Schäfer took a step back as John Oppermann made an incision from ear to ear over Ulrich Andersson’s scalp and rolled the skin back over the skull, turning the face inside out. The procedure, which Schäfer had seen done several times, always made him think of those reversible dolls that portrayed Little Red Riding Hood one way and then, when you tipped her over the other way and pulled the skirt down over her head, the Big Bad Wolf from underneath. Peaceful from one angle, nightmarish from the other.

The medical examiner got out a Stryker saw designed to spare soft tissue and started to open the skull. Ulrich Andersson’s brain and the blue rope around his neck were removed, and both of them were examined.

“There is a very obvious brownish groove in the shape of an inverted V on his neck where the rope tightened,” Oppermann stated into a Dictaphone. “But there also appears to be a horizontal mark on his neck, a skin abrasion just under the groove from the rope.”

He picked up a fine scalpel and started slowly and carefully dissecting the musculature layer by layer around Ulrich Andersson’s trachea and esophagus.

Schäfer waited patiently until the autopsy was completed and Oppermann had thrown away his gloves.

“So, what’s the verdict, Doc?”

The medical examiner stood at the sink, lathering his hands thoroughly with soap.

“There’s no doubt,” he said. “We have the petechiae, a horizontal abrasion on the neck. There are hemorrhages in the tissue around the larynx and fractures of the thyroid cartilage horns and hyoid bone. The deceased did not suffer those by hanging himself in his bathroom.”

“So, we’ve got ourselves a homicide?”

“The cause of death must be assumed to be strangulation by ligature of the neck. Yes, a homicide.” Oppermann nodded.

“All right, just send the autopsy report my way when it’s done,” Schäfer said. He gave Oppermann a friendly slap on the back and started walking toward the exit.

“Given how much trouble the perpetrator went to in order to make this seem like a suicide, it wasn’t particularly cleverly performed,” Oppermann said to Schäfer’s back. “The killer could have easily camouflaged this better if he had done his homework.”

“It’s an amateur, then?” Schäfer asked, looking back over his shoulder.

“I can’t comment on that. But he’s no forensic pathologist, I can tell you that much.”

Back at police headquarters in the Violent Crimes Unit, Schäfer filled the chief superintendent in on the medical examiner’s assessment, and an investigative team was formed. In addition to Augustin and Schäfer, it consisted of Lars Bro and Nils Petter Bertelsen from Violent Crimes Section 1.