the pathologist seemed ready to speak to her.
“As you have seen for yourself, all of the internal organs are missing. The chest and buttock muscles on both sides have been cut away and, moreover, the genitals and the rectal opening have been removed. The pubic bone shows signs of substantial trauma. The arms and legs were probably sawed off with a circular saw or similar tool. There is a plenitude of bone splinters in the surfaces of the cuts that point to this. The head was removed between the third and fourth vertebrae. Again a circular saw was used. The separation was not carried out with any great anatomical knowledge: rather, the parts have just been sawed off. But then we have the removal of the body’s internal organs.”
Stridner interrupted herself and looked earnestly at her dark computer screen. For a short while her thoughts seemed to be very far away.
“The incision is a standard autopsy incision and was started at the upper part of the breastbone descending to the pubic bone. The navel is not involved; rather, the incision makes a little curve around it, which is standard in autopsies. Another thing that makes me think about someone familiar with autopsy procedures is the complete removal of all organs inside the abdominal membrane and the removal of the pelvic organs. This is seen during completed autopsies.”
Again she stopped herself before she caught Irene’s eye and said with her sharp voice, “However, the removal of the outer musculature and genitalia is not common autopsy procedure!”
“So you think that the murderer is familiar with autopsies?”
“Yes. Or a very skilled hunter. The organs were removed in a highly professional manner.”
“But the head, arms, and legs were not removed in a professional manner?”
“No. Anyone could have done that with a good circular saw.”
She stopped herself and took a deep breath. “But this isn’t just anyone.”
“What kind of person is it?”
“A ghoulish person. He’s looking for a dead body—in order to do that, first he has to kill. And he does.”
“He. You’re saying