“Yes, it certainly can’t have been very pleasant. The victims were transported to the gymnasium and up onto the podium in a more-or-less advanced state of sedation. Their clothes were removed. Where and how we don’t know. Naked, with hands bound behind their backs and legs tied, they were placed apart from each other, a noose around their necks. We have found traces of glue on their ankles and in several cases on their underarms, most likely from strong tape. Then they were hanged, and immediately after the hanging but before the next person was killed, the victim’s hands were cut off. There are also a number of slashes made on the person’s face. The bloodstains and angles of the wounds are the grounds for the forensic conclusion we have already mentioned. We can only offer an educated guess as to the order of executions. We think it was Mr. Southwest, Mr. Northwest, and Mr. Southeast. As previously mentioned, Mr. Northeast is an exception, and Mr. Middle was last. The mutilation of the victims’ genitals occurred only after the podium had been dismantled.”
As if by previous agreement, they all waited for Konrad Simonsen, who, despite the pressure of their silence, took his time to gather his thoughts. Finally he said quietly, “Plastic on the floor, newspapers above to absorb the blood, then a whole podium that is erected for the occasion and then dismantled and taken away?”
It was a question and it was of acute significance. Pauline Berg said, “It fits nicely that the janitor’s father was a master carpenter—”
Simonsen interrupted her: “One moment, Pauline. Kurt?”
Kurt Melsing was as soft-spoken as Konrad Simonsen, but there was no hesitation in his answer.
“That is what happened, Simon. I know that it sounds sick, but it happened that way.”
“There’s no room for doubt?”
“No.”
The Criminal Forensics Division had produced a visual re-creation of the events in which stick figures enacted the tableau that Arthur Elvang described. The sequence lasted two minutes, with occasional close-ups for details of particular interest. The animation was done in three dimensions, and though it did not appear particularly lifelike it depicted a stylized gruesomeness that gripped its audience and depressed the atmosphere further.
They watched it twice.
Melsing made a single comment: “We have used two perpetrators. It could have been one or, for that matter, five. We don’t know and don’t have a way to make a reasonable determination.”
When the meeting came to an end, Simonsen lingered. First, however, he took the lead on psychologist Ditte Lubert, from Berg, who had made no headway with her. He would let the Countess or Pedersen—whichever one had the time—take a stab at it.
After the two others had left, he asked Elvang, “Can you give me a short lesson in craniofacial reconstruction?”
The old man beamed. It would be his pleasure, he said, and without any further need for reflection he launched into an explanation.
“The method is used for the purpose of obtaining an identification. It is not used here in Denmark, where forensic law enforcement in tandem with a well-functioning dental service with orderly files constitute a better, cheaper, and more secure method for establishing an identity. But it is employed to some extent in England, for example, and in the USA, where people are less documented, and in these places there are trained professionals. ‘Forensic anthropologist’ is what the Americans call them. The idea is that one models a face from an unidentified cranium, and the method is based on a combination of anatomy and statistics. In area upon area, one builds up single muscles or muscle groups once small custom-made pins are applied to the cranium. These anchors are placed in predetermined reference points and are trimmed in relation to the average soft-tissue thickness at a given location. The facial construction is often done with clay, and it is beneficial if the anthropologist has an artistic vein, a little like a translator, but an exact reconstruction of the face is impossible. For example, one can never replicate the ears.”
He paused, then added thoughtfully, “Implicit in your question is of course the question of whether this method can be applied in this case.”
“Yes, that was my thought. An identification is crucial. The odds that we will make it another way are good, but the teeth from Mr. Northwest and the pacemaker from Mr. Northeast can take a long time and do not of course guarantee success. If you can get me some photographs that more or less resemble the victims, I would like for you to start that now, rather than in a week. It is my only recourse if I am still empty-handed, and, as you know, money is no object for once.”
“No, I’ve heard that and that’s good, because it’s expensive. Unbelievably expensive.”
He stared straight out into the air, grunted something unintelligible, and said, “Come on, let’s go take a look.”
Melsing and Simonsen followed him.
The room they stepped into was light and clean. There was a terrazzo floor and walls covered in white tile, as in a bathroom from the fifties. The floor bulged slightly in the middle and sloped down to a trench that ran along the perimeter of the room, so that the entire area was easy to hose down. A couple of large stainless-steel sinks were placed between the windows, one for hands, the other for internal organs. Four stretchers were placed in the middle of the floor at least two meters apart, and a corpse lay on each. The sounds in the room were unpleasant and metallic as in a public swimming pool.
Arthur Elvang studied the facial remains on three of the bodies critically while his two companions remained silent. When he spoke, his words were directed mainly to himself.