Still Waters (Sandhamn Murders Book 1) by Viveca Sten Page B

dark outside.
    They went back to his place, which was no more than ten minutes’ walk from the bar. He opened the front door and let her in. She looked around and said something about his plants. He fetched a couple beers from the kitchen, and they sat down on the sofa in the TV room. She lit a cigarette and asked if he wanted one.
    She chain-smoked, complaining that she had a pain in her stomach. She moaned so much his ears had practically started bleeding.
    Both of them got pretty drunk.
    After a while he moved closer to her on the sofa and realized that she understood him.
    If only she had listened to him, everything would have been fine. It would have been so easy to do what he wanted. So damn easy.

C HAPTER 19
    Could there be a better way to spend a beautiful Saturday evening in the middle of summer than sitting in a meeting in a police station that was closed for the weekend? Thomas wondered.
    He stared at his notes and came to the conclusion that the weekend was probably a lost cause. While the crime scene was being examined, he had called Margit to inform her of the latest developments. She hadn’t appreciated the news.
    DCI Persson had decided they should meet at seven o’clock on Saturday evening. That had given Thomas enough time to finish on Sandhamn and get back to the mainland. He was now sitting at one end of the conference table. Margit was on his right, with Carina next to her. Two younger officers, Kalle Lidwall and Erik Blom, had also had to give up their weekend.
    Persson summarized the situation. “OK, so we have one victim who appears to have died as a result of a violent blow to the head. She is the cousin of the dead man whose body washed up on Sandhamn a couple of weeks ago. We still can’t be sure, but there is nothing to indicate that Krister Berggren was intending to take his own life. Nor have we found anything to suggest that he was deliberately killed. It will be a few days before we know the exact cause of Kicki Berggren’s death; the pathologists have promised to do their best, but they’re short-staffed right now.”
    “Do the cousins have any connection to Sandhamn?” Margit asked. “Was it somewhere they used to go in the summer?”
    It was obvious that she needed a vacation. She looked tired, and so far the summer sun hadn’t made much of an impression on her face. She exuded an aura of impatience, as if she didn’t really care about the fact that they had two unexplained deaths to investigate. All she wanted was for everything to be sorted out quickly, so she could begin her much-longed-for annual leave.
    Thomas ran his hand through his short hair. “Not as far as I know. At the moment there’s no clear link between Krister and Kicki Berggren and Sandhamn. But it’s a bit of a coincidence for two cousins to be found dead on the same island within such a short period. We need to go through every possible connection. We’ll see what we find in Kicki Berggren’s apartment. Nothing we know about Krister Berggren links him to the island.”
    Persson cleared his throat. “We have one murder investigation on our hands at any rate. Margit, you’re leading this one. Thomas, you’re supporting Margit. Erik and Kalle will provide additional resources; Carina, help out wherever needed.”
    Carina turned to Thomas. “You only have to say the word, you know that.” She pushed back her hair with a coquettish gesture. She was the only person in the room who was smiling.
    Margit sighed; her expression was grim. “I’m supposed to be starting my vacation on Monday—have you forgotten that? We’ve rented a house on the west coast.”
    “Margit, we have two deaths and at least one is almost certainly murder.”
    Margit was on the warpath. She rarely gave in right away. Now she was fighting for her vacation as if it were a matter of life and death, rather than four weeks in July in a country where the temperature reached seventy degrees at best in the summer.
    “And I also have a