The Golden Calf Read Online Free PDF Page A

details on that case. All they knew was that two men had been found shot to death in a single-family house.
    Irene, Tommy, and Birgitta Moberg-Rauhala were sitting around the table. Kajsa Birgersdotter was filling in for Birgitta’s husband Hannu, who was away on paternity leave. Kajsa worked General Investigations, just as Hannu had many years before. She’d been with Irene’s team for almost two months now. In the superintendent’s opinion, she wasn’t a real asset to the team. He thought two women were already more than enough, though he admitted that these two were pretty decent, for women cops. But Kajsa reminded him of his former Sunday school teacher—flat chested and colorless. Of course, most young women were like that nowadays. No curves and nothing for a real man to hold onto.
    Tommy and Irene exchanged looks. Hearing that the death had occurred at a later time undercut their theory. It would be hard to break Sanna’s alibi. Nor did things improve when Birgitta spoke.
    “I called Kjell B:son Ceder’s secretary yesterday. Ceder left his office at six thirty. The attendant in the parking garage confirmed the time. I’ve also had a chat with their head of security, Michael Fuller. The garage has a video surveillance, and at 6:29 exactly, the security camera recorded Ceder getting into his Jaguar and driving away.”
    “Did he tell his secretary where he planned to go?” asked Tommy.
    “I asked her, but she didn’t know. He didn’t mention anything to her.”
    “Sanna said that Ceder hadn’t told her anything, either. We’ll have to press her again to see if she remembers anything more today,” Irene said.
    “OK, you and Tommy can revisit the recently widowed, while Birgitta and Kajsa go chat with the restaurant and hotel employees,” said Andersson. “Touch base with their head of security again and see if we can’t get a copy of the video. I’ve already assigned two of our men to knock on doors in Askim. Perhaps they can give us a time frame for when Ceder arrived at the house.”
    “That’s possible,” Irene said. “It seems he drove the Jaguar into the garage. I didn’t see it, but Åhlén mentioned it when I ran into him in the hallway this morning. He’d taken a peek into the garage before he left the house yesterday.”
    “Åhlén likes cars,” Tommy said. “Did you guys know that he has an antique MG?”
    “An MG? How does he fit a wife and seven kids into an MG?” asked Birgitta. She rolled her beautiful brown eyes—eyes that had managed to melt her husband, Hannu, the man of ice from the northern wilds of Finland.
    “I believe he can’t, and that seems to be the whole point.” Tommy grinned.
    “They must have another larger car,” Birgitta decided. She had become so much more practical since she’d become a mother. Over the past two months, Irene had not heard one word from her about scuba diving, skiing, or wild parties. Their conversations now revolved around homemade versus commercial baby food, the recently built house in Alingsås, and the shamefully high price of diapers. Come summer, Irene’s own daughters would be leaving the nest, each with a high school diploma in hand. Katarina had been talking about going to Australia to work for a year before going to college—with no idea what she wanted to study or do in the future. Jenny was focusing her efforts on her pop band, Polo, which had seen some success in the Göteborg area.
    “There’s one more thing Åhlén told me,” Irene said. “The alarm system at the house wasn’t activated. According to him, they hadn’t finished installing it yet.”
    “You can’t finish everything at once,” said Tommy.
    “Jonny and Fredrik will be back after lunch to report on the double homicide in Långedrag. We don’t know much right now,” said the superintendent.
    “Haven’t they been identified yet?” asked Birgitta.
    “No, not yet.”
    Irene downed the last of her cold coffee. She needed another. She