Read The Torso: A Detective Inspector Huss Investigation, Vol. 2 for Free Online Page B

muttered to himself for a moment before he answered. “Maybe so. We’ll wait another day or so and see if we find more pieces of the victim.”
     
    TWO MORE sacks were found that afternoon by a dog patrol searching the coastline south of Killevik. In a small overgrown bay, an old leaky skiff, turned upside down, was lying a few meters from the water. The dog instantly started for the boat, struggling to get to it. The two policemen carefully turned the skiff on its side. When they saw the sacks, they called in backup from Technical and from the Violent Crimes Unit.
    The technicians were already hard at work when Irene and Jonny arrived. Svante Malm stopped photographing in order to greet them.
    “Appears as though they belong to the same body we found the day before yesterday,” he said.
    “What’s inside the sacks?” asked Irene.
    “The lower part of the abdomen in one and the thighs in the other.”
    The technician got back to his work with the camera.
    Irene and Jonny walked around the discovery site. They had to watch where they put their feet because of the treacherously slippery stones and boulders. It was a gray and overcast afternoon, and the low-lying clouds warned of rain for the evening. Appropriately, a gloomy light shone over the ocean and the police officers on the beach. Beach grass was growing thickly around the skiff.
    “Good hiding place,” Jonny pointed out.
    “Yeah. No one comes here to swim. It’s too overgrown,” Irene agreed.
    “Was the sack with the upper body also deposited here?”
    They looked around, trying to answer the question. Finally Irene said, “No. It couldn’t have been under the skiff. There’s no chance that it could have washed out during high tide.”
    “So then, there are more hiding places.”
    “Yes, but probably close by. How far is it from here to Killevik?”
    “As the crow flies I would guess four hundred meters.”
    “It’s easy to get here by car.”
    They looked up toward the little gravel road that followed the coastline in a north-south line.
    “You can get all the way down to Kungsbacka on these roads,” said Jonny.
    “It’s just a matter of continuing to search along the ocean and the smaller roads.”
     
    “ IT ’ S AFTER six. Go home. You aren’t working this weekend. Fredrik and I are on duty,” said Birgitta.
    “But you have the murder behind Flora’s Hill,” Irene objected.
    “We’ve actually gotten a tip that Fredrik is checking out. It may be a jealousy killing. That wasn’t what we would have suspected would happen to Laban. Apparently, he had been together with a relatively young girl. Since she is a drug addict and he was a dealer they had a lot in common. Supposedly, the girl’s ex went around telling the world what he was planning on doing to Laban when he got his hands on him. Stabbing him to death was the least of it. We only know the ex’s first name. Robert. Apparently, he is also her pimp.”
    “Has Fredrik gone to talk to Robert on his own?” asked Irene.
    “No, he’s just going to get a fix on his whereabouts. Then we’ll bring him into the station for interrogation. If we’re lucky we can pull him in over the weekend. So the investigation of Laban’s murder is going forward. But I don’t think anything will happen with the murder-mutilation case in the next few days. Pathology is going to look at the pieces and that usually takes a while. Are they going to continue searching with dogs over the weekend?”
    “Yes, and the Harbor Police are searching the coast. Hannu has gone through the register but there isn’t anyone reported missing who matches our victim. Actually, there isn’t a lot we can do right now.”
     
    IRENE UNLOCKED the door to her old Saab 99:a. It was twelve years old and was affectionately cared for by the Huss family. They might be forced to buy a new car at any time, and every day that this was put off was valuable. Irene felt lighthearted even though it was raining heavily. Krister