The Laughing Policeman Read Online Free PDF Page B

Kollberg repeated.
    Then he wheeled round, almost triumphantly, as if he had had a brainwave.
    'Gunvald,' he said. 'You were the one who got there first You can hold the press conference.'
    Gunvald Larsson stared into the room and pushed a wet tuft of hair off his forehead with the back of his big hairy right hand. Martin Beck said nothing, not even bothering to look towards the door.
    'OK,' Gunvald Larsson said. 'Get them herded in somewhere. I'll talk to them. There's just one thing I must know first'
    'What?'Martin Beck asked.
    'Has anyone told Stenström's mother?'
    Dead silence fell, as though the words had robbed everyone in the room of the power of speech, including Gunvald Larsson himself. The man on the threshold looked from one to the other.
    At last Melander turned his head and said, 'Yes. She's been told.'
    'Good,' Gunvald Larsson said, and banged the door.
    'Good,' said Martin Beck to himself, drumming the top of the desk with his fingertips.
    'Was that wise?' Kollberg asked.
    'What?'
    'Letting Gunvald ... Don't you think we'll get enough abuse in the press as it is?'
    Martin Beck looked at him but said nothing. Kollberg shrugged. 'Oh well,' he said. 'It doesn't matter.'
    Melander went back to the desk, picked up his pipe and lit it.
    'No,' he said. 'It couldn't matter less.'
    He and Kollberg had got the sketch up now. An enlarged drawing of the lower deck of the bus. Some figures were sketched in. They were numbered from one to nine.
    'Where's Rönn with that list?' Martin Beck mumbled.
    'Another thing about the bus -' Ek said obstinately.
    And the telephones rang.

8
    The office where the first improvised confrontation with the press took place was decidedly ill-suited to the purpose. It contained nothing but a table, a few cupboards and four chairs, and when Gunvald Larsson entered the room, it was already stuffy with cigarette smoke and the smell of wet overcoats.
    He stopped just inside the door, looked round at the assembled journalists and photographers and said tonelessly, 'Well, what do you want to know?'
    They all began to talk at once. Gunvald Larsson held up his hand and said, 'One at a time, please. You, there, can start Then we'll go from left to right'
    Thereafter the press conference proceeded as follows:
    QUESTION: When was the bus found?
    ANSWER: About ten minutes past eleven last night
    Q: By whom?
    A: A man in the street who then stopped a radio patrol car.
    Q: How many were in the bus?
    A: Eight
    Q: Were they all dead?
    A: Yes.
    Q: How had they died?
    A: It's too soon yet to say.
    Q: Was their death caused by external violence?
    A: Probably.
    Q: What do you mean by probably?
    A: Exactly what I say.
    Q: Were there any signs of shooting?
    A: Yes.
    Q: SO all these people had been shot dead?
    A: Probably.
    Q: SO it's really a question of mass murder?
    A: Yes.
    Q: Have you found the murder weapon? A: NO.
    Q: Have the police detained anyone yet? A: NO.
    Q: Are there any traces or clues that point to one particular
    person? A: NO.
    Q: Were the murders committed by one and the same person?
    A: Don't know.
    Q: Is there anything to indicate that more than one person killed these eight people?
    A: NO.
    Q: HOW could one single person kill eight people in a bus before anyone had time to resist?
    A: Don't know.
    Q: Were the shots fired by someone inside the bus or did they come from outside?
    A: They did not come from outside.
    Q: HOW do you know?
    A: The windowpanes that were damaged had been fired at from inside.
    Q: What kind of weapon had the murderer used?
    A: Don't know.
    Q: It must surely have been a machine gun or a submachine gun?
    A: NO comment.
    Q: Was the bus standing still when the murders were committed or was it moving? A: Don't know.
    Q: Doesn't the position in which the bus was found indicate that the shooting took place while it was in movement and that it then mounted the pavement?
    A: Yes.
    Q: Did the police dogs get a scent?
    A: It was raining.
    Q: It was a doubledecker bus, wasn't