Page 27 of Psychic Obsession
"What kind of rugs?Where have they been since they were manufactured?Are they hand-knotted rugs?"
"Eh..."Isaac sent Nikolai a look."Maybe we should sit."
Frode gave a clipped nod and followed Isaac to one of the rooms along the far wall.It was another small conference room, not an interrogation room.
Nikolai hovered as Isaac and Frode sat across from each other.
"We have three murdered women, all of them staged on rugs in the middle of their living rooms."Isaac looked between Frode and Nikolai, and Nikolai walked over and sat by the short end of the oval table.
"What kind of rugs?"
Isaac held up a hand, stood, and hurried out of the room.Nikolai waited for Frode to say something while they waited, but he pretended Nikolai wasn't there.
When Isaac came back, he had three photos in his hand."These are...graphic."He held them to his chest and met Frode's gaze.Once he got a nod, he lowered them to the table.
Nikolai studied Frode's face as he looked at the photos of the women sprawled on the rugs, blood everywhere, and the original colors drowned in dark rust.
He didn't flinch.Was it normal for a civilian not to be affected by seeing death displayed in this manner?
"Have they owned the rugs for long?"Frode directed the question to Isaac.
"No.They appeared in the apartments only a few weeks, in one case only a few days, before the women were murdered."
Frode nodded."Bought from where?"
Silence.Then Isaac glanced at Nikolai."We don't know."
"What?"Frode looked between them.It was the first time he'd acknowledged Nikolai since they entered the room, but the look he gave him wasn't pleased."You don't know where the rugs were bought?"
"We haven't managed to find any receipts.No online orders."
"Facebook Marketplace?Auctions?Secondhand shops?"
Isaac shook his head."We haven't been able to find any yet."
"And if they commented on an ad on something like Facebook Marketplace, and it was deleted, you'd be able to see it?"
"Eh..."Isaac grimaced."We can retrieve comments if we have a court order."
Nikolai breathed in deeply.Was it how they'd gotten the rugs?A serial killer selling them on fucking Facebook.Did people use Facebook these days?Maybe the victims paid cash, no receipt, no transaction to be tracked through their bank statements.
"But you don't know where they've been."Frode's voice was flat.
"No, we don't.I'm not sure we'd be able to get a court order at this stage.Not without having some kind of proof they've been commenting on things on Facebook.Until we know where they bought the rugs, we can't tell you where they've been."
Frode shrugged half-heartedly."Have they bought other things through Facebook Marketplace, or auctions, thrift shops, or like eBay.What are those secondhand apps called?"
"If they bought the rugs through an online...vendor--" Nikolai grimaced at the word choice, but what should they call them?"--then there would've been receipts and a transaction from their accounts."
"So it's more likely it's something like Facebook Marketplace, where they might have gone to someone's home, picked up the rug, and paid cash."
Nikolai stared at Frode."Yeah, more likely."
"Hmm, yeah, sorry.No can do."He pushed his chair back and started to stand.
"What?"He hadn't meant to raise his voice the way he did, but what the fuck?
Frode gave him a blank look."If you'd have told me they'd ordered the rugs from a rug factory and only had them in their living rooms for a month, then sure.But I clearly state in my contract I don't touch anything that's been in a public place, and you can't promise me these rugs haven't.You don't know where they come from, where they've been, or how many people have touched them."
