Free Midnight In Malmö: The Fourth Inspector Anita Sundström Mystery (The Malmö Mysteries Book 4) by Torquil MacLeod

Lausanne.’
    ‘Brilliant! Is Moberg still in?’
    A few minutes later, they were standing in front of the chief inspector’s desk.
    ‘Right, we’ve got to follow this up. One of you needs to go out there and find out as much as we can about this woman. Actually, you can go, Mirza. I need you here, Klara.’ Wallen was secretly quite relieved. She was enjoying the responsibility that Moberg was giving her, and she wanted to remain at the heart of the investigation. Akerman may have come from Switzerland, but the murder took place here, and she was sure that the real answers lay in Malmö. ‘I’ll get it sorted out at this end and try to establish contacts with the Swiss police.’ He pointed a large, chubby finger at Hakim. ‘I want you on a plane on Monday.’

CHAPTER 14
    Anita let Kevin drive back from Simrishamn after their meal. He had wanted to try out driving on the right, and, as the insurance covered the car and not the driver, there was no problem. Anyway, she was weary after the day out and wanted an early night.
    As they approached the house, there was the outline of a figure on the porch.
    ‘Who’s that?’ Anita called out.
    ‘Klas,’ came the reply.
    Anita inwardly groaned. Much as she liked Lennartsson, she wasn’t in the mood to listen to his stories. She had other plans.
    ‘It’s important,’ he said in Swedish.
    ‘You’d better come in.’
    Once the lights were turned on and Kevin had offered to make them all a cup of tea, Lennartsson sat down on the sofa. Anita could see that he was tense and worried.
    ‘What’s the matter, Klas?’ The sooner she got to the point, the sooner he would go.
    ‘It’s Rylander.’ She knew it had to be. ‘I don’t think it was suicide. I want you to look into it.’
    Anita tried to keep the sigh out of her voice, but failed. ‘Honestly, Klas, it’s obviously suicide. It’s disappointing, particularly for you. I understand that. But he’ll have had his reasons. And anyway, there’s nothing I can do about it. It’ll be officially dealt with.’ She plonked herself down on the chair opposite. After a pleasant meal with a nice male companion, this was not something she wanted to get involved with. ‘Besides, I’m on holiday.’
    ‘I’m sorry. But it’s not that simple. For starters, he didn’t leave a note. Isn’t that unusual?’
    ‘Yes. Suicides do tend to. But who was Rylander going to leave one to? He had no family.’
    ‘To me then.’
    ‘Why to you?’
    ‘I guess I was closest to him at the end.’
    ‘Is that all you have to go on?’
    ‘No.’ This was said with more determination. The self-pity of a moment ago was gone. ‘I spoke to Moa this afternoon. She was just as surprised as me.’
    ‘For the same reasons as you, I expect.’
    ‘No. She thinks that something’s not right.’
    ‘And why?’ One amateur sleuth was bad enough, but two! She just wanted to go to bed.
    ‘He was taking morphine sulphate for the pain. Once every twelve hours.’
    ‘Was this what he took to kill himself?’
    ‘In theory.’
    ‘Well, it’ll come out in the autopsy.’
    ‘That’s not the point, Anita,’ Klas said vehemently. ‘To kill himself, he must have taken ten to twenty tablets. With all the whisky he drank, that would do it. But Moa says that he didn’t have enough tablets left to take that kind of overdose. Moa says she usually gave him enough tablets to last four weeks. They were nearly finished. She was taking his next lot to him when she found him dead. Where did all the other morphine sulphate come from?’
    ‘Maybe he hadn’t taken all the tablets at the prescribed times. Maybe he was storing them up for the time when he felt he had had enough. Look, who’s going to bother killing someone who’s about to die anyway?’
    Lennartsson looked unconvinced, but it seemed perfectly logical to Anita.
    ‘Anyway, after I’d seen Moa, I went to the police station and saw Inspector Zetterberg. She wouldn’t give me the time of day.