Free Autumn Killing by Mons Kallentoft Page B

the most famous noble families in the area. The sort of family that everyone knows something about. Without ever really knowing why.
    ‘We’ll have to question the Fågelsjös about the circumstances surrounding the sale,’ Sven says. ‘Find out which members of the family were involved.’
    ‘The family consists of a father and two children. A son and a daughter, I think,’ Zeke says.
    ‘How do you know that?’ Malin asks.
    ‘That was in the
Correspondent
as well. In one of those birthday profiles of the old man when he hit seventy.’
    ‘Children’s names?’
    ‘No idea.’
    ‘That should be fairly easy to find out,’ Waldemar says.
    ‘You’ll have to share out the interviews between you,’ Sven says. ‘Get them done as soon as possible. I’ll arrange for checks at the houses around here, and we’ll put out a message in the local media that we want to hear from anyone who may have seen anything unusual in the area over the past twenty-four hours.’
    ‘If he was really rich,’ Malin says, ‘then this could have been a robbery. Someone who heard about the new millionaire in the castle and decided to have a go.’
    ‘Maybe,’ Sven says. ‘The doors were open, after all. But from what we’ve seen so far, nothing seems to be missing in here. And Karin found his wallet in that yellow raincoat. The knife wounds to his torso suggest the sort of violent rage you don’t often see in robberies.’
    ‘No, I don’t get the feeling that this was a robbery or a break-in either. This is something else,’ Malin says.
    ‘What about Petersson’s business affairs?’ Zeke says. ‘If he was a bit sleazy, as the rumours seem to suggest, then there could be hundreds of people wishing him harm. People who were pissed off with him.’
    ‘That’s our most important line of inquiry right now,’ Sven says. ‘We need to try to find files and business records here in the house that might indicate how to proceed. What sort of dodgy dealings was he involved in? Any former colleagues? What about his business? Did he have anything going on at the moment that might have gone wrong? We need to do a serious background check on him. There must be loads of documented evidence. Waldemar, you and Jakobsson take that. Start by searching the castle for documentation once Forensics have cleared the rooms. We also need to find out if he had any sort of will. Who stands to inherit all this? That would be very interesting to know.’
    ‘Jakobsson’s not on today,’ Waldemar says.
    ‘Call him in,’ Sven says. ‘And you two, Malin and Zeke, start by questioning the two men who found him.’
    They talk to Ingmar Johansson first.
    The tenant farmer is slurping coffee on the other side of the table in the castle kitchen, running one hand through his blond hair at regular intervals, telling them how he was uneasy at first when he heard that the castle had a new owner, but that everything had seemed ‘fine’ once he’d had the chance to talk to Petersson.
    ‘He wasn’t planning to change the terms of our lease.’
    ‘No changes at all?’ Zeke says.
    ‘No, not really.’
    ‘Not really?’ Zeke wonders.
    ‘Well, he wanted me to go hunting with him whenever he felt like it.’
    ‘And you didn’t object?’
    ‘No, why should I? It does me no good if there’s too much game running around on the land I lease.’
    ‘How often were you supposed to do that?’ Malin asks.
    ‘Whenever he called.’
    ‘But how often?’
    ‘He never said. When he called yesterday it was the first time in a long while.’
    ‘You didn’t see anything odd when you got here?’ Malin says, even though she had asked the same thing when they had first arrived at the castle. Wants to twist the truth out of Ingmar Johansson with the force of repetition.
    ‘No. I came with Lindman, and the Range Rover was parked in front of the castle. I assumed Petersson was inside the castle and would be out shortly, and when he didn’t come out we went inside to