Marked For Life. Emelie Schepp

appeal on the grounds that one of the lay magistrates had a snooze during the court proceedings.”

      “Yes, I heard about that.”

      “It’s simply not acceptable that we have to incur the expense of a retrial just because a lay magistrate dozed off during the court hearing. He should be docked his pay. Unbelievable,” said Per.

      He took a gulp of his drink, then leaned across the table and gave Jana a serious look. Jana met his eyes. Serious too.

      “What?” she asked.

      “How are you getting on with the Hans Juhlén murder?”

      “You know I can’t say anything about that.”

      “I know. But how’s it going?”

      “It’s not going at all.”

      “What’s happening?”

      “You heard what I said.”

      “Can’t you tell me a little? Off the record?”

      “Drop it.”

      “Is there some dirt there?”

      Per smirked at Jana and his eyebrows went up and down.

      “Bit of a dirty story there, right? There’s usually some dirt when it’s about bosses.”

      She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

      “I interpret your silence as a yes.”

      “But you can’t do that.”

      “Can’t I? Cheers, by the way!”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

      Wednesday, April 18

      JOHN HERMANSSON FOUND THE BOY.

      Seventy-eight years old and a widower for five years, John lived at Viddviken, a little village by the coast, five kilometers from Arkösund. The house was really too large for the single man and needed far too many hours of maintenance. But what kept him there was his love of the natural surroundings. Since his wife had died, he had trouble sleeping. He usually woke up very early in the morning and instead of lying in bed he would get up, regardless of the weather, and go for a long walk. Even on a chilly morning like this. He had stepped into his Wellingtons, pulled on his anorak and gone out. The sun had just started to rise and was spreading on the frosty grass in the garden. The air felt damp.

      John passed the gate and decided for once to skip the forest and walk down to the sea instead. It was only a couple of hundred meters to the shore and the rocks facing Bråviken Bay. He walked down the narrow gravel lane to the water. The 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