by Håkan Nesser
“I don't know,” said Reinhart.
Van Veeteren suddenly seemed to be annoyed.
“Of course you do, stop pretending! What the hell do you know, in fact? You and I are sitting here in this godforsaken ramshackle house out in the sticks, in the middle of the night, God only knows where, waiting for … well, would you kindly tell me what exactly we are waiting for!”
“For dotting the i's and crossing the t's,” said Reinhart.
The telephone rang and Van Veeteren answered. Reinhart listened in on earphones.
“Yes?”
“Chief Inspector Van Veeteren?”
“Yes.”
“Schmidt. Harbor police in Arnholt. We've been through the ship now and …”
“And?”
“… and what you say seems to be right. There is a passenger missing.”
“Are you sure?”
“As sure as it's possible to be. Obviously she might have managed to hide away somewhere on board, but we don't think so. We've been pretty thorough. In any case, we'll continue searching when the ferry sets sail again: if she is on board, we'll find her before we get to the next port of call.”
He paused, but the chief inspector didn't say anything.
“Anyway it's a woman,” said Schmidt. “She had a first-class ticket, single cabin. She embarked, collected her key from Information, and evidently spent an hour in her cabin.”
“Do you have her name?”
“Yes, of course. The ticket and the cabin were booked in the name of Biedersen.”
“Biedersen?”
“Yes. But they never ask for ID proof when the passenger pays cash, which she did, so it could be a false name.”
Van Veeteren sighed deeply.
“Hello? Are you still there?”
“Yes.”
“Is there anything else, or can we allow them to set sail? They are over an hour late now.”
“Of course,” said Van Veeteren. “Cast off and get under way.”
The call was terminated. Reinhart took off the earphones. Crossed his hands behind his head and leaned back, making the chair creak.
Van Veeteren put his hands on his knees and got to his feet with difficulty Walked back and forth over the creaking floorboards before pausing in front of one of the windows. Rubbed the pane with the sleeve of his jacket and peered out into the darkness. Dug his hands down into his trouser pockets.
“What do you think she was called?” asked Reinhart.
“It's started raining again,” said Van Veeteren.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Håkan Nesser was awarded the 1993 Swedish Crime Writers' Academy Prize for new authors for his novel Mind's Eye (published in Sweden as Det Grovmaskiga Nätet). He received the best novel award in 1994 for Borkmann's Point and in 1996 for Woman with Birthmark. In 1999 he was awarded the Crime Writers of Scandinavia's Glass Key Award for the best crime novel of the year for Carambole. Nesser lives in Sweden and New York City.
A NOTE ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Laurie Thompson taught Swedish at the University of Wales and was editor of Swedish Book Review from its launch in 1983 until 2002. He has been a full-time literary translator for several years and has translated more than forty books from the Swedish. He was born in York, but now lives in rural West Wales with his Swedish wife and several cats.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either
are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales
is entirely coincidental.
Translation copyright © 2009 by Laurie Thompson
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a
division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nesser, Håkan, [date]
[Kvinna med födelsemärke. English]
Woman with birthmark: an Inspector Van Veeteren mystery / Håkan
Nesser; translated from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson.
p. cm.
Originally published: Stockholm: A. Bonnier, C1996.
eISBN: 978-0-307-37811-8
I. Thompson, Laurie, 1938- II. Title.
PT9876.24.E76K8513 2009
839.73′74—dc22 2008032385
www.pantheonbooks.com
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