Joona feels the road to finding the motive behind this murder is long. Hes still internally convinced that Penelope Fernandez is alive. Its not just a wild hope or an attempt to give comfort. Its intuition. Based on what, he cannot say. Hed caught the thought in flight, but lost it again before he could capture it and pin it down.
If he followed the usual procedures put forth by the CID, suspicion would immediately fall on Violas boyfriend or perhaps on Penelope and Bjorn since they were on the boat. Speculation would include alcohol and drugs. Perhaps a fight. Perhaps a serious drama stemming from jealousy. Before too long, Leif G. W. Persson would be sitting on a couch in a television studio explaining that the suspect was a close acquaintance and probably a boyfriend or ex-boyfriend.
What is the point behind making the fuel tank explode? Wheres the logic behind this plan? Viola is already dead, drowned in the zinc tub on the afterdeck. The killer carries her downstairs and leaves her on the bed.
Joona realizes too many ideas are coming at once. He puts on mental brakes and begins to find structure in the evidence hes gathered, tries to find questions that still need answers.
He circles Violas name again and starts over.
What he knows now is that she was drowned in a tub and placed on a bed in the forecabin and that Penelope Fernandez and Bjorn Almskog have still not been found.
But thats not all, he tells himself, and flips to a new page.
He writes the word Calm on the paper.
There was no wind and the boat was found drifting near Dalaro Island.
The boats bow had been damaged in a serious collision. Joona expected the technicians had likely already found evidence, perhaps even making some plaster casts for possible matches.
Joona throws the legal pad against the wall and shuts his eyes.
Perkele, he swears in Finnish.
Something has slipped through his fingers again. He had been just about to grasp it. Hed instinctively realized something, almost understood something, but then-it was gone.
Viola, he thinks. You died on the afterdeck. Why were you moved after your death? Who moved you, the killer or someone else?
If someone were to find her lifeless on the deck, that person would still try to bring her back to life. Theyd call in an SOS alarm-thats what people do. And if they realized she was already dead and it was too late, that she wouldnt be coming back to life, then they wouldnt just leave her lying there. Theyd want to carry her inside and put a blanket over her. However, a body is awkward to move, even with two people. Yet the distance was hardly more than five meters, just in through the glass doors and down the stairs.
Even one person could manage that. Its possible.
But you dont carry her down the stairs and through the narrow hallway and then set her on the bed in the cabin.
Someone would only do that to stage some sort of setup: that shed be found drowned on her bed in a water-filled boat.
Exactly, Joona mumbles and stands up.
He looks out through the window and sees an almost blue beetle crawling along the white ledge. Raising his gaze, he sees a woman on a bicycle disappear behind the trees-and, suddenly, he recovers the missing element hed dropped.
Joona sits back down and drums the table. It was not Penelope theyd found in the boat, but her sister, Viola. But Viola was not on her own bed. She was on Penelopes. The murderer made the same mistake I did, Joona thinks as shivers travel down his spine.
He thought hed killed Penelope Fernandez. Thats why hed put her on the forecabins bed. This is the only explanation that makes sense.
Joona jumps as the office door bangs open. Its The Needle, pushing it open with his shoulder and backing in with a long, flat box in his arms. On the front theres the image of large flames and the text proclaims Guitar Hero.
Frippe and I are going to-
Quiet! Joona barks.
Whats up? The Needle asks.
Nothing. I just have to think.
Joona gets up from the chair and strides out without another word, through the foyer, not even hearing the words said by the woman with the dazzling eyes in reception. He comes into the heat of the sun and stands quietly on the lawn by the parking lot.
A fourth person, unknown to either Penelope or Viola, killed Viola, Joona thinks. He mistook one sister for the other. This must mean that Penelope was alive when Viola was killed, or he wouldnt have made that mistake.
Perhaps Penelope really is still alive, Joona thinks. Or her body is somewhere in the archipelago, on an island or deep beneath the sea. But we can hope that shes still alive and if she is, we will find her very soon.
Joona strides quickly to his car even though he has no idea where he will go. He spots his cell phone up on its roof; he must have put it there when he locked the car door. He picks up the sun-warmed phone and calls Anja Larsson. No answer. He climbs in, automatically fastens the seat belt, but makes no next move. He just sits and tries to find the flaws in his reasoning.
The air is suffocating, but the heady aroma of the lilac bushes next to the parking lot eases its way into his nostrils and chases away the smell of decaying corpses from the pathology lab.