The Chosen by Kristina Ohlsson Read Free Book Online

instantaneous. He couldn’t imagine the bullet had been meant for anyone else, and yet that
didn’t make sense either: why would someone think of firing from that distance in such terrible weather? It hadn’t been quite so windy at the time, but it had been snowing heavily, with
the storm already moving in.
    ‘We’ll speak to her parents,’ he said. ‘Then we’ll know where we stand.’
    The silence that followed was pleasant and comfortable. Many of his colleagues seemed unable to cope with an absence of noise, and would therefore ramble on about nothing at all. But not Fredrika. Alex glanced at her profile; she was thinking something over. Alex was well aware of what his male colleagues thought of her appearance, and how many of
them harboured inappropriate fantasies about her.
    Which was stupid of them, particularly in view of the fact that she was taken. Married, actually. To a man who was older than Alex, and who had been her professor and lover when she was a
student in Uppsala, according to the rumours. He would probably never know the truth of the matter; Fredrika shared a great deal, but not confidences of that kind.
    ‘How was the rehearsal?’ he asked.
    She gave a start.
    ‘Good. Great, thanks.’
    Alex made an attempt to comment on her pensive mood, although he wasn’t at all sure it was a good idea.
    ‘You look as if you’ve got something on your mind.’
    ‘It’s nothing. It’s just that Spencer’s going away.’
    ‘So you’ll be on your own with the kids?’
    Fredrika looked as if she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
    ‘Exactly. If one parent goes away for a few weeks, that leaves just one at home. But I’m sure it’ll sort itself out.’
    Alex’s phone rang. It was a man speaking English, who introduced himself as the person responsible for human resources at the Solomon Community. He wanted to know what Alex could tell
him about his former colleague, Peder Rydh.
    Alex gave the same answer as always.
    He spoke briefly about one of the most talented police officers he had ever met.

T he press just kept on calling. The journalists were drawn to the dead body in the snow just like those who happened to walk past the scene of the crime. It took them less than an hour to
identify the victim, to find out where she lived and to expose her boyfriend’s background. From then on the reports followed two separate strands: either they talked about the fatal shooting
as an example of hate crime and anti-Semitism, or they suggested that the murder might have links to organised crime in the city. The police said nothing, and the Solomon Community tried to keep
any comments as brief as possible.
    Efraim Kiel left the room where the general secretary was dealing with one call after another from the press. It looked as if they finally had a satisfactory solution to the problem of the
vacant post; Peder Rydh had made a good impression. Efraim would have liked to avoid making a temporary appointment, but Peder Rydh seemed more than capable of doing the job.
    Efraim got in touch with the three referees in Rydh’s application; the last call was to his former boss, Alex Recht.
    He had no problem in eliciting the information he wanted. Just as Efraim had suspected, Peder Rydh had been an extremely conscientious and very popular police officer. A little hot-headed, perhaps, and there were one or two issues regarding his attitude towards female colleagues in the past, but otherwise Alex Recht had nothing negative to say.
    ‘What’s your personal view of the incident that led to his dismissal?’ was Efraim’s final question.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘What’s your assessment of the situation? Do you think that what he did – shooting the man who murdered his brother – is indefensible, or can you understand his actions?’
    Alex was silent for a moment, then he said:
    ‘I have no personal opinion on the matter; I do, however, have a professional view, which I am prepared to share only