Vanished by Liza Marklund Read Free Book Online Page B

was paid enough. She ought to get away from here – pack her things and leave the room at once.
    She felt a sudden sense of urgency. She got up, slightly steadier now that the pills had started to work, and pulled on her crumpled clothes. Her coat still felt damp.
    She had just put her medicine kit in her bag when there was a knock at the door. Her heart leapt into her throat, fluttering anxiously.
    ‘Aida?’
    The voice was soft and low, muted by the door. The cat playing with the mouse.
    ‘I know you’re in there, Aida.’
    She grabbed her bag and rushed into the bathroom, locked the door, climbed up on the edge of the bathtub and opened the little window. A cold wind burst in. She threw out her bag, yanked off her coat and forced it through the window. At that moment there was a sound of breaking glass out in the room.
    ‘Aida!’
    She heaved herself up and shoved her way out of the window, breaking her fall with her arms and doing a somersault. The sound of the bathroom door being broken in came through the window, a shriek of splintering wood. She pulled on her coat, grabbed her bag and ran off towards the motorway.

Monday 29 October
8
    She got off the number 41 bus at the last stop, exhaling as she watched the bus glide away and vanish behind a low office block. Everything was quiet, there was no one in sight. Daylight was fading, withdrawing before it had properly arrived. She wouldn’t miss it.
    She hoisted her bag onto her shoulders and walked a few metres, looking round. There was an odd atmosphere out here among the warehouses and offices. This was where Sweden stopped. A sign over to the left indicated Tallinn, Klaipeda, Riga and St Petersburg, the new economies, the young democracies.
    Capitalism
, Annika thought.
Taking responsibility for yourself. Privatization. Is that really the answer?
    She turned into the wind and screwed up her eyes. Everything was grey. The sea, the quayside, the buildings, the cranes. The cold, squally drizzle. She closed her eyes, letting the wind batter her.
    I have everything I ever wanted
, she thought.
This is how I want to live my life. This was my choice. There’s no one else to blame
.
    She faced the wind again, and it made her eyes water. In front of her was the main office for Stockholm Port Authority, a fine old brick building with various wings and terraces and an irregular roofline. Behind thebuilding loomed the giant silos, phallic, pointing at the sky. The terminal for Estonia was off to the left, and beyond that the water. To the right was a dock lined with cranes and warehouses.
    She turned up the collar of her jacket, tightened her scarf and headed slowly towards the office. One of the Tallinn ferries was in port, towering above the port authority building. The Baltic States’ window on the west.
    As she rounded the corner of the office building she saw the cordons. The blue and white plastic fluttered in the wind off towards the silos, looking forlorn and frozen. There was no sign of any police. She stopped and studied the tongue of land stretching out in front of her. This must be the heart of the harbour. It was a couple of hundred metres long, with huge warehouses on all sides. In the distance, beyond the cordon, she could just make out a parking area for container lorries. The only people in sight were a few men with luminous yellow jackets over by the containers.
    She walked slowly over to the police cordon, looking up at the huge silos. Even though she was standing firmly on the ground, their height made her feel dizzy. The top of the silos blended into the sky, grey against grey. She stared up at them until she bumped into the cordon.
    Between the silos was a narrow gap untouched by daylight. This was where the two men had died. She blinked into the darkness to acclimatize her eyes, and could make out the dark patches left by their blood. The bodies were found at the opening of the passage, not hidden in the shadows.
    She turned away from the site of