Hidden in Snow (The ?re Murders, #1)(93)
“Let’s go through the course of events one more time,”
Hanna suggests, sitting down opposite him. “Sometimes it’s good to say it out loud.”
Once again Daniel goes over their hypothesis.
Amanda leaves the party and walks along the E14, where someone picks her up in a dark-colored car. This is probably a person known to her; otherwise it seems unlikely that she would have gotten into the vehicle.
Some kind of quarrel erupts, the man grabs Amanda in a stranglehold, and she loses consciousness. He takes her to a cabin in Ull?dalen, presumably still unconscious, and hides her there. She remains there for two days, during which time she freezes to death. The perpetrator panics and decides to return her body. He places it on the chairlift at VM6, where it is found by the lift attendant on Sunday morning.
“Did she know Fredrik Bergfors?” Hanna asks. “If we assume he’s the guilty party, and not Viktor or Sandahl.”
“I don’t know, but maybe she recognized him and felt safe.”
Hanna drinks the last of her coffee. “I really wish we had access to her phone. It would be a big help if we could read her text messages. Kids text one another all the time; maybe she had time to send something before she was abducted?”
A thought occurs to Daniel. They don’t have Amanda’s phone, but perhaps there’s another way of accessing her texts. They took a Mac from her room; he has the same one at home and it’s linked to his phone. All his personal messages come through on the computer as well as on his phone. If Amanda has done the same, they should be able to see who she has contacted.
The forensic technicians should be finished with the computer very soon; if he’s going to ?stersund anyway, he can check it out. He also intends to have a chat with the prosecutor, face-to-face. He is desperate to search the Bergforses’ house.
He looks at his watch and realizes it’s time to go.
“I need to take off,” he says, getting to his feet. “Speak later.”
OceanofPDF.com
102
As Daniel turns into the parking lot at police HQ in ?stersund, he receives an unexpected text informing him that the press conference has been postponed. Birgitta Grip has to attend an urgent meeting in Stockholm, which takes precedence.
The relief is immense. He remains sitting in the car as the tension leaves his body. He really needed something to go his way today.
Everything else feels like shit right now.
He heads for the forensic technicians’ department to check on Amanda’s computer before going to see the prosecutor.
Markus Larsson, the technician who is working on the case, is one floor above the office Daniel uses on the days when he is based in ?stersund. He has his headphones on and doesn’t notice that he has company until Daniel taps him on the shoulder. He is facing three large screens, his fingers moving ceaselessly across the keyboard. There is a tangle of black cables on the floor.
“Hi, Daniel—good to see you.”
“How’s it going with Amanda Halvorssen’s computer?”
Markus nods toward a Mac in a silver case on the desk beside him. “I’m pretty much done—I was going to call you this afternoon. Sorry about the delay.”
Daniel pulls up a chair. “Can we take a look?”
Markus reaches for the Mac and opens the screen. He certainly doesn’t meet Daniel’s expectations of a computer geek; he isn’t an introvert, or overweight, and he doesn’t wear black hoodies. In fact he looks perfectly normal; he is a slim guy aged about thirty, with black-rimmed glasses and a white shirt.
“What would you like to see first?”
“I’m wondering if she’d linked her phone and her computer, which would give us access to her text messages.”
Markus opens the messaging program. “Yes—there you go.”
Daniel contemplates the list; nothing strikes him as suspicious.
“What about her emails?”
Markus brings up Amanda’s emails, but they don’t provide much more information.
“Can you access other forms of communication through the computer?” Daniel asks. “Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat?”
Markus logs in to Facebook with the help of a saved password. Amanda wasn’t exactly an avid user; her posts are few, with weeks or even months in between. The latest activity was when she changed her profile picture to a selfie taken at sunset by the lake. She looks happy, her eyes are fixed on the horizon, and the soft August light gives her a golden shimmer.
It is heartrending to think that she no longer exists, that she will never be older than eighteen.
Daniel can’t help seeing Alice in his mind’s eye.
“Shall we try Messenger?” Markus suggests. “A lot of educational establishments use it to enable students to communicate with one another. Some employers do the same, because kids don’t always keep up with email.”
Judging by the plethora of unopened messages in Amanda’s inbox, she belonged to that category.
“Good idea.”
Markus opens a new window containing several messages. One of the senders catches Daniel’s attention: a woman called Linda has been in touch with Amanda.
He doesn’t remember a Linda among Amanda’s friends and acquaintances.
“Can we take a look at that one?” he says, pointing.