Missing in Malmö: The third Inspector Anita Sundström mystery (Inspector Anita Sundström mysteries) by Torquil MacLeod Page A

businesslike. ‘You could check out the break-in. And we need to find out about the woman that’s at the centre of the probate case. She was called Doris Little.’ Anita proceeded to give Detective Sergeant Ash the sketchy details she had gathered from Jennifer Todd.
    ‘OK, I’ll get onto that, Inspector Sund... Sorry.’
    ‘Sundström. I’ll be in touch,’ she said and put down the phone.

CHAPTER 17
    ‘Amazingly, given what his body had been subjected to, Graeme Todd drowned. But he was dead by the time he ended up in the Sound.’
    They were in the meeting room – Moberg, Wallen, Hakim, Anita and Eva Thulin. Thulin was running through her preliminary findings. Nordlund and Westermark would be joining the investigation in the next couple of days after tying up the final details of the Segevång attack case. It was after seven. Hakim had been sent out to bring in pizzas and coffees. It promised to be a long evening.
    ‘The water in the lungs shows that he didn’t die in the sea. Not saltwater. Freshwater, possibly rainwater. So wherever he was murdered, he was dumped later.’
    ‘That could have been to deflect us from looking in the right place,’ reflected Moberg as he wiped some stray tomato away from his mouth. ‘So the murder could have taken place almost anywhere.’ He shook his head wearily.
    ‘Time of death?’
    Thulin pursed her lips. ‘That’s not easy. I reckon he couldn’t have been in the sea for more than twenty-four hours, given the preserved state of the body. Death probably occurred four days ago. Maybe five.’
    ‘As he disappeared on the Wednesday, he might have been killed on the Friday or Saturday,’ said Anita pointing to a whiteboard on which she had sketched out a rough calendar, from the day on which Todd had arrived, Monday, October 1st, to today, Wednesday, October 10th, the day he was found. Some days had details of his known movements written in. Most of the days were blank.
    ‘What about the missing hand?’ asked Moberg.
    ‘That’s pretty gruesome. It was sawn off.’
    Hakim winced.
    ‘My guess is that they used one of those pruning saws. From the serrated marks left on the body, we might be able to establish the make and manufacturer. But they’re freely available as there are an awful lot of trees in Sweden.’
    ‘See what you can do. That would give us something.’ Anita knew they would be grateful for any scrap of help.
    ‘The condition of the body,’ Thulin continued, ‘strongly indicates that the victim had been tortured. Trauma everywhere. He was hit, kicked; you name it. Broken ribs. Then there’s the hand. Though it didn’t kill him, added to the punishment, it must have put him near the edge. Then someone must have held his head under water until...’ She didn’t have to finish.
    They took in what Thulin had just told them, as she carefully laid out graphic photographic evidence of the injuries and pointed out each area of forensic interest in sickening detail. Todd’s captors had been brutal. Anita was glad she had eaten her pizza before the pictures appeared. ‘I can’t be certain, but I believe there might be more than one perpetrator.’ With a flourish of her hand, ‘I think it would be too much for one person to take the victim captive, carry out all the beatings and torture, then get him onto a boat and dump the body. This is not a Danish TV crime series.’
    The remark produced a few smirks.
    ‘The question is, what did Graeme Todd know that made his killer or killers go to such lengths?’ Anita picked up a photo of Todd’s handless arm. ‘And another one is, did they get that information out of him before he died?’
    ‘Surely they must have,’ observed Moberg. ‘Why kill him otherwise?’
    ‘Maybe they pushed too hard, went too far. He obviously didn’t give up his knowledge without serious encouragement.’
    After Thulin left, it was the turn of Wallen and Hakim to report on what they had found out in Ystad. Between them, they