gravel crunched under his feet.
He followed the narrow lane that turned off to the right and after the two big pine trees he reached the sea. The water was like a mirror in front of him. That was unusual. There were usually high waves in the bay. John took a deep breath and could see it as he exhaled. Just as he was about to go back, he caught sight of something strange by the shore. Something silvery that glistened. He went closer to the ditch and bent down to look. It was a gun and it had blood on it.
John scratched his head. A bit farther away, the grass was red. But his eyes fastened on what lay next to that, under a fir tree. A boy. He lay with his face down with wide-open eyes. His left arm was bent at an unnatural angle and his head was covered in blood.
The nausea came quickly and John breathed heavily. His legs failed him and he had to sit down on a rock. He was unable to get up again, just sat there with his hand over his mouth and stared at the dead boy.
In his heart he knew that this horrific scene would be etched in his memory.
Forever.
* * *
The alarm reached the Norrköping Police at 05:02.
Thirty minutes later two patrol cars turned down the gravel lane at Viddviken. Another five minutes later the ambulance came for John Hermansson who was still sitting on the rock by the sea. A man who was delivering newspapers had noticed the old guy and asked him if everything was okay. He had pointed at the dead boy and then rocked back and forth and made a strange mumbling noise.
Just after 06:00 yet another police car turned down the lane.
Gunnar Öhrn had hurried across to the ditch closely followed by Henrik Levin and Mia Bolander. Anneli Lindgren came directly after them with a bag containing the tools necessary for a technical investigation of the finding place.
“Shot,” Anneli noted and put on her latex gloves.
The boy’s lifeless eyes stared at her; his lips were dry and cracked. His hooded sweater was dirty and discolored by the coagulated blood. Without a word she pulled out her mobile and phoned the medical examiner, Björn Ahlmann.
He answered after the second ring.
“Yes?”
“There’s a job for you.”
* * *
It couldn’t be prevented. The news flash from the TT national wire service about a young boy having been found murdered near Norrköping spread at an incredible speed to all the media in Sweden, and the Norrköping police press officer had calls from a dozen journalists who wanted more details. Since it involved a minor shot to death, the entire nation was engaged, and on the morning TV shows various criminological experts expressed their views. They had found a weapon near the body. Many people assumed that the boy was from criminal circles, which sparked discussions about the level of violence among today’s youth and its consequences.
When the phone rang with the news, it woke Jana Berzelius from her sleep. She got out of bed and decided to take a brisk shower to wake herself up. Since she had a bit of a hangover, she would much rather have stayed in bed. It was Per’s fault. They ended up having three drinks, more than she could handle. And before that they had shared a bottle of wine with their meal and ignored the advice about drinking one glass of water for every glass of something stronger.
After the refreshing shower she took a pill for her headache and allowed herself a few moments, her hair still wet, to lie stretched out on her bed. She counted slowly to twenty, then got dressed, brushed her teeth and looked for a packet of peppermint-flavored gum. After that, she was ready for the meeting at the police station.
“We are here to summarize what we know about the boy who was found dead out at Viddviken this morning.”
Gunnar used a magnet to put up the photo on the whiteboard before going on.
“Anneli, who is still out at the scene, said that the boy had been shot and that he died sometime between 19:00 and 23:00 on Sunday night. According to her, the broken vegetation indicated that the boy had been in movement and judging by the injuries to the body, he was shot from behind.”
Gunnar took a sip of water and cleared his throat.
“At present we don’t know whether the victim has other injuries or was sexually assaulted. The autopsy will show that and the medical examiner has given his word that he will put together a report as soon as possible. We hope as soon as tomorrow. The boy’s clothing has been sent to forensics.”
He got up from the chair.
“We are still combing the area around the murder scene, but as yet we haven’t got any footprints or anything else from the perpetrator. The only thing that we are relatively certain about is that the dead boy at Viddviken is the same boy who was seen on that security camera footage from Östanvägen.”
“And the murder weapon?” said Henrik.
“We don’t know exactly yet. What we do know is that he was shot and a weapon was found near him. But the weapon has not been confirmed as the one that killed him. What we are certain about is that the weapon found near the boy was a Glock, and Hans Juhlén was killed...”
“...with a Glock.” Henrik filled in the sentence.
“Exactly. The serial number is as yet unknown. I have sent the weapon to the national lab which will examine the bullets still in the gun. If they match those that killed Hans, we will have reason to suspect that this boy was somehow involved in Juhlén’s murder. We’ve taken his fingerprints too.”
“And?” said Mia.
“They matched. The handprints and fingerprints in Hans Juhlén’s house match the boy’s,” said Gunnar.
“So he was there,” said Mia.
“Yes. And my first guess says that he...”
“...is the murderer.”
Jana mumbled the words and felt a creeping sensation along her backbone. She was surprised at her own reaction.
“...is the murderer, exactly,” Gunnar made clear.
“But, what the hell, kids don’t murder people. Not just like that. And especially not here in Norrköping, not in Lindö. I think it’s extremely unlikely that he could have done it, or done it alone,” said Mia.
“Perhaps. But for the moment we don’t have anything else to go on,” said Gunnar.
“But then, what’s the motive?” said Henrik. “Would a child send threatening letters to a head of department at the Migration Board?”
“It’s up to us to find out whether the boy is the murderer or not. And we must find out who killed the boy,” said Gunnar, breathing heavily.
“But who is the boy?”
“We don’t know that yet either. Nor do we know why he was in Viddviken or how he came to be there. At any rate, he hasn’t been lying in the water, that much is clear. He was on the shore but his back was turned against the sea,” said Gunnar.
“He
