‘Yup,’ said Chavez. ‘Good work, young man.’
Yet another tremendously long look.
Then he said: ‘Moving on. Under “Slagsta” it says: “phone call check, forensics technician’s report, vehicle phantom pimp”. And beneath “Odenplan metro station”, it says: “phone, list of calls, language expert”.’
Jan-Olov Hultin stood up and moved over to the whiteboard. With a dramatic gesture, he spun it round so that the back was facing forward. It revealed the same plus sign as the paper.
‘So let’s use this anonymous masterpiece as the hub of the investigation. Don’t let me stand in your way. If we work backwards, we’ve got the “language expert”. That detail will be settled today. The following points, “mobile phone, call list”, are with the technicians, who are working on the SIM card and things like that. With any luck, we’ll have the contract details and a list of calls sometime today. So then the previous… quadrant: “Slagsta”. We’ve got the “phantom pimp”, the face reconstructed by Jörgen Nilsson. Viggo, you’ll work on identifying him when you get back from Frescati. OK?’
‘OK,’ said Chavez.
Norlander looked at him sternly and said: ‘OK.’
‘Then what does “vehicle” mean? An unidentified vehicle heard in Slagsta at half three or four on Thursday morning. Not so easy, but interesting nonetheless. More neighbours to talk to, bus companies and bus departures from Sweden via different tollbooths to be checked. Does that sound unbearable, Sara Svenhagen?’
‘No, it’ll be fine,’ said Sara, sighing inwardly.
‘I can answer the “forensics’ findings” point myself, because I went through the material last night. In the four motel rooms, they found – listen carefully now – semen from eighteen different men. Such is life in a Swedish refugee centre. They found a large number of fingerprints as well, but so far none of them have been a match in the database. That means that these eighteen men seem to be normal, respectable Swedes.’
‘Plus a neighbour or two from the Norrboda Motell?’ added Kerstin Holm.
‘There were no bloodstains, at least, no signs of violence. Physical violence, that is. Basically nothing. The rooms had been emptied of all personal items. Finally, the point called “phone call check”. Could that be something for Paul Hjelm? As thanks for this.’
Hultin pointed to the plus sign on the whiteboard.
‘If I’m given time.’
‘You can have time,’ Hultin said neutrally, continuing: ‘Quadrant two: “Skogskyrkogården”. The new point, “Shtayf”, is Jorge’s. Then there’s “check of the murder scene”, which is done: no answers. After that, we’ve got “skinhead witness” and “other witnesses”: Gunnar will be looking into the other skinheads. As far as we know, there weren’t any other witnesses, but the media’s been blowing it up for a whole day now; maybe someone else will come forward today. We’ll see.
‘The cumbersome point called “brain surgeon’s verdict on the impact of the metal wire on the brain” is now in the material world – if incomprehensible in places. Qvarfordt reports in his usual style that: “The eighty-eight-year-old body is well maintained for its age. No sign of atherosclerosis of any kind. Absolutely no sign of age-typical encephalomalacia. Unusually large cerebrum. Digits tattooed above the left wrist. Evidence of cervical spondylosis. Circumcisio post-adolescent. Rheumatoid arthritis, early stage, presenting in the wrists and ankles.
‘The assisting medical examiner, a brain surgeon called Ann-Christine Olsson, continues slightly more informatively: “The metal wire in the brain cannot definitively be considered the immediate cause of death. It has been inserted via the temple and subsequently moved forward and back through the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is the brain’s pain centre – the part of the brain that makes us aware of pain. The result of a direct trauma of this kind to the cerebral cortex would result in a maximum pain experience. It is possible (though research is divided on this) that the pain experienced may be so strong that it results in death. The fact that the victim was also hung with his head to the ground may have intensified the pain, as a result of increased blood flow to the cerebral cortex. The cause of death is, as such, unclear. The heart stopped. This could depend on either shock or pain.”’
Hultin paused.
‘On Sunday afternoon, a similar metal wire was found among the material gathered from the wolverine enclosure in Skansen. That means both our men seem to have been put to death by being subjected to such enormous, overwhelming pain that it took their lives. The pain itself killed them, in other words.’
‘Unless the wolverines got there first,’ Chavez said.
‘True,’ Hultin admitted. ‘But this is worth considering anyway. If it’s true, there must be a great deal of hate involved. Coming up with such a refined, painful method of execution requires a certain kind of man.’
‘Or woman,’ said Holm.
‘Or woman,’ Hultin admitted again. ‘So the following point, “modus operandi”, is therefore of greatest interest. Has a similar method of execution been used anywhere else in the past? When, where, how? Kerstin?’
‘Sure,’ said Kerstin Holm. ‘I’ll try.’
‘The previous point, “relatives”, has already been completed. Kerstin, Jorge and Paul visited each of the Sheinkman children yesterday afternoon. The reports from each of them have been left on our desks. Can we have a summary?’
‘I went to the middle child,’ said Chavez. ‘His daughter, Channa Nordin-Sheinkman, living on Fridhemsgatan in Kungsholmen. A radical woman with strong views. Child of the ’68 movement. Had reduced contact with her father after her mother’s death in 1980. She didn’t have much to say, other than that he’d been an extremely authoritarian man whom she’d wanted to get away from as soon as she could. She wanted me to note down that she wasn’t grieving. I made a note of that. She also offered me an enormous hash pipe. I want you to make a note that I declined it. It looked filthy.’
‘I went to the youngest son,’ said Holm. ‘David Sheinkman in Näsbypark. He’d largely taken over his father’s work as a brain surgeon and researcher at the Karolinska hospital. Married, four kids between eight and seventeen. Unlike his father, he’s quite religious and active in the Jewish congregation. He’s taken responsibility for the complicated funeral arrangements and I got the impression he was grieving deeply. It seems to have been some kind of love from a distance, mind you. They only met on special occasions, and in quite a formal way. You could probably describe David as quite a formal person. Zealous and restrained. I also got the impression his father had been quite like him. David Sheinkman’s probably as close to Leonard Sheinkman as we’re going to get, but he had very little to say about his father as a person.’
‘I think it seems like our best link to the family is through Harald Sheinkman, the eldest son,’ said Hjelm. ‘Leonard was living in the attic of his house, which had originally been his own. Leonard’s, that is. Harald hit the ropes sometime during the eighties, divorced and burnt out. He’s a doctor, not a researcher; these days he’s an author too. A really nice man with a dark sense of humour. That kind of thing’s appreciated. I went through Leonard’s flat, though maybe someone else should go through it again. I can do it if I have time. I also found out quite a bit about Leonard’s life before the war: poet, family man. I’ve written a proper report for anyone interested and I have his diary from Buchenwald. I’m planning on reading it. Though it’s in German.’