No.
Erixson smiles, relieved. Then hes serious again.
Was he going to blow the place to hell anyway?
Looks like it. Hes good at getting rid of evidence, Joona answers sarcastically.
Erixson fumbles at the paper on his chocolate cigarette but drops it. He closes his eyes for a minute. By now his cheeks are ash-white.
I take it you didnt see his face either, Joona says quietly.
No, Erixson mumbles. We saw something, though. Theres always something we notice in spite of ourselves.
18
The medical crew from the ambulance reassures Erixson that theyre not going to drop him.
I can walk, Erixson protests and shuts his eyes.
His chin shakes each step down.
Joona goes back into Penelope Fernandezs apartment. He opens all the windows to clear the air and then sits down on the apricot-colored sofa. It is very comfortable.
If the apartment had exploded, it would have looked like an unfortunate accident caused by a gas leak. The case would have been closed.
Joona lets his memory expand. No fragment of observation ever completely disappears. It simply must be retrieved just like the seas heave flotsam and jetsam up onto the beach.
But what was it?
He had seen nothing. Just a quick, blurred movement and a knife blade.
Thats what I saw! Joona realizes. I saw nothing!
This lack is exactly what is nudging his intuition.
Were dealing with a pro here, a contract killer, a hit man, a grob.
There arent many in the world.
This was not the first inkling hes had, but now hes thoroughly convinced. The killer in the hallway is the same man who murdered Viola. There was certainly time to do both. Hed planned to kill Penelope and sink the cruiser as if it were an accident; then hed use the same method here. This is a killer who wants to remain invisible. He wants to kill under the radar of the police.
Joona looks around slowly. He tries again to assemble the parts of the puzzle into a whole.
He hears children playing in the apartment above his head. Theyre rolling marbles over the floor. Theyd have been in the middle of an inferno right now if Joona hadnt been able to pull the plug in time.
This was a cold-blooded, driven attack, Joona thinks, and the man behind it was not some hate-filled right-wing activist. Penelope Fernandez might be involved in the peace movement, sure, and those groups did, ironically, resort to violence sometimes. But this man was different: a highly trained professional at a level well above any of the amateur groups.
So why were you here? Joona wonders. What does a hit man have to do with Penelope Fernandez? What is she mixed up in? Whats going on beneath the surface?
Joona reviews those unusual knife movements. The technique was obviously meant to circumvent the usual police and military defensive training. His skin prickles as he realizes that the first cut would have sliced into his liver if he hadnt carried his pistol under his right arm. The second cut would have gone straight into his brain if he hadnt thrown himself backward.
Joona gets up from the sofa and walks into the bedroom. He studies the well-made bed and the crucifix over the headboard.
A hit man believed hed killed Penelope, and his intention was to make it seem like an accident but the boat never sank.
Either the killer was interrupted or he left the scene of the crime intending to return and complete his assignment. He must never have intended that the Coast Guard would find the boat adrift with the drowned girl on board. Something had gone wrong or the plans had to be drastically changed. Maybe he was given new orders. At any event, a day and a half after killing Viola, he was here in Penelopes apartment.
Either the killer was interrupted or he left the scene of the crime intending to return and complete his assignment. He must never have intended that the Coast Guard would find the boat adrift with the drowned girl on board. Something had gone wrong or the plans had to be drastically changed. Maybe he was given new orders. At any event, a day and a half after killing Viola, he was here in Penelopes apartment.
You must have had a strong reason to come here. What was your motive behind this major risk? Is there something here that connects you or your client to Penelope?
You did something here. You got rid of fingerprints or you erased a hard drive or destroyed an answering machine or you came to get something.
Thats what you wanted, but then I showed up and wrecked your plan.
Or maybe your plan was to destroy something in the fire? Thats a possibility, Joona thinks.
Joona wishes he had Erixson with him now. He needs a forensic technician; he doesnt have the right tools and might even destroy evidence if he searched the apartment on his own. He could contaminate DNA or miss invisible evidence.
Joona walks to the window and looks down at the street. He sees empty tables by a sandwich cafe.
He really must head back to the police station and talk to his boss, Carlos Eliasson. He must ask to be assigned as the leader of the investigation and call in another forensic technician now that Erixson will be on sick leave.