The killer's art

77

The whole night passed without a word from David Mattson. The police maintained their tight control on all exits from Gotland. For safety’s sake, Muramaris was kept under surveillance, but nobody really thought he would be stupid enough to go back there. They were dealing with a dangerous man who had already killed at least twice. It was still not clear whether David Mattson had also murdered his father. A postmortem needed to be performed before the ME could answer that question.

Knutas sat in his office at police headquarters in a state of anguish. A kidnapped child was the worst scenario he could imagine. The most frustrating part was that he felt so helpless. As long as the kidnapper refused to make contact and remained holed up somewhere, brooding, it was virtually impossible to track him down. A team of police officers was at the house in Roma, and the phone was being tapped. Emma Winarve was still in hospital. They had tried to interview her, but it was proving nearly impossible to get anything out of her. She was suffering from a complete nervous breakdown.

Where was the kidnapper? In the summertime he might pitch a tent or sleep in a campervan, or even in his car if need be. But at this time of year? It was most likely that he’d broken into a summerhouse somewhere — there were plenty on Gotland. But where should the police start looking? Summerhouses in remote locations were everywhere on the island, and on Faro. But if he decided to let the child live, he would need food and nappies. What was his intention when he kidnapped Elin?

Sooner or later David Mattson would make contact.