The Shadow Girls

by Henning Mankell

  ‘I don’t care about that. But you can get it back for five hundred.’

  ‘Where can I meet you?’

  ‘I’ll think about it. Call back in an hour. What time is it anyway? Who the hell calls people at this hour?’

  ‘I’ll call back in quarter of an hour.’

  Humlin’s head was throbbing. During the last few years he had become increasingly convinced that he was going to develop high blood pressure, just like Olof Lundin. But his doctor had patiently explained to him that his blood pressure was completely normal. He had bought a blood pressure cuff in secret since he always suspected she didn’t tell him the truth. When the cuff showed the same results as the doctor’s, he immediately suspected that it had malfunctioned.

  Every morning he spent the first few minutes of his day going through his various body parts to see how he felt. He was rarely sick but often felt bad. If he discovered some little thing that seemed amiss it could ruin his whole day. A few weeks earlier he had found a strange rash on his leg and right arm. He immediately suspected it could be the sign of serious illness and asked Andrea about it as soon as he had a chance. She glanced at his arm.

  ‘That’s nothing,’ she said.

  ‘You can see this, can’t you? How can you say it’s nothing?’

  ‘Because I am a highly qualified nurse and because I can see with my own eyes that it’s nothing.’

  ‘But I’m completely red here!’

  ‘Does it itch?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Hurt?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then don’t worry about it.’

  Then, he was temporarily assuaged by Andrea’s words. Now he massaged his aching head and wondered if he should call his doctor, even though it was only half past five in the morning.

  After fifteen minutes he called his mobile again. It had been turned off. He slammed the phone down in a fury and left the police station. It was still dark outside. He was tired and hungry and his head still ached. He was worried about what Törnblom’s reporter was going to write. When he walked past the Gothenburg football stadium he suddenly had the feeling that someone was following him. He turned around but there was no one there. He continued on towards the Central station. It was windy and icy cold. He thought he felt a sore throat coming on. When he reached the station someone appeared at his side. He jumped. It was Tanya. Or Inez/Natalia/Tatyana.

  ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘I wanted to see how things went.’

  ‘Neither of us is accused of any crime, but they did find something wrong with your licence. Is your name really Tatyana Nilsson?’

  ‘Of course not. It’s a fake ID.’

  Humlin looked around nervously. He felt additional problems growing up around him. First Tea-Bag had disappeared. Now Tanya had escaped from the police station. He pulled her over to a cafe that had just opened.

  She looked curiously at him.

  ‘Why are you so worried?’

  ‘I’m not worried. Do you by any chance have a mobile phone I could borrow? I left mine on the train and now someone has stolen it. Probably one of the cleaners. Who then sold it.’

  ‘Is there any particular brand you want?’

  ‘What?’

  Tanya got up. Some businessmen in expensive winter coats were leaving a table nearby. She walked past them, then returned. When the men had left she handed him a phone. Humlin realised she had somehow managed to steal it from one of the men.

  ‘I don’t want it.’

  ‘They can afford to buy new ones.’

  ‘I can’t understand how you managed to take it. Was it lying on the table? Didn’t he notice that you took it?’

  ‘He had it in his pocket.’

  ‘His pocket?’

  ‘Is that so strange?’

  ‘I don’t understand how you could get it.’

  She leaned forward and patted his arm.

  ‘What do you have in your pocket?’ she asked.

  ‘Some change. My keys. Why do you ask?’

  ‘Can you show me your keys?’

  Humlin reached for his keys but couldn’t find them. Then she opened her hand and showed them to him.

  ‘When did you take them?’

  ‘Just now.’

  Humlin stared at her.

  ‘Who are you? What are you? A burglar, a pickpocket?’

  The door to the cafe opened and one of the businessmen hurried in. He looked at the table he had been sitting at, then went up to the counter and asked if anyone had found his phone. The server behind the counter shook her head. Humlin crouched down. The man shook his head and walked out again.

  ‘Didn’t you have to make a call?’ Tanya asked.

  ‘I don’t think I’m quite up to it.’

  Tanya got up again.

  ‘I have to do something. I’ll be back.’

  ‘How do I know that?’

  ‘I will be back. An hour at the latest.’

  ‘I might be gone by then.’

  ‘No,’ she said, ‘you can’t go until I’ve answered your question.’

  ‘Which one?’

  ‘The one about if I’m a thief or a pickpocket.’

  Tanya left. Humlin had another cup of coffee, then tried to gather his thoughts. The phone felt heavy in his pocket. He forced himself to take it out and call Andrea.

  ‘Why are you calling so early?’ she said.

  ‘I haven’t slept all night.’

  ‘I can hear that.’

  ‘How can you hear it?’

  ‘You sound like you always do when you’ve been up drinking all night. Have you had a good time?’

  ‘I’ve been holed up in a Gothenburg police station accused of breaking and entering.’

  ‘Did you do it?’

  ‘Of course not. It has not been an enjoyable evening. I just wanted to tell you I’ll be home later today.’

  ‘Good,’ she said. ‘Because I want us to have made a decision about our future together in exactly forty-eight hours.’

  ‘I promise.’

  ‘What do you promise?’

  ‘That we’ll talk about this.’

  ‘It’s for real this time. Also, you should call Olof Lundin.’

  ‘What did he want? When did he ring?’

  ‘He called last night. He said you could call back any time. I also should tell you that your mother called.’

  ‘What did she want?’

  ‘She said you had attacked her.’

  ‘I never laid a finger on her!’

  ‘She said you hit her so hard she ended up lying on the floor in the hallway for several hours.’

  ‘It’s not true. She’s losing her mind.’

  ‘She always sounds coherent and clear when I talk to her.’

  ‘She’s senile. She just puts on a good act.’

  ‘I have to go. But I’m counting on the fact that we’re going to have a serious discussion tonight.’

  ‘I’ll be there. I miss you.’

  Andrea hung up without commenting on the last thing he said. Humlin sighed and wondered if Andrea was plotting to leave him. He also wondered what new dramas his mother had up her sleeve. In order to distract himself from these concerns he called Lundin.

  ‘Lundin here.’

  ‘It’s Jesper Humlin. I hope I didn’t wake you up.’

  ‘I’ve been up since four. Where are you?’

  Humlin decided to make something up on the spot.

  ‘In Helsinki.’

  ‘What are you doing there?’

  ‘Preparatory research.’

  ‘So you’ve decided to go ahead with the crime novel. Excellent. Then we can market your book alongside your mother’s.’

  ‘There will be no team marketing strategy. And my mother is never going to write a book.’

  ‘Never say never. I’ve read a draft.’

  Humlin felt a stabbing sensation in his stomach.

  ‘She sent you a manuscript?’

  ‘One page,
to be more precise. Handwritten. She summarised the plot in a few paragraphs, something about cannibals and civil servants I think. I couldn’t read all of it since her handwriting is somewhat difficult but one has to have patience with ninety-year-old first-time authors.’

  ‘I’m telling you you’ll never see a book from her.’

  ‘I’ve been worried about you. Are you done with that crazy stuff in Gothenburg?’

  ‘No. And it’s not crazy.’

  ‘As long as I get my crime novel you can spend your time however you please. I’d like it to be three hundred and eighty-four pages.’

  ‘I was thinking of something more like three hundred and eighty-nine.’

  ‘No can do. We’ve already informed the book binders and ordered the paper. How far along are you? Why is the book set in Helsinki? It’s too easy for it to degenerate into a cold war spy thriller. Brazil is better.’

  Humlin was taken aback.

  ‘Why is it better?’

  ‘It’s warmer.’

  Humlin thought about Lundin’s ice-cold office and wondered if there was a connection.

  ‘I’m just joking with you,’ Humlin said. ‘I’m not in Helsinki, I’m in Gothenburg. I’m not planning to write a crime novel. I don’t know what I’m going to write next. Maybe a story about a young pickpocket, or a book about a girl who has a monkey on her back.’

  ‘Are you ill, Humlin?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You are talking very strangely.’

  ‘What was it you wanted to talk to me about when you called yesterday?’

  ‘I just wanted to reassure myself that the news in the paper wasn’t true. I await your crime novel with pleasure. So do the oil executives.’

  ‘There’s not going to be a crime novel.’

  ‘The line’s breaking up. I can’t hear you.’

  ‘I said, there’s not going to be a crime novel.’

  ‘I can’t hear anything now. I’m going to hang up. Come up and see me when you get back. We need to talk. And the marketing department want to meet with you to present their ideas for your next book campaign.’

  He hung up. Humlin was exhausted. The feeling of having lost his foothold in life returned like a great weight. It was as if someone had blocked all the exits out of a burning house.

  *

  An hour went by. He had just started to gather up his things, assuming that Tanya was not going to return, when the door to the cafe swung open.

  Tanya was back. With Leyla.

  11

  WHEN HUMLIN SAT up in bed he had no idea where he was. He had just had a series of disconnected dreams in which he was strangling his mother. Slowly his memory of the recent past returned. He looked at the time. It was a quarter to eleven. Tanya had left shortly after eight and he had immediately fallen asleep since he was exhausted from his long night at the police station. His head was still throbbing; sleep had not helped that. All of the events since he had arrived by bus in Gothenburg the night before seemed painfully clear. Most of all he wanted to dive back into sleep, back into the unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar apartment in Stensgården, to try to forget. But he knew it wouldn’t work.

  He tiptoed out into the kitchen and drank some water. Then he walked around the apartment and tried to identify any objects that looked like they belonged to Tanya. She had claimed that she lived here, if only temporarily and in secret. He found no traces of her. In one of the kitchen cabinets that was filled with, to him, unknown spices, he saw a brand of coffee he recognised. He boiled some water, trying not to make any noise that would draw unwanted attention from the neighbours and then sat down on a chair by the window in the living room with his cup of coffee. A wet snow was falling onto the uniform rows of apartment buildings outside. In the horizon he saw an expanse of forest, then some exposed granite bluffs and the sea.

  He thought back to the moment when the girls had walked into the cafe. He had got up and started walking towards them when Tanya motioned for him to stop.

  ‘I just wanted to say hello,’ Humlin said when Tanya pushed him back down in his chair.

  ‘You can’t.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Someone who knows her might see you. And that wouldn’t be good.’

  ‘I was just going to say hello. That was all.’

  Humlin watched as Tanya returned to Leyla. The girls sat down at a table in the corner. From time to time they looked over at him but without interrupting their conversation. Leyla was wearing a thick shawl over her head.

  Humlin was confused and this irritated him. Finally Tanya returned to his table like a messenger.

  ‘Why did she come here if I can’t even go over and say hello to her?’

  ‘Leyla wanted to see with her own eyes that you were here. That you came back.’

  ‘Törnblom said you had all decided to cancel the whole thing.’

  ‘What else could we have done when you didn’t turn up? We’re used to disappointments.’

  ‘I just want to state for the record that the only person to disappear in this context was Tea-Bag. No one else.’

  ‘She must have had her reasons. It’s always best to be careful in a country like Sweden.’

  ‘Why Sweden?’

  Tanya shook her head impatiently.

  ‘We want to hold another meeting tonight to make up for the missed one last night.’

  Humlin thought about the phone call with Andrea.

  ‘I can’t.’

  Tanya’s eyes flashed with anger.

  ‘Are you backing out on us again?’

  ‘I thought we had agreed that there was no backing out on my part.’

  ‘If you want us to believe in you, you’ll come to the meeting tonight.’

  ‘I have plans.’

  Tanya got up.

  ‘Leyla won’t be very happy when I tell her what you just said.’

  Humlin desperately searched for a way out.

  ‘Can’t we have the meeting now, before my train leaves?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Leyla has to go to school.’

  ‘Why isn’t she already in school then?’

  ‘She’ll be in trouble if anyone finds out she isn’t there.’

  ‘I’ll be in trouble if I’m not in Stockholm this evening. What about having the meeting this afternoon?’

  ‘I’ll ask.’

  Tanya went back to the other table. Humlin thought of her as a messenger sent back and forth between two warring camps. He then thought that Sweden had turned into a country he really knew very little about.

  Tanya returned.

  ‘Five o’clock,’ she said.

  Humlin revised the schedule in his head.

  ‘We can meet for up to two hours,’ he said. ‘Then I have to go. Where shall we meet?’

  ‘At my place.’

  ‘I’d be grateful if Haiman were not invited this time.’

  ‘He won’t be there.’

  ‘How can I be sure of that?’

  ‘No one is going to know about this meeting. Leyla will take care of it.’

  Humlin became concerned.

  ‘How will she do that?’

  ‘She’ll say she’s over at Fatima’s.’

  ‘Who is that?’

  ‘A Jordanian friend of hers. If Leyla’s parents call to check up on her they’ll get the message that Leyla and Fatima have gone to see Sasha. And if they call there they’ll hear they’re all over at my place. And if Leyla’s parents do start calling it’s okay because Fatima’s brother will call us to let us know. That way she’ll have time to go home without being found out.’

  Humlin sensed but did not quite understand what Leyla’s life must be like. Leyla left the cafe. She smiled briefly at him, a secret sign that no one else saw. Shortly afterwards Tanya got up and gestured for him to follow her. They took a tram out to Stensgården. When they arrived Tanya escorted him to one of the apartment buildings at the edge of the isolated housing project.
They took the lift to the seventh floor. Humlin expected to see ‘Nilsson’ on the front door but he realised the situation was a bit more complicated when she told him to keep his voice down and then proceeded to use one of her skeleton keys to open the front door.

  ‘Take off your shoes,’ she told him once they were inside. ‘Don’t turn on the TV or the radio.’

  ‘Isn’t this your apartment?’

  ‘I live here when it’s unoccupied.’

  ‘You have no key?’

  ‘I don’t need keys.’

  ‘I know. Who lives here?’

  ‘Some people by the name of Yüksel.’

  ‘Are they related to you?’

  ‘I have no relatives.’

  ‘Then how come you are allowed to live here?’

  ‘They’re in Istanbul right now.’

  ‘And they have no idea that you’re living here.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘I thought you said we were going to have this meeting at your place?’

  ‘This is my place. I find out which apartments are going to be empty and when. People who are away or who have moved. Then I move in for a while. I leave before anyone comes back or the new people move in.’

  ‘How do you know which apartments are going to be empty?’

  ‘Leyla knows everything about everyone around here. She lets me know if someone is going away.’

  Humlin thought for a moment.

  ‘You don’t have a place of your own?’

  ‘How could I if I don’t even exist?’

  ‘What do you mean “don’t exist”?’

  ‘You saw the deportation notice. The police are after me. Now that I was forced to show them the ID with Tatyana Nilsson on it it’s only a matter of time before they put two and two together.’

  ‘So who are you?’

  Tanya flinched.

  ‘You know who I am. I’m not answering any more questions. Don’t open the door if anyone knocks. Don’t answer the phone. I’ll be back in a few hours.’

  ‘Wait, I can’t stay in an apartment where the owners could come back at any moment!’

  ‘They won’t be back until next week. Leyla has a cousin who works at the travel agent where they booked their tickets.’

  ‘This whole thing makes me very nervous.’

  ‘How do you think I feel knowing that the police could find me at any time and throw me out of the country?’