Exposed Read Free

the park.
    ‘There’s a flight of steps up here,’ Berit said, already out of breath.
    Six steps later and they were up in the park itself. They jogged along a tarmac path that led to an elaborate playground.
    To their right were several sheds; Annika read the words ‘Park Games’ as she ran past. There was a sandpit, benches, picnic tables, climbing frames, slides, swings and other things for kids to climb and play on. A few mothers and their children were in the playground, but it looked like they were packing up. At the far end two uniformed policemen were talking to another mother.
    ‘I think the cemetery’s a bit further down, towards Sankt Göransgatan,’ Berit said.
    ‘You certainly know your way around,’ Annika said. ‘Do you live near here?’
    ‘No,’ Berit said. ‘This isn’t the first murder in this park.’
    Annika saw that the police were busy unrolling their blue and white tape to cordon off the area. So they were emptying the playground and closing it off to the public.
    ‘It’s a good job we got here quickly,’ she muttered to herself.
    They turned off to the right, following a path that led to the top of the hill.
    ‘Down to the left,’ Berit said.
    Annika ran on ahead, crossing two more paths, and suddenly there it was. She saw a row of black Stars of David standing out against the greenery.
    ‘I can see it,’ she shouted behind her, and from the corner of her eye saw that Bertil Strand had almost caught up with Berit.
    The railings were black, and attractively ornate. The iron uprights were linked by metal circles and bows. Each railing was crowned by a stylized Star of David. She was running into her own shadow and realized that she was approaching the cemetery from the south.
    She stopped on the little hill overlooking the graves, where she could get a good view. The police hadn’tcordoned off this section of the park yet, but she could see that the northern and western approaches had already been blocked.
    ‘Hurry up!’ she called to Berit and Bertil Strand.
    The railings enclosed the little Jewish cemetery and its worn granite headstones. Annika quickly counted thirty or so of them. The vegetation had almost taken over and the whole area looked overgrown and neglected. The cemetery covered an area of some thirty metres by forty. On the far side, the railings were little more than a metre and a half high. The entrance was on the western side, towards Kronobergsgatan and Fridhemsplan. She saw the team from the other evening paper stop at the cordon. A group of men, all of them in plain clothes, were inside the railings, at the east side of the cemetery. She realized why they were there: that was where the woman’s body was.
    Annika shivered. She mustn’t mess this up, her first decent tip-off of the summer.
    Berit and Bertil Strand came up behind her, and at that moment she saw a man open the gate in the railings down by Kronobergsgatan. He was carrying some grey material. Annika gasped. They hadn’t covered her up yet!
    ‘Come on, quick!’ she called over her shoulder. ‘We might be able to get a picture from up here.’
    A policeman appeared on the crown of the hill in front of them. He was rolling out blue and white tape. Annika rushed down towards the railings, and could hear Bertil Strand behind her. Over those last metres before the railings he shrugged off his rucksack and pulled out a Canon with a telephoto lens. The grey sheet was just three metres away as Bertil Strand clicked off a whole series of shots in amongst the bushes. He moved half a metre to his left and took another sequence. Thepoliceman holding the roll of tape shouted something, and the men inside the railings caught sight of them.
    ‘Got it!’ Bertil Strand said. ‘We’ve got enough pictures to cover the story now.’
    ‘Hey, what do you think you’re doing?’ the policeman with the tape shouted. ‘We’re cordoning off this area.’
    A man in a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts was walking