Frozen Tracks Read Online Free Page B

ice pick?' suggested Halders.
    'No,' said Ringmar. 'That's a bit passé nowadays.'
    Halders examined the photos on Ringmar's desk.
Sharp colours, shaved scalps, wounds. Not the first time,
but the difference now was that the victims were still
alive. The most common head in the archives is generally
a dead one. Not these, though, he thought. These
are talking heads.
    'Never mind the bloody pick,' he said, looking up.
'The important thing is to catch the lunatic, no matter
what sort of weapon he uses.'
    'But it's significant,' said Ringmar. 'There's something,
something odd about these wounds.'
    'Yes, no doubt, but we've got to put a stop to it all.'
    Ringmar nodded his agreement and continued
perusing the photos.
    'Do you think it was somebody he knew?' asked Halders.
    'That thought had occurred to me,' said Ringmar.
    'What about the other two blokes? The other two
victims?'
    'Huh. Saw nothing, heard nothing. A relatively open
square. Late. No other witnesses. You know how it is.
Had a few, but not completely blotto.'
    'And then wham.'
    'The same attacker every time. Do you think so as
well?' asked Ringmar.
    'Yes.'
    'Mmm.'
    'We'd better delve a little deeper into the victims'
circles of friends and acquaintances,' said Halders.
    'They're all different,' said Ringmar. 'They aren't
acquainted and they don't have any friends in common,
as far as we know.'
    'OK, so they don't move in the same circles,' said
Halders, 'we know that. But then again, they're all
students in departments located in the town centre,
and they might well have bumped into one another
without realising it. A nightclub, the student union, a
political party, handball, bird-watching, any bloody
thing. Clubs for men only with strippers jumping out
of cakes and giving a few blow jobs. Maybe that's
what it is, and so they think they've got good reason
to lie about it. Or a student disco. No doubt they still
have them at the union. It must be more likely than
not that they'd come across each other somewhere or
other.'
    'OK,' said Ringmar. 'But so what? Was their attacker
there as well?'
    'I don't know. But it's a possibility.'
    'That would mean he was after those three specifically,
wouldn't it?'
    'It's a hypothesis,' said Halders.
    'But you could just as well say he was ready to attack
anybody at all he happened to come across,' said
Ringmar. 'Late, deserted, a drop of booze to undermine
their natural caution.'
    Halders got to his feet and walked over to the wall
map of Gothenburg. He stretched both arms back over
his shoulders and Ringmar could hear his joints creak.
Halders glanced at him with what might have been a
little grin, then turned to the map again and put his
finger on it.
    'Linnéplatsen the first time.' He moved his finger to
the right. 'Then Kapellplatsen.' He ran his finger downwards.
'And now Doktor Fries Torg.' He turned round
and looked at Ringmar. 'A pretty limited area.' He
looked back at the map. 'Like a triangle.'
    'Not really within walking distance, though,' said
Ringmar.
    'There's such a thing as public transport.'
    'Not much of it late at night, though. No trams, for
instance.'
    'Night buses,' said Halders. 'Or maybe the Hulk has
a car. Or he just walks. The attacks weren't all on the
same night, after all.'
    'But why change location?' asked Ringmar.
    'He probably thinks we have enough resources to
keep an eye on the previous place,' said Halders. 'So he
doesn't go back there.'
    'Mmm.'
    'But we don't.'
    'There's something about these places,' said Ringmar.
'It's not just coincidence.' Then he added, as if talking
to himself, 'It rarely is.'
    Halders made no comment, but he knew what
Ringmar meant. The location of a violent assault was
often significant. The attacker, or the victim, nearly
always had some kind of link with that particular spot,
even if it wasn't obvious to begin with. The location is
always central. Always start off with the location. Spread
your search out from there.
    'I've had a word with Birgersson,' said