to mark the precise place where the sack had been found.
He took a step back and examined the map for a while. Finally he turned toward the two detectives and said, “We need to find out how the currents run and how strong they are. There may also be a need to find out about the recent weather. We should know when there were storms.”
“Storms? Why are we talking about the weather again?” Jonny whined.
“Because a body in the condition you have just described can’t walk between the rocks and lie down in the calm water by itself.”
Andersson gave Jonny a look as sharp as his tone of voice before he continued. “The body part could have gotten there a number of different ways. It could have been put there at the outset. Then you have to ask yourself why all of the body parts aren’t in the same place. If they were placed in different locations along the coastline, more of them should have been found by now.”
“There are a lot of small uninhabited islands west and southwest of Killevik,” Irene said.
“Exactly. Tomorrow we’ll have to search all of them. As well as the beaches south and north of the discovery site. Another possibility is that the sack floated quite a way since gases are produced when flesh starts rotting. . . .”
The superintendent stopped himself and Irene could see a look of nausea quickly pass over his face. He swallowed before he continued. “As I was saying, the sack might have floated and then been washed over the rocks during a storm. The waves crash over them when the wind is blowing hard. Maybe the sack tore when it was thrown against the rocks so that it couldn’t wash out again as easily. That’s why I’m interested in pin-pointing recent storms. It may give us an idea of how long the sack has been there.”
He fell silent, considering. The obvious follow-up question—after where were the other body parts—was, Who was the victim?
“When I talk to the reporters tonight I’m only going to say that we’ve found the upper part of the torso of a dead person. I’ll say that we can’t provide any more information until the medical examiner has conducted a more thorough examination.”
Irene and Jonny nodded. At this initial stage of the investigation, there really wasn’t much to go on. They didn’t know the victim’s sex. They didn’t have a head, a lower body, arms, or legs, and they had no idea of the cause of death.
Chapter 2
“ PART OF DISMEMBERED MURDER victim found at swimming place” was the caption in the Göteborg Post. Irene Huss read the article, eyes heavy with sleep. She had never been accused of being a morning person. Now she was trying to get her brain cells working with the morning’s second cup of coffee.
Krister joined her at the breakfast table. Thudding on the stairs to the second floor warned of the twins’ imminent arrival.
“Murder victim. Nobody knows yet if it’s a murder victim,” Irene muttered.
“It can hardly be a case of suicide,” her husband countered, gently mocking her. More than anyone else, he was acquainted with his wife’s bad morning moods, and he knew better than anyone how easy it was to tease her before she got a few cups of coffee in her system. But he had to be careful and not go too far. Then the whole day would be ruined for everyone involved.
“It very well could be,” Irene hissed.
“Really? Good-bye, cruel world! Now I’m going to cut off my arms and legs and head in order to be absolutely certain that I’ll die!”
Krister made a theatrical gesture and covered his eyes with one arm and with a closed fist raised the other to the ungracious powers above.
Irene said, “There are necrophiles. They steal dead bodies—”
She stopped herself when she saw her daughters standing in the doorway.
“Pleasant conversation you’re having over breakfast,” Katarina said dryly.
“What a horrible job you have, Mamma,” was Jenny’s comment.
That really hurt. Irene loved her job and had never wanted to become anything other than a police officer. More than anything else, she had always felt it was something meaningful. Certainly, there were aspects of the profession that were less than pleasant but someone had to do the job. It was hard to explain to two teenage daughters, one of whom wanted to become a singer in a band like the Cardigans and the other, a guide for survival courses in remote jungles and