Exposed by Liza Marklund Read Free Book Online Page B

it?’
    ‘I’m trying to get hold of Q,’ Annika said.
    ‘That’s me.’
    Bingo!
    ‘I just wanted to apologize,’ Annika said. ‘My name’s Annika Bengtzon; I’m the woman who ran into you up in Kronoberg Park.’
    The man on the other end sighed. There was a scrapingnoise in the background, it sounded like he was sitting down.
    ‘What paper are you calling from?’
    ‘The
Evening Post
. I’m on a placement here for the summer. I don’t know what you normally do in cases like this, how you organize your dealings with the media. Back home in Katrineholm I usually call Johansson in crime at three o’clock, he always knows everything.’
    ‘Here in Stockholm you call the press spokesman,’ Q said.
    ‘But you’re leading the investigation?’ Annika chanced.
    ‘Yes, so far, anyway.’
    Yes!
    ‘Why not a public prosecutor?’ she hurriedly asked.
    ‘There’s no reason for that at this point.’
    ‘So you don’t have a suspect?’ Annika concluded.
    The man didn’t answer.
    ‘You’re not as stupid as you make out,’ he said eventually. ‘What are you getting at?’
    ‘Who was she?’
    He groaned again. ‘Listen, I’ve already told you, you’ll have to ask the—’
    ‘He says he doesn’t know anything.’
    ‘Then you’ll just have to make do with that for the time being!’
    He was starting to get annoyed.
    ‘Sorry,’ Annika said. ‘I didn’t mean to pressure you into saying.’
    ‘Of course you did. Right, I’ve got a lot to—’
    ‘She’d had breast enlargements,’ Annika said. ‘She was wearing loads of make-up and had been crying before she died. Do you know why?’
    The man on the other end didn’t say anything. Annika held her breath.
    ‘How do you know that?’ he asked, and Annika could tell he was surprised.
    ‘Let me put it like this: she hadn’t been lying there for long. Her mascara was smeared, she had lipstick on her cheek. She’s at the forensics lab out in Solna right now, isn’t she? So when do I get to know what you know?’
    ‘I didn’t actually know about the breast enlargements,’ he said.
    ‘Normal breasts kind of hang to the side when you’re lying down, whereas silicone tits stick straight up. That’s not very common in young girls. Was she a prostitute?’
    ‘No, definitely not,’ the detective said, and Annika could almost hear him biting his tongue.
    ‘So you
do
know who she is! When will you be releasing her name?’
    ‘We’re not sure yet. She hasn’t been identified.’
    ‘But she will be soon? By the way, do you know what had been chewing at her?’
    ‘I haven’t got time for this,’ he said. ‘Goodbye.’
    And Inspector Q hung up. It was only when she heard the dialling tone again that Annika realized that she still didn’t know what his real name was.

7
    The minister put the car into fourth gear and accelerated into the Karlberg Tunnel. The air inside the car was oppressively hot, and he leaned across to the air-conditioning button. The cooler started up with a click, followed by a gentle hum. He sighed. The journey yawned endlessly ahead of him.
    At least it’ll get cooler this evening, he thought.
    He emerged onto the northern bypass, then turned into the tunnel leading to the E4 motorway, heading north. Various noises echoed through the car, growing and bouncing around the windows: the tyres on the tarmac, the hum of the air-conditioning, the whistle from a window that wasn’t shut properly. He switched on the car radio to drown them out. The sound of the most popular national station, P3, blared out. He looked at the digital clock on the dashboard. 17.53. Soon time for
Studio Six
, the evening news programme, with its debates and analysis of the news.
    I wonder if I’ll be on, he thought briefly. Of course I won’t. Why would I be? They haven’t interviewed me today.
    He pulled into the left-hand lane and overtook two French mobile homes. The north junction for Haga flew past, and he realized he was driving too fast. I