The Torso

Chapter 1

ONLY SUPERINTENDENT SVEN ANDERSSON,Detective Inspector Irene Huss, and her colleague Jonny Blom were gathered in the superintendent’s office at the police station that evening. It was almost seven thirty. The superintendent felt that it wasn’t necessary to call in th remaining inspectors from Violent Crimes as well. They would have to make do with the two officers who had been at the crime scene. The rest would be informed at “morning prayers” the next day.

They gathered around the desk with their steaming mugs of coffee. Without any fancy introductory remarks Sven Andersson began. “What do we have so far?”

“We got the call around lunchtime. An old lady had taken her dog down to the ocean-”

Almost brusquely, the superintendent interrupted Jonny. “Where by the ocean?”

“Near Stora Amundön. Or just south of it, just before Grundsö. A small beautiful sandy beach called Killevik. There are some large boulders shaped like a triangle. The lady’s dog found a black plastic bag in the triangle and-”

“Sorry to interrupt you, but the lady is two years older than I am and three years younger than you, and her name is Karla Melander. She lives on Klyfteråsvägen in Skintebo. Not far from Killevik,” said Irene Huss.

“Doesn’t she have a job? How come she wasn’t working in the middle of the week?” Andersson wondered aloud.

“She’s a pediatric nurse and had worked over the weekend. Apparently she had yesterday and today off. Yesterday it was blowing quite hard so they hadn’t been down to the beach, but today the weather was gorgeous. They’ve only been there once since Easter. The weather was nice then, too, but ever since, it has just been wind and rain this miserable spring.”

“Can we stop talking about the weather and get back to the essentials?” Jonny Blom said sharply.

Before the other two had time to answer, he picked up where he had been interrupted. “There was a large hole in the bag that was probably caused by birds. The dog evidently stuck his head in the sack and bit a body. It seems to be just the upper portion of a torso. The arms have been removed about ten centimeters from the shoulders. There is a distinct bite mark and the flesh is torn on the lower part of an arm stump. On the right shoulder, which was facing the hole, there is a large tattoo in different colors. That’s what we could see. Forensics will have to come up with more information.”

“So there’s no lower half?”

“No. Based on size it appears as though the body was divided at the waist.”

“You don’t know if it’s a man or a woman?”

Irene and Jonny looked at each other before Jonny responded with a trace of hesitation in his voice, “No. We don’t know for sure but we discussed it. Both Irene and I believe that it looks like there is a large wound where the breasts should be. But it was difficult to see. . the birds have been picking at it, and the body is quite decayed.”

“Severed breasts. Sexual homicide! I’ll be damned. That’s about the worst there is. And then the other parts will have to be searched for,” the superintendent said drearily.

He stood and went over to the map that was hanging on the wall. Göteborg and its surrounding areas, from Kungälv in the north to Kungsbacka in the south, were shown on the large detailed map. With his index finger, he followed the coastline from the entrance to the harbor down to Killevik. He used a short pin with a red plastic top to mark the precise place where the sack had been found.

He took a step back and examined the map for a while. Finally he turned toward the two detectives and said, “We need to find out how the currents run and how strong they are. There may also be a need to find out about the recent weather. We should know when there were storms.”

“Storms? Why are we talking about the weather again?” Jonny whined.

“Because a body in the condition you have just described can’t walk between the rocks and lie down in the calm water by itself.”

Andersson gave Jonny a look as sharp as his tone of voice before he continued. “The body part could have gotten there a number of different ways. It could have been put there at the outset. Then you have to ask yourself why all of the body parts aren’t in the same place. If they were placed in different locations along the coastline, more of them should have been found by now.”

“There are a lot of small uninhabited islands west and southwest of Killevik,” Irene said.

“Exactly. Tomorrow we’ll have to search all of them. As well as the beaches south and north of the discovery site. Another possibility is that the sack floated quite a way since gases are produced when flesh starts rotting. . ”

The superintendent stopped himself and Irene could see a look of nausea quickly pass over his face. He swallowed before he continued. “As I was saying, the sack might have floated and then been washed over the rocks during a storm. The waves crash over them when the wind is blowing hard. Maybe the sack tore when it was thrown against the rocks so that it couldn’t wash out again as easily. That’s why I’m interested in pin-pointing recent storms. It may give us an idea of how long the sack has been there.”

He fell silent, considering. The obvious follow-up question-after where were the other body parts-was, Who was the victim?

“When I talk to the reporters tonight I’m only going to say that we’ve found the upper part of the torso of a dead person. I’ll say that we can’t provide any more information until the medical examiner has conducted a more thorough examination.”

Irene and Jonny nodded. At this initial stage of the investigation, there really wasn’t much to go on. They didn’t know the victim’s sex. They didn’t have a head, a lower body, arms, or legs, and they had no idea of the cause of death.