‘Are we absolutely certain the two murders are connected? I mean, one hundred per cent?’

‘Seriously, Charlie Boy, you think it’s just a funny coincidence?’

‘Not sure it’s all that funny. But fine, yes, they’re connected. Though that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the same killer. Gabriel might have killed his grandpa and then been offed by someone else in turn.’

‘It makes no difference if we can’t establish a motive. We’re not going to be able to rely on technical evidence to solve this. Sören Larsen wasn’t exactly a cornucopia of useful information.’

They contemplate their most recent conversation with the Head of Forensic Services. They’d had Sören Larsen on speakerphone in the car a few hours earlier, when he had just finished processing Gabriel Stuub’s house.

‘I wasn’t expecting a big bowl of juicy DNA,’ Karl says dejectedly, ‘but I was probably hoping for at least a call history from his mobile phone. Who the hell uses pay-as-you-go cards these days?’

‘People like Gabriel Stuub,’ Karen retorts drily. ‘Communications 101 if you want to play with the OP boys. But Sören did say Gabriel had an official email account. We’ll have to go through it. And we might come across something at his house that hints at a possible motive.’

Karl shoots her a sceptical look.

‘And we’re not done with Fredrik Stuub’s laptop,’ she adds. ‘We’re going to have Cornelis Loots go over all of it with a fine-tooth comb. He’s usually good at finding needles in haystacks, if there are any.’

Chapter 61

61

‘What a lovely mix,’ Karl says, scanning the boxes of whiskey bottles and jars of protein powder and supplements. ‘Do you think anyone would notice if I snagged a couple?’ he adds with a grin and picks up a bottle of Groth’s Smoke from 2006.

They’d started their walkthrough in the two-car garage-cum-workshop and quickly concluded that in addition to a Harley-Davidson and an old Volvo, it contained everything on the list Sören Larsen had emailed over: a set of tools, two cans of petrol, a can of engine oil, a pink inflatable pool, two adult bicycles and a tricycle, a rolled-up green wire fence, eight empty plastic cans and three cans of white primer. And that was it.

Now, they have moved on to Gabriel Stuub’s basement and are studying the shelves that cover one of its walls. The items here may be slightly more interesting than the ones in the garage, but hardly more surprising.

Karen picks up one of the jars and reads the table of contents.

‘Whey protein, soy, lethicin, flavouring . . . bloody hell, no wonder he needed a whiskey from time to time. But don’t bodybuilders try to stay off the sauce?’

‘You’re thinking about the ones who compete,’ Karl says, reluctantly putting the bottle back. ‘Most people who pump iron are just regular blokes.’