Bogman Read Free

standing over a folding table staring at a foot that seemed to be made of dark brown wood or leather, and a white skull. He greeted Tobias with an absent-minded wave.
    “The foot is mummified. There’s a split in the skull. It could have been caused by a blow with something like a rock. But God only knows when. Could be anything between ten and two thousand years.”  
    “Is this one for us or one for the archaeologists?”
    Harry shrugged. “I can’t tell at this stage. We could be dealing with a bog body or with something more recent. I have no expert knowledge of how the bog affects bone and tissue, or anything else for that matter. You’re going to need a forensic anthropologist.”  
    Eddy Haxen came into the tent.
    “Hi, Boss. Will I let the plane buffs go? They seem shocked by it all.”
    “Not too shocked to call up a television station,” said Tobias. “Where’s this professor?”
    “Out there giving an interview to the press.”
    Tobias tramped back across the bog to a pool of light in which stood the be-spectacled blonde pointing a microphone at a tubby man wearing the same blue protective clothing as the forensics team.  
    “Strictly speaking,” said the tubby man with the air of a lecturer addressing students, “this is mostly fenland, not bog. Like a lot of fens, it’s on the edge of a bog and it looks and feels like bog but there’s a crucial difference. Bog peat contains humic acid. It preserves body tissue. Bodies decompose in fen peat. It won’t mummify bodies. But it has a high chalk content. It preserves bones.”  
    A look of alarm crossed the interviewer’s face.  
    “Can we keep it simple for now, Professor Brix? Why were these bodies buried in the bog, or fen?”  
    “It was once assumed that some of them were sacrificial victims in a pagan, Iron Age ritual,” said the professor. “P V Glob famously posited that Tollund Man was killed in a ritualistic way.”  
    “So this a ritual killing?”
    Now it was the Professor’s turn to look alarmed. “I’m not saying that,” he said. “I’m just explaining one theory about Tollund Man.”
    “So this is another Tollund Man?”
    “I’m not saying that either,” said the Professor.  
    “Have you found anything with the body? Anything from the Iron Age?”  
    “One of the forensic team found a metal coin or button with what looks like a laurel leaf design. A laurel leaf typically.....”  
    At which point Tobias intervened.  
    “Chief Inspector Lange from Aarhus Criminal Investigation Department. I must ask you to stop recording,” he said. “This is now a police matter. We can’t divulge any more details at this early stage of the investigation.”
    The blonde gestured to the cameraman and turned her attention to Tobias. “Are you investigating an Iron Age murder, Chief Inspector?”
    “We don’t know what we’re dealing with at the moment,” said Tobias, uncomfortably aware he was now on camera. “All I can say is that human remains have been found here. We need to establish how long they’ve been in the bog. That could take some time. There’ll be a statement in due course. Now I must ask you all to leave.”
    He took the professor by the arm and led him aside. “I’m sorry, but we have to do things by the book. The forensics team know what they’re doing.”  
    The professor took a card from the breast pocket of his jacket and handed it to Tobias.
    “Thanks,” said Tobias. “We’ll be in touch if we need you.”
    The camera crew had packed up. The blonde called out, “Can you come into the studio, professor?”  
    She threw a challenging glance at Tobias. “Do you have any objection to that, Chief Inspector?”  
    It was now dark. Tobias shone his torch on the card.  
    Professor Johann Brix
    Forensic Anthropologist
    Department of Forensic Medicine
    University of Aarhus.  
    “I’m afraid I do,” said Tobias.  
    He tramped back to the tent and said to Harry Norsk, “I think we’ve