Hidden in Snow (The ?re Murders, #1)(41)

She is warmly dressed in a woolen sweater, with padded pants tucked into sturdy boots. The scarf around her neck is in the colors of the Sámi flag.

“So what do you think?” Daniel begins. “When did she die?”

Ylva fishes out a pair of glasses and carefully places them on her nose, then opens the thick black notebook in front of her.

“I’m sure you’re aware of what the cold does to dead bodies,” she says. “It literally freezes time.”

“Could you venture a guess?” Anton asks. He looks very tired, and Daniel suspects they are both thinking along the same lines. If only they’d started searching for Amanda earlier. If only they’d managed to find her while she was still alive. He knows it’s pointless to go down that route, but he can’t help it. Disappointment and failure are coursing through his veins.

Ylva chews her pen. “There isn’t much to go on,” she says after a moment. “There were no signs of livor mortis to give us any guidance, and no evidence of decomposition.

Under normal circumstances the body is as stiff as a board after eight to twelve hours, but in temperatures like this, it becomes more complicated. The question is whether the body has stiffened because of the cold, or if we’re looking at rigor mortis that has set in after death.”

“How long do you think she would have survived, if we assume she was outside in this weather?” Raffe asks.

“That depends on a range of factors, including her general health, the amount of subcutaneous fat, and of course the clothes she was wearing.”

Daniel pictures Amanda’s frozen body. She was wearing next to nothing, and she was relatively slim and small.

“What actually happens?” Raffe says. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

“Of course not. Normal body temperature is around thirty-seven degrees Celsius, but at thirty-three the situation is already serious. The person in question becomes apathetic, the heartbeat is erratic, and breathing is shallow.

If the temperature drops even further, the blood pressure is affected, causing confusion. Below thirty degrees breathing becomes increasingly difficult, and the heart beats so slowly that fluid can get into the lungs. The person is usually unconscious by this stage, and eventually the heart stops.

When the body temperature reaches nineteen or twenty degrees, all brain activity ceases. The person is then clinically dead.”

Ylva is very clear and matter-of-fact, but what she has told them doesn’t help at all.

“Can you say anything about the time of death?” Daniel pushes her. He doesn’t want her to head off to Ume?

without giving them something concrete to work on.

“I’d say at least twelve hours must have passed,” Ylva replies eventually. “I can’t be any more specific at this point.”

Amanda disappeared between one and two in the morning on Friday. Approximately fifty-five hours have passed between that time and the discovery of her body. So she must have been alive for a while.

Where was she?

Possibly on the mountain, in the cabin they had intended to start searching for this morning.

“What about the cause of death? Any ideas?”

“I hope you understand that I’ve carried out only a visual inspection.”

“Absolutely,” Anton says quickly.

“There are marks on the throat and upper arms, but no other signs of external force. No scratches, contusions, or other injuries.”

“Strangulation?” Daniel says.

“It looks that way.”

“But you can’t say if that’s the cause of death?”

“Not at this stage.”

Daniel feels even worse as he digests Ylva’s observations.

Given that there are so few signs of external force, Amanda may well have gone willingly with her killer, which suggests he or she was someone she wasn’t afraid of.

Someone she already knew. Someone local.

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41

How many conference calls have they had with ?stersund over the past couple of days? Daniel has lost count as he prepares to speak to his colleagues yet again.

Ylva Labba and the two CSIs have left.

Daniel rubs his eyes before opening up the link. Modern communications technology makes life easier in so many ways, and yet he finds it strange that resources are so centralized that most meetings now take place via screens.

In the city, you take it for granted that everything will be on hand, but in rural areas it’s very different. The idea of increasing efficiency by joining forces might sound good, but the reality is hard to manage when the scene of the crime is in ?re, senior officers are in ?stersund, and the regional communication center, known as LKC, is in Ume?.

Plus there is something about personal contact that is lost when discussions are carried out over a link. It is hard to pick up the small signals, a glance showing agreement, a critical movement of the head—the silent thoughts that colleagues give away during the course of a meeting.

The door opens behind him.

“Ready?” Anton is holding yet another cup of coffee, and Raffe is right behind him.

“Give me a minute,” Daniel replies. His phone pings, but he ignores the text message. Something else is occupying his mind.

“How did the body end up on the chairlift?”