hour or so.’
They hung up and Annika rang Niklas Linde.
He answered on the fourth ring, and she could hear club music in the background.
‘A quick question,’ she said. ‘Have the Spanish police got any leads on the perpetrators?’
Thud, thud, thud.
‘Now I’m disappointed,’ he said, and Annika bit her cheek. What had she done wrong?
A woman was laughing so hard somewhere in the bar that she was practically howling.
‘There was me hoping you were after my body,’ Linde said, ‘but you only want me for my brains.’
Okay. He was one of those.
‘I wonder if Constable Linde might have had a few glasses of
vino tinto
since we last met?’ Annika said, looking at the time: half past eight. At that moment she remembered she hadn’t eaten since the awful sandwich she’d had on the plane that morning.
‘And a few
cava
s,’ he added. ‘Do you want to come down and have a glass or two?’
Thud, thud, thud.
‘Not tonight,’ Annika said. ‘I’ve got articles to write. That’s part of the deal.’
‘Some other night, maybe.’
Thud, thud, thud.
‘Maybe. Who knows? Any leads in the case?’
‘Just a moment,’ he said, suddenly sounding completely sober.
There was a bang and crash on the line and she had to take her earpiece out.
‘Hello?’ he said. The thudding was gone. Now the sound of traffic was in the background.
‘I was asking about leads,’ Annika said.
‘They’ve got quite a lot to go on,’ Niklas Linde said. ‘Tyre-tracks from two different vehicles, both types identified. Footprints from three suspected perpetrators, shoe sizes confirmed. There’s also other evidence that I can’t divulge at the moment.’
‘So the police are fairly confident of solving this crime?’
‘It’s just a matter of time,’ Linde said. ‘Have you eaten?’
‘Er,’ Annika said, ‘no, but …’
‘Where are you staying?’
‘In a hotel called Pyr. It’s—’
‘Fancy that! I’m at the Sinatra Bar down by the harbour – it’s only three hundred metres away. Do you want me to bring you an emergency sandwich?’
She couldn’t help laughing. ‘Ha, not a chance!’ she said. ‘Sleep well.’ She clicked to end the call, picked up the hotel phone and called Reception. The hotel didn’t offer room service.
The minibar was full of ridiculously expensive miniatures of spirits, but at the back she found two bars of chocolate and a dusty tub of roasted almonds. She ate the lot as she wrote the article about the murders. She referred to anonymous sources inside the police investigation, and described how the thieves, three people in two vehicles, had opened the gate to the road leadingto the Söderström family home at three thirty-four in the morning, made their way round to the ventilation unit at the back of the building and released an as yet unidentified gas into the system. She outlined the police theory about the family’s panic-stricken actions when they realized they were being gassed: how the gas detector had woken them, how the father had tried to stop it using the duvet, while the mother rushed to open the door for the children, then their instantaneous paralysis and death. Then how the thieves, or murderers, had stripped the house of valuables, and driven off.
She described the positions of the bodies when they were found by the cleaner, the police leads on the perpetrators, and how it was ‘just a matter of time’ before the culprits were caught.
She added some facts about gases used in break-ins. Hexane: a common industrial solvent, and a constituent of petrol and oil; it smells; large quantities required to knock someone out. Isopropanol: a solvent used in sprays such as de-icers, windscreen-washer fluid and detergents; has a characteristically strong smell; takes several hundred grams to knock someone out. Carbon dioxide: a natural constituent of air, forming about 0.03 per cent by volume; several kilograms needed to render someone unconscious, which would cause
They hung up and Annika rang Niklas Linde.
He answered on the fourth ring, and she could hear club music in the background.
‘A quick question,’ she said. ‘Have the Spanish police got any leads on the perpetrators?’
Thud, thud, thud.
‘Now I’m disappointed,’ he said, and Annika bit her cheek. What had she done wrong?
A woman was laughing so hard somewhere in the bar that she was practically howling.
‘There was me hoping you were after my body,’ Linde said, ‘but you only want me for my brains.’
Okay. He was one of those.
‘I wonder if Constable Linde might have had a few glasses of
vino tinto
since we last met?’ Annika said, looking at the time: half past eight. At that moment she remembered she hadn’t eaten since the awful sandwich she’d had on the plane that morning.
‘And a few
cava
s,’ he added. ‘Do you want to come down and have a glass or two?’
Thud, thud, thud.
‘Not tonight,’ Annika said. ‘I’ve got articles to write. That’s part of the deal.’
‘Some other night, maybe.’
Thud, thud, thud.
‘Maybe. Who knows? Any leads in the case?’
‘Just a moment,’ he said, suddenly sounding completely sober.
There was a bang and crash on the line and she had to take her earpiece out.
‘Hello?’ he said. The thudding was gone. Now the sound of traffic was in the background.
‘I was asking about leads,’ Annika said.
‘They’ve got quite a lot to go on,’ Niklas Linde said. ‘Tyre-tracks from two different vehicles, both types identified. Footprints from three suspected perpetrators, shoe sizes confirmed. There’s also other evidence that I can’t divulge at the moment.’
‘So the police are fairly confident of solving this crime?’
‘It’s just a matter of time,’ Linde said. ‘Have you eaten?’
‘Er,’ Annika said, ‘no, but …’
‘Where are you staying?’
‘In a hotel called Pyr. It’s—’
‘Fancy that! I’m at the Sinatra Bar down by the harbour – it’s only three hundred metres away. Do you want me to bring you an emergency sandwich?’
She couldn’t help laughing. ‘Ha, not a chance!’ she said. ‘Sleep well.’ She clicked to end the call, picked up the hotel phone and called Reception. The hotel didn’t offer room service.
The minibar was full of ridiculously expensive miniatures of spirits, but at the back she found two bars of chocolate and a dusty tub of roasted almonds. She ate the lot as she wrote the article about the murders. She referred to anonymous sources inside the police investigation, and described how the thieves, three people in two vehicles, had opened the gate to the road leadingto the Söderström family home at three thirty-four in the morning, made their way round to the ventilation unit at the back of the building and released an as yet unidentified gas into the system. She outlined the police theory about the family’s panic-stricken actions when they realized they were being gassed: how the gas detector had woken them, how the father had tried to stop it using the duvet, while the mother rushed to open the door for the children, then their instantaneous paralysis and death. Then how the thieves, or murderers, had stripped the house of valuables, and driven off.
She described the positions of the bodies when they were found by the cleaner, the police leads on the perpetrators, and how it was ‘just a matter of time’ before the culprits were caught.
She added some facts about gases used in break-ins. Hexane: a common industrial solvent, and a constituent of petrol and oil; it smells; large quantities required to knock someone out. Isopropanol: a solvent used in sprays such as de-icers, windscreen-washer fluid and detergents; has a characteristically strong smell; takes several hundred grams to knock someone out. Carbon dioxide: a natural constituent of air, forming about 0.03 per cent by volume; several kilograms needed to render someone unconscious, which would cause
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