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  65. Acknowledgements

‘I heard Margareta’s late husband died from a chainsaw wound.’

He nods rapidly and points to his bulging cheek; the international code for wait a sec, mouth full. ‘Accident,’ he says eventually. ‘Years ago. Just a freak accident.’

‘Who would want Arne Persson dead?’

Thord turns his fork to activate shovel-mode, and clears up the remainder of his mash and sauce. ‘You tell me. That’s why I’m here. You feed me information and I feed you some.’

‘Link to the Medusa murders?’ I push my half-finished food away.

He shakes his head and takes a meatball off my plate with his fork. ‘There is no serial killer story here, Tuvs. Also: Medusa never flaunted body parts in a public place. Quite the opposite. And Medusa never taunted us police.’

‘You think this guy is taunting you?’

He nods. ‘Playing games with us. Or with the Sheriff. I never seen anything so flagrant in all my police days. Chief’s furious. He reckons it’s personal, that someone’s got it in for him.’

‘Chief needs to keep his head.’

Thord starts to nod and then he looks at me and points his fork at me and shakes it and grins and nods.

‘No time for fruit,’ he says.

‘I’ll walk you back.’

We split the bill and leave and Thord lowers his voice and says, ‘Ruger rifle, got the ballistics back an hour ago. Bullet lodged in a Scots pine, seven metres behind the victim. Serious weapon but common in the elk hunts. We’re checking our database.’

‘Did the body fit the neck perfectly, if you know what I mean?’

‘It did. Nothing removed. Nothing missing apart from a bucket full of blood. And that came back all linked to either the victim or an animal. Probably an elk.’

‘Could it have been a vet working on the teeth?’

Thord nods. ‘We already thought of that. Could be. We’re also looking through lists of any professions with pliers strong enough to pull teeth out of a man’s jaw. Ain’t an easy thing, so I been told. But with YouTube and Google, anyone can get access to pretty much any how-to guide these days. White coats told me teeth got blood flow all of their own. Did you know that? I thought they was just sitting there, bone in bone, but apparently they got blood and veins. Whoever pulled them teeth and worked on them surely was meticulous. White coats told me they brought in a university tooth-expert to assist them. Told me it was some of the finest dental work they ever seen.’

23

Saturday-afternoon shoppers dawdle down Storgatan like they’re relieved there’s no murderer in their town. Of course, the truth is the murderer could well be based here. Could be their next-door neighbour or their poker buddy. Could be their husband.

Tobias the hygienist disappears into Ronnie’s Bar so I follow him.