Free Summertime Death by Mons Kallentoft Page B

three of them, they’re having their meeting in the staffroom.
    It’s been a long day, Malin thinks as she watches Sven drink his coffee in deep black gulps. His mobile is switched off beside him, the message to reception abundantly clear: no more calls from the media. That was the first thing he said to Malin and Zeke when they got back to the station.
    ‘They’re completely mad. Since Högfeldt wrote that first piece they’ve been calling like crazy. I’ve spoken to
Aftonbladet
,
DN
,
Expressen
,
Svenska Dagbladet
and I don’t know how many others. Both local television news teams have been here, wanting an interview.’
    ‘Summer drought,’ Zeke says. ‘They can get a lot of mileage from a violent rape and a disappearance at the same time. Throw in the forest fires and their summer is saved.’
    ‘Did you mention the bicycle?’
    ‘Yes, I told the
Correspondent
that we’re looking for a red, three-gear Crescent. They’re publishing the details.’
    ‘When did Karin say the tests would be finished?’ Malin asks.
    ‘Tomorrow at the earliest. At least that’s what she said when I called a little while ago. No fingerprints on the wood in the summerhouse.’
    ‘Christ, she’s taking her time,’ Zeke says.
    ‘She’s usually always so quick,’ Malin says.
    ‘Karin knows how to do her job. We know that,’ Sven says. ‘So, what have you two managed to come up with about Theresa Eckeved?’
    ‘No one seems to have any ideas about where she could be,’ Malin says. ‘We’ve spoken to her supposed boyfriend and the only friend we’ve managed to get hold of, and they don’t know anything either.’
    ‘Supposed boyfriend?’ Sven says.
    ‘Yes, we can’t be too sure of that,’ Malin says. ‘These youngsters are hiding something from us. And the boyfriend’s lying.’
    ‘So how do you plan to find out what they’re hiding? And why he’s lying?’
    Sven is suddenly authoritative, as if he wants to know the answers now, and not hear a plan for the investigation.
    ‘We’re working on it,’ Zeke says. ‘This heat isn’t helping.’
    ‘The heat’s the same for everyone.’
    Then Sven softens slightly.
    ‘Well, so far it’s nothing but an ordinary missing person report.’
    ‘But she could have been missing for a week now. We really have to find more people who know Theresa and talk to them. And bring in the boyfriend, Peter Sköld, for questioning,’ Malin says. ‘He’s at his parents’ place in the country, near Valdemarsvik. We’ll have to get his father to bring him in.
    ‘And we’ve asked for a list of calls made from Theresa’s mobile. She hasn’t taken any money out of her bank account since the day her parents set off for Paris; they’ve already checked.’
    ‘Did she have a computer?’
    ‘Forensics have got it.’
    ‘Good. Kids spend half their lives online these days.’
    Not Tove, Malin thinks. Not so far as I know.
    ‘And the attack and rape of Josefin Davidsson?’ Sven says. ‘What do you make of that? That has to be our main priority at the moment.’
    ‘We’re going to check if any known sexual offenders in the area have been released from prison or any care facility recently, they could have become active again,’ Zeke says. ‘We’ll have to look at old cases as well, see if there are any similarities.’
    ‘Good. What about gang rape, is that a possibility? Even if nothing at the crime scene suggests that?’
    ‘We don’t even know if she was attacked in the Horticultural Society Park at all,’ Zeke says. ‘As far as we know, she could have been attacked somewhere else entirely and just dumped there, couldn’t she?’
    ‘True,’ Sven says. ‘I forgot to say that the lab prioritised their detailed analysis of Josefin Davidsson’s blood test. Completely normal. No sign that she’d been drugged. But there are a number of substances that disappear from the blood in a matter of hours. And the skin samples didn’t give any clear results, apart from