The Investigators, Inc. The Nordic Family Mystery. Chapter 13. Quick End.

I asked Cristy if there was any evidence that the police actually entered Tove’s flat and she said yes. Apparently two officers went to her flat and when no one answered, they broke the lock on the door and entered to check on things, just in case the secretary had been injured or killed. But they found no one home after inspecting each of the rooms. There is something wrong with that account since we know that only men went into the living room, kitchen and the office. But, they did not enter the bedroom or bathroom. A woman had entered the bedroom and bathroom, but none of the other rooms.

Obviously the woman entered the bedroom through the trapdoor from the flat above. Jennifer said it was made recently and the flat had been vacant for 4 months. It was supposed to be renovated and then sold but the renovation company had gone bankrupt and they are now looking for another company to do the work. That has given Tove lots of time to have the trapdoor made while no one was living upstairs. But why she did so is a bit of a mystery since the police, before this point, were not looking for her and no one thought she had anything to do with all the murders.

We were not thinking of her as an accomplice either. She also seemed to be Johan’s girlfriend since they were obviously living together. But why is she connected to Lars Olsen? She could do what she is doing online without him. There are too many people connected together on this case and that makes no sense. Still, if Johan married Dagmar, then killed her, he would inherit the family business. Then he could marry Tove, the secretary and live happily every after.

Unless Tove, or Lars, killed Johan and then Tove would inherit the family business and if she is really the girlfriend of Lars, then it’s not hard to figure out where all the money from that business would go. Lars would have a legitimate business to hide behind, and make much money from, and he could use it for his criminal activities as well. Kind of a complicated way of getting this family business, but it wouldn’t cost him anything except a little time. People like him can be quite patient when it comes to certain things, and he wouldn’t really have to wait very long for this one.

Of course, he wouldn’t even have to kill Johan, he could just expose him as the murderer, though that could have some complications. Now, Dagmar has just exposed herself as one of the murderers, however, do we have enough evidence to have her arrested? Going through a lengthy trial will be very difficult for Ronja, but we will help her through it all. Right now Dagmar’s plan has hit a rather big snag, there are still two people she needs to get rid of, Astrid and Jon. Between Astrid and Jon they will have a controlling interest in the company and everything Dagmar had planned, and all the murders, will be for nothing.

So, she will have to murder those two, or try to do so anyway. We will make sure she doesn’t succeed. Dagmar then called Ronja and said she would be late getting home because she was going out for dinner with 2 other employees from the store where she worked. Ronja told us that Dagmar does that sometimes, so it’s nothing new and likely doesn’t mean anything. However, Kristina, who is watching Dagmar right now, will go along to see what she actually does. She will tag along invisibly, of course.

Dagmar took a taxi since she doesn’t drive and she was alone. She went to a certain address near the edge of the city. It was a normal looking house and Kristina gave me the address which I gave to Cristy so she could check who lives there. Interestingly it was another police officer. Kristina followed along inside to listen in on the conversation. This police officer, Hans Persson, was furious when he found out that Johan had been killed. Hans is on vacation right now and didn’t know about Johan.

“We will have to move quicker,” said Hans, “I will deal with Jon tonight. Hmm, Astrid and Tove are being kept at your parents house, right?” “Yes, that’s right,” she said. “Good, I will write down what I want you to do,” he said, “but not tonight, that would look too coincidental and the police are already getting suspicious. We might have to wait a couple more days for your part. We will have to kill Ronja now too or she will own 50% of the business.”

“NO, not Ronja!” exclaimed Dagmar, “Hurt her and this whole deal is off!” “But we can’t have her owning 50%,” he said, “remember that we need to give Lars 20% of the profits for his part in the murders. How will you explain that to her, plus explain my share as well.” Of course, Dagmar had planned to kill Hans too, or rather, Johan would have killed him. However, she didn’t know about the deal with Lars and now it was her turn to be furious and while her and Hans were arguing, he turned away briefly and Dagmar pulled a gun out of her purse and shot him twice.

Unfortunately Kristina had turned away briefly too, or she could have stopped Dagmar. “Now Hans, I will do things my way,” she said, “and Lars will die as easily as you.” She then called Lars after locating his phone number and he was soon at the house. Dagmar let him and two other men inside and said that Hans was in his office. As the three men walked past Dagmar, she turned and shot all 3 in the back, killing them all. She then called for a taxi and went to her parents house. By now Astrid was having her evening bath, but Sky was there protecting her, Dagmar not knowing it.

Sky had already put Astrid asleep so she could take her out of there quickly without questions. Dagmar went to the empty house where a can of petrol was waiting out back. She took it and went inside the vacant house, upstairs and jumped from that roof to the roof of her parents house. She then put the can of petrol inside the bathroom with a soaked rag sticking out of the can. She tossed a match on it and jumped quickly back to the other house and there was a loud roar as the petrol can exploded filling the bathroom with flames.

Sky had already taken Astrid to safety outside and warned the others who came outside quickly as well bringing Tove with them. But as Tove came outside she quickly fell, having been shot by Dagmar. I guess we should have had a ghost protecting her too. But as Dagmar was trying to get back inside the vacant house Dawn took aim and shot 3 times. Dagmar rolled off the roof and onto the ground, dead. All this is going to be quite a shock for Ronja, but it is all over now.

We told the police everything that we had learned and they accepted it all. Rossana was a big help with this as well, letting the police here know who we are. So much death in a short time for this family, it will take time for all of them to deal with it. Astrid and Jon will take over the family business, and I wouldn’t doubt there will be a new marriage in the family at some point since those two are the same age. Ronja and Sanna want to take some time away from everything to figure out what they want to do with their lives. Jennifer invited them to come and stay with us for a while and they gladly accepted.

Sienna had a new addition made for our chateau some time ago and it was finally finished last week. So, we have more bedrooms and bathrooms available, which is a good thing. And we have good counselors available for Ronja and Sanna, which is something they will need. Well, that case came to a quick end, and that is probably a good thing for the remaining family. Also, the police quickly rounded up the remainder of Lars’ gang, there were only 4 others. Well, so much for another case, a rather mixed up case at that. Hopefully we will get a rest before the next case comes along.

The End. A new case will begin soon. ©2026 Steve McLeod.