“It always boils down to motive,” Larsson said. “Somebody wanted to murder Molin. That’s for sure. He was a specifically targeted victim. Somebody saw in him a motive to commit murder.”
He yawned again. “But we can talk about that tomorrow.”
Larsson walked to his car, which was parked down the street. Lindman waved to him as he drove off and walked up the hill to the hotel. The town was deserted. He felt cold. He thought about his illness.
When Lindman came down to breakfast at precisely 7:30 A.M., Larsson was already waiting for him. He’d picked a corner table where they would be undisturbed. As they ate, Lindman told him about meeting Abraham Andersson and his walk along the shore of the lake that led him to the site where the tent had been. At that point Larsson pushed his half-eaten omelette to one side. Lindman produced the little parcel with the cigarette butt and the piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
“I can only assume the dogs didn’t get that far,” he said. “I don’t know whether it might still be worth sending a handler there now.”
“There was nothing to go on,” Larsson said. “We brought in three dogs by helicopter the day after we found him, but they didn’t find a single scent.”
He picked up his briefcase from the floor and produced a xerox of a map of the area around Molin’s house. Lindman took a toothpick and indicated the spot where the tent had been pitched. Larsson put on his reading glasses and examined the map.
“There are some snowmobile tracks marked,” he said, “but there’s no road that could take a car to that part of the shore. Whoever set up camp there must have walked for at least two kilometers over quite difficult ground. Unless he used the road to Molin’s house, and that seems unlikely.”
“What about the lake?”
“That’s a possibility. There are several forestry roads on the other side with turnoffs at the edge of the lake. It would obviously be possible to paddle over in a canoe or an inflatable raft.”
He scrutinized the map for a few more minutes. Lindman waited.
“You might be right,” Larsson said, pushing the map aside.
“I wasn’t following a road. I just happened to end up there.”
“It’s not often that police officers just happen to stumble onto something. You could have been searching for something without realizing it,” Larsson said. He turned his attention to the bits of tobacco and the jigsaw puzzle piece.
“I’ll take these and get forensic to give them the once-over,” he said. “Your campsite must also be examined, of course.”
“What’s Rundström going to have to say about this?”
Larsson smiled. “There’s nothing to stop me from telling him that I was the one who found the place.”
They both went for more coffee. Larsson was still limping.
“What did the real estate agent have to say?”
Lindman told him. Again, Larsson was all ears.
“Elsa Berggren?”
“I’ve got her address and telephone number.”
Larsson peered at him. “Have you spoken to her already?”
“No.”
“You’d better leave that to me.”
“Of course.”
“You’ve weighed in with some very useful observations,” Larsson said. “But Rundström’s right of course when he says that this is something we have to figure out ourselves. I wanted to give you the opportunity to see how far we’ve gotten, but I can’t let you get further involved than that.”
“I never expected you to.”
Larsson slowly drained his coffee.
“Tell me, why did you really come to Sveg?”
“I’m on sick leave. I had nothing else to do. And, after all, I knew Molin quite well.”
“Or you thought you did.”
Lindman was aware that the man sitting opposite him was somebody he didn’t know at all. Even so, he had an urge to tell him about his illness. It was as if he could no longer bear the burden alone.
“I came here from Boras because I’m ill,” he said. “I’ve got cancer, and I’m waiting for the treatment to start. I had to choose between Mallorca and Sveg. I chose Sveg because I wanted to know what had happened to Molin. Now I’m wondering if I did the right thing.”
They sat in silence for a minute or so.
“People always ask me where I got my Giuseppe from,” Larsson said. “You haven’t asked. Because you’ve had something else on your mind, no doubt. I wondered what it was. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really. But I wanted you to know.”
“Then I won’t ask any questions.”