Marked for Life Read Free Page A

ready to note down a name.
    â€œDon’t know yet, but everything points to their being the prints of a child. The strange thing is that the couple don’t have any children.”
    Jana looked up from her notepad.
    â€œIs that really significant? Surely they know someone who has children. A friend? Relative?” she said.
    â€œWe haven’t been able to ask Kerstin Juhlén more about it yet,” answered Gunnar.
    â€œWell, that must be the next step. Preferably straightaway.”
    Jana took her calendar out of her briefcase and flipped through to today’s date. Reminders, times and names were neatly written on the pale yellow pages.
    â€œI want us to talk to her as soon as possible.”
    â€œI’ll phone her lawyer, Peter Ramstedt, right away,” said Gunnar.
    â€œGood,” said Jana. “Get back to me with a time as soon as you can.” She put her calendar back in her briefcase. “Have you questioned any of the neighbors yet?”
    â€œYes, the nearest ones,” said Gunnar.
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œNothing. Nobody saw or heard anything.”
    â€œThen ask more. Knock on all the doors along the entire street and in the immediate vicinity. Lindö has many big homes, a lot of them with large picture windows.”
    â€œYes, I imagine you would know that, of course,” said Mia.
    Jana looked directly at Mia.
    â€œWhat I am saying is that somebody must have seen or heard something.”
    Mia glared back, then looked away.
    â€œWhat more do we know about Hans Juhlén?” Jana went on.
    â€œHe lived a fairly ordinary life, it seems,” said Gunnar and read from the packet. “He was born in Kimstad in 1953, so he was fifty-nine. Spent his childhood there. The family moved to Norrköping in 1965, when he was twelve. He studied economics at university and worked for four years in an accounting firm before he got a position in the Migration Board’s asylum department and worked his way up to become the head. He met his wife, Kerstin, when he was eighteen and the year after that they married in a registry office. They have a summer cottage by Lake Vättern. That’s all we’ve got so far.”
    â€œFriends? Acquaintances?” Mia said grumpily. “Have we checked them?”
    â€œWe don’t know anything about his friends yet. Or his wife’s. But we’ve started mapping them, yes,” said Gunnar.
    â€œA more detailed conversation with the wife will help fill in more detail,” said Henrik.
    â€œYes, I know,” said Gunnar.
    â€œHis cell phone?” Jana wondered.
    â€œI’ve asked the service provider for a list of calls to and from his number. Hopefully I’ll have that tomorrow latest,” said Gunnar.
    â€œAnd what have we got from the autopsy results?”
    â€œAt the moment, we know only that Hans Juhlén was both shot and died where he was found. The medical examiner is giving us a preliminary report today.”
    â€œI need a copy of that,” Jana said.
    â€œHenrik and Mia are going straight there after this meeting.”
    â€œFine. I’ll tag along,” said Jana, and smiled to herself when she heard the deep sigh from Inspector Bolander.

CHAPTER
THREE
    THE SEA WAS ROUGH , which meant that the stench got even worse in the confined space. The seven-year-old girl sat in the corner. She pulled at her mama’s skirt and put it over her mouth. She imagined that she was at home in her bed, or rocking in a cradle when the ship rolled in the waves.
    The girl breathed in and out with shallow breaths. Every time she exhaled, the cloth would lift above her mouth. Every time she inhaled, it would cover her lips. She tried to breathe harder and harder to keep the cloth off her face. Then one time she blew so hard it flew off and vanished.
    She felt for it with her hand. In the dim light she instead caught sight of her toy mirror on the floor. It was pink, with a