”But… I’ve paid every time you’ve sent out your bloody fake invoices and I pay the interest and the instalments on time every month. Now it’s bloody enough. The family can’t handle any more pressure. We don’t have any money left and soon we’re going under, can’t you understand that?” Theo looked at Vladimir with a begging and desperate look.
”Do I look like as though I care? What you are paying is pure protection and nothing else. You should be bloody grateful that we protect your family for you wouldn’t want anything to happen to Pauline or your small children, Thomas and Julia, would you?” Vladimir raised his glass and put it to his mouth and swallowed the water in one go. ”I think we’ll make it simple.” Vladimir sneered and picked up his mobile from the front pocket.
Theo worriedly wondered what was going on while his pulse was racing.
Andrej Kalnikov opened the large smoke coloured glass-door to the lounge and thanks to his a little over two metres had to bend down to enter the room.
”Yes”, he said with his deep, cold voice while waiting for the coming order.
Theo immediately recognized the monster. A scared scream escaped his dry lips and he tried to make himself as small as possible in the large armchair.
”Theo has only delivered half of the money we asked for. He is not planning on paying the rest if we don’t leave his family alone. Can you show him what happens to minor thieves who try to dictate their own conditions?”
Theo’s heart was pounding like a hammer in his chest. Terrified he looked at the grotesque man and became paralyzed with fear as he approached the chair. Theo didn’t even have time to open his mouth to protest before he felt how his left little finger was broken. He stared in shock at his finger which was hanging at a strange angle while the adrenaline was pumping through his body. The pain was unbearable but at the same time surreal and it wasn’t until he felt a salty tear in the corner of his mouth that Theo understood that he was crying.
”So, what do you say? Are you going to pay the rest or did you enjoy Andrej’s game so much that you want him to continue?” Vladimir was laughing out loud, twisted his gold coloured signet ring and then nodded at his lackey to continue.
”No”, Theo wheezed with his sore throat. ”Please, stop.” Panting he looked pleadingly at Vladimir. ”Can’t I just have a reassurance that you’ll leave us alone and then you’ll get all your money?”
Vladimir once again nodded at Andrej.
”Please, I’ll pay the whole sum if only you promise to leave us alone. Please….” Theo whispered with an effort. His body collapsed and he was sobbing with fear. The pain was pounding heavily in his finger and he felt dizzy. Without blinking Andrej took hold of Theo’s ring- and index finger and broke these off as though they were thin matches. Theo was petrified and looked down at his left hand and saw how now three of his five fingers were pointing in strange directions. Tasting blood in his mouth he saw how the room was spinning around far too fast. Cold sweat and nausea overcame him and he leaned heavily against the back support.
”So what do you want to do? Should Andrej continue?”
Theo swallowed and panted spasmodically. ”Please, stop. I have the rest of the money in my car.”
”Good, Andrej will follow you to the parking”, Vladimir smiled coldly and then left the lounge.
Andrej lifted Theo up from the armchair and then put him down with a thud on the thick carpet. Theo jerked from the pain, bent forward and held his stomach. The breakfast spurted out through both his nose and mouth. Andrej jumped to the side but couldn’t save his trousers and shoes. Disgusted he pulled off Theo’s jacket and dried himself the best he could. Then he once again lifted Theo up and pushed him out from the stinking lounge. He forced Theo to put on his shoes with his one hand and refused to help him with the shoe-laces, they were dangling behind him like a child as he was stumbling along the promenade. The sun was high up in the sky and the people passing never suspected that Theo had a gun in his back while walking to the big parking lot. In despair Theo opened the boot and saw half a million euros disappear as Andrej’s back disappeared among all the people.
His left hand was throbbing badly when he sat down in the car. He felt like a failure and felt as though he was about to faint. Everything had gone to hell. Theo had lost his honour and all his money to no avail. ”Money for protection, sure.” The anguish was pressing at his forehead like a ring and he wondered what Pauline would say when he came home with three broken fingers. Was he going to lie again like last time? Theo looked down at his fingers and saw his wedding band hanging loose on the broken ring-finger. Carefully he touched the gold coloured ring and screamed out loud with pain as his eyes watered. When his pulse was under control he remembered his mobile phone. He smiled at his crystal clear insanity while he carefully took out the iPhone from the inside pocket of his jacket. The registration was still on and he switched it off with a crazy desire for revenge. Before he started up the engine he scrolled down through his contacts and called his loyal GP.
Saturday June 8th
The morning sun was shining through the blinds and flirted with Kerstin Hogstrom who slowly woke up from her beauty sleep. Her eye-lids were heavy. She kept her eyes closed and enjoyed the summer jingle of the Great tit outside the bedroom window. As usual she stretched out her hand to say good morning to her beloved wife but found the bed empty. Yawning she put on the colourful slippers, put on the satin dressing gown and let her hands slide down into the deep pockets on the front. She picked up an elastic band for her tangled hair and tied it up in a messy knot on top of her head. Then she padded along out to the large terrace where Ase sat reading the newspaper in the morning sun.
”Good morning sweetheart.” Kerstin bent down and kissed her wife. They hugged each-other and smiled contentedly.
”Good morning”, Ase said softly and looked lovingly at her tired wife.
”Have you been up long?”
”Nah, just for a while. I didn’t want to disturb you now that you for once could have a good sleep in. What weather, by the way, summer again.”
”Yeah, wonderful.” Kerstin turned around and satisfied looked out over the beautiful bay.
”Would you like me to prepare some breakfast?”
”Yes please, what a service. Meanwhile I’ll have a quick shower.”
Ase’s long, bright-red hair was gathered in two pig tails over her shoulders and her freckles had been enhanced by the sun’s rays. She put out a chia pudding each with blueberry flavour and cardamom and then rinsed the boiled eggs in cold water.
”What a breakfast”, Kerstin said and tenderly stroked her hand over Ase’s milky white cheek.
”Nobody would eat what you cook so it’s my lot in life to spend it in the kitchen.” Ase jokingly winked and finished her intensely green wheat-grass shot in one go.
”I know, God forgot the cooking when he created me but I’m bloody good at cleaning at least and there you come in second.” Kerstin smiled back. They had breakfast in peace and quiet and chatted for a long time about the upcoming holiday.
”I’ll go into the station for a few hours, is it OK if I take the convertible?”
”Of course. Will you be late?” Ase embraced her wife and looked lovingly into her eyes.
”I can’t really tell, but it shouldn’t be any later than six at least. Maybe we can eat at Onnereds brygga tonight? We could go by bicycle.”
The morning traffic had abated and Kerstin enjoyed the warm wind caressing her face when she took Soderleden toward Ullevi. It was a lovely summer day and the wonderful weather was supposed to continue for at least five days more. As usual she parked the car in her spot in the garage under the police house and closed the roof. With light steps she went in through the big glass entrance and smilingly took the first lift available.
”My, my, time to arrive now?” Goran joked, pulling his goatee while he too wen
t into the lift. The tobacco was fixed under his lip as usual and he looked as if he would break in two with his long, thin stature.
Hogstrom looked up and smiled at him. ”Good morning to you, too.” Happily she noticed that he had passed by Condecco and wondered what goodies there were in the white paper bag.
”Sour-dough bread with Philadelphia cheese, Parma-ham, tomato and fresh basil. I bought a few”, Goran, who had seen her inquiring look, answered.
Kerstin followed her colleague out from the lift while Goran took out his key-card and put in the code for the Criminal department.
”It sounds absolutely delicious. For your information I can’t be late today since Ase and I are going out for dinner. I actually just plan to get rid of some papers accumulated on my desk.”
You two are a couple of gourmands. I’m almost jealous. Myself I’m just grateful to get some fried sausage with macaroni at home”, Goran replied and got his tobacco box out from the breast pocket of his short sleeved shirt. He took out the tobacco from under his lip, put it inside the lid and then immediately put in another one.
”We’ve never had macaroni since I met Ase.” Kerstin loudly laughed. ”I even wonder if I could get Ase to eat that. You know how much she’s into healthy food, especially raw food. Sometimes I wonder if she doesn’t get fed up. I mean, she runs the first raw food restaurant in town and is up to her ears with food and menus all day long….”
”Good for you being so spoiled. The woman at home isn’t that good at cooking. But I don’t complain, she’s doing her very best.”
”By the way, anything new in Charlie’s case?” Hogstrom stopped by the kitchen door and looked Goran directly in the eyes.
”No, not yet. She’s been looking through some pictures of known rapists but unfortunately she didn’t recognize anyone of them.”
”That’s a pity, I’d love to know that the women out there will be able to go clubbing safely this summer.”
When her stomach started rumbling four hours later, all the piles of papers were gone from her desk. Hogstrom was just about to get up when there was a soft knock on the door at the same time as the handle was pushed down.
”Fredrik and I have been going through the case of Sten Arvidsson and we can’t find anything strange. He’s been a well behaved widower, at least here in Gothenburg. We don’t know yet what he was doing in Cyprus. So we’re about to hand over the investigation to the police in the Mediterranean. I’ve put together a document I thought of sending by fax”, Goran said waving the paper he had in his hand.
”By fax? Isn’t it easier to send a mail?”
”Yes, it would have been easier if we’d had a mail address”, Goran said and went toward the fax a bit down the corridor. Hogstrom went into the kitchen and heated up her lunch-box in the microwave oven. Anja was sitting by the kitchen table, drinking some ready-made soup and reading the latest issue of Swedish Sport shooting.
”How can you eat that disgusting soup?”, Kerstin said and looked at her own healthy dish. ”This is real food, that soup shouldn’t even be called food.”
”I know, but I’m lazy with cooking in the evenings when I get home. I can’t even spell cooking. At the most I have a sandwich or a yogurt, if I’m lucky.”
Both Hogstrom and Anja froze as they heard Goran scream something incoherently further down the corridor. They looked at each-other and wondered if he’d gone crazy.
”You will not believe it!” Goran was panting and his wide-open eyes were as big as plates while he waved a few papers in his long arm.
”Calm down, what’s happened?” Kerstin stared at Goran who was walking around the kitchen in circles. ”Please, sit down before we also start running around like delirious hens in here.
”What’s happened?” Anja asked worriedly.
Finally Goran sat down on the red sofa and changed the tobacco under his moustached lip. He took a deep breath and looked seriously at both Hogstrom and Anja.
”Karl Hofvenskold is dead.”
”You don’t mean it”, Kerstin loudly said and lost her cutlery on the new oak-table.
”Dead? How?” Anja wondered.
”Hold on tight now, he was found dead in Cyprus.”
”Cyprus?” Anja whistled and took a spoon of her watery vegetable-soup.
”Call Fredrik, he must also listen to what you have to say.” But Kerstin took care of it herself and with a few fast steps ran to Fredrik’s room.
”Come on, I think you want to hear what Goran has to say.” She abruptly turned around and returned quickly to the kitchen, leaning on the counter.
”What’s going on?” Fredrik asked surprised and put his empty cup in the coffee machine.
”Tell him, start from the beginning”, Kerstin urged with a forced air.
”The police in Cyprus have faxed us a picture of Karl Hofvenskold.” Goran automatically glanced at the document in his hand and saw how Fredrik frowned, waiting for the rest. ”They found him murdered earlier this morning. According to the description he was found not far from the place Sten Arvidsson was, but floating in a pond.”
”I’d be damn”, Fredrik said in surprise. ”Who would want to hurt him? He was a bloody saint.”
”Karl Hofvenskold murdered”, Kerstin muttered bewildered and worriedly lifted both her eye-brows. ”Give me the fax, Goran, I must call the Cypriot police to confirm this once again before we beat the drums. Meanwhile the rest of you can start checking out the property magnate, make sure you dig deep down.”
Kerstin quickly went to her room and sat down at the clean desk. The thoughts were buzzing in her head while she dialled the long telephone number written on the fax from Coral Bay police station. The slim fingers impatiently drummed at the desk while the call went through.
”This is Detective Hogstrom from Gothenburg police station. We’ve received a fax where Karl Hofvenskold is said to be deceased. I just need to have it confirmed again.”
”Good afternoon”, Katerina replied.” It’s correct that a Karl Hofvens…well, whatever his name-is, has been found dead. He was found this morning by my colleagues.”
”How did you identify him?” Kerstin asked a bit concerned.
”His wife did that, let me check out her name again. That’s right, Barbro Hofvens….She was completely heartbroken, poor soul.”
”You don’t happen to have her phone number?”
”Of course”, Katerina said and rattled off the number.
”Thanks for all your help. By the way, could I have a mail address to reach you on?”
”Of course, you can have both Chief Carlos’ mail as well as mine. But I have to warn you that Carlos doesn’t read his mail. He prefers the fax. ”
”The Chief of Police doesn’t read mail? It sounds kind of old-fashioned.”
”He doesn’t know how it works and he doesn’t want to learn either. I’ve tried, believe me.”
”But how does he manage?”
”I keep an eye on his inbox and type out the mails for him.” Kerstin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and wondered outraged which era the Chief was living in. ”Oh yes, I almost forgot. When you get the autopsy-report of Karl Hofvenskold I’d like you to immediately mail me a copy.” Kerstin mentioned her mail address while her brain was working hard.
”I’ll take care of that”, Katerina said while jotting down the mail address in her notebook.
Kerstin Hogstrom was staring at her notebook where she had written Barbro Hofvenskold’s phone number. She knew that she would have to call the stylish woman but first she would inform her boss about the big news. She lifted the phone and started dialling the number to Staffan Nilsson but changed her mind and dialled home instead. Ase was used to quick changes and Kerstin knew that she would cook something good at home instead of their planned dinner at the restaurant.
The press conference was hel
d at seven pm the same evening. Staffan Nilsson and Kerstin, who had even changed into uniform, had dropped the bomb about the death of Karl Hofvenskold. The conference room had been filled to the brink with the Swedish news elite. The radio, press and TV had been represented and all had been shocked by the news.
Karl Hofvenskold was an old, distinguished name within real estate, especially in Gothenburg. The company had been started in 1923, had a turnover of about four thousand million Swedish crowns and was even listed. Hofvenskold Fastighets AB had around 600 different residential and business properties in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Malmo with the head office located on Gothenburgs fashionable street Avenyn.
Kerstin gave a sigh of relief in the lift after the tumultuous press conference and had a quick look in the mirror. The dim light made her look older and Kerstin noticed how tired she looked despite having been able to sleep in this morning. She quickly brushed her hair before the bell rang and the lift doors were opened. Scents of oregano and pizza reached her nostrils when she came inside the doors on the Crime department. Without hesitating she grabbed a gooey piece from one of the pizza boxes and went into her room. She sat down by the desk and enjoyed every bite of the creamy calorie-bomb. A new thought was forming in her head and Kerstin took out her mobile phone to dial Nikki’s number.
Saturday June 8th
Nikki jumped into the hotel’s van which was parked outside the Thalassa Boutique & Spa Hotel. Yawning, she leaned against the hot window while watching her suitcase being loaded into the luggage compartment. An entire day on the beach in the hot sun had made her both lazy and slow. The dark-skinned driver closed the doors of the shiny car and drove out from the hotel area. The green orange groves whisked past and Nikki wished that sometime in the future she would once again be able to live in a southern place . She actually didn’t like Sweden with its cold climate, somehow it was easier to live in the sun and heat. Nikki’s young years in Israel had been lovely and effortless. Much simpler than life in Sweden and she didn’t know how many times she had regretted returning to Gothenburg. Many times she dreamed that she was back in Tel Aviv and wondered what they were all doing today. Unfortunately, she had lost contact with many of her friends but she regularly chatted with a handful of them via social media. David Hirsch, who had been Nikki’s first adolescent love, had many times helped her with her work. He worked as an IT-manager for the intelligence services in Tel Aviv and was a real computer nerd. With the help of ultramodern techniques David had helped her with work by tracking mail, as well as tapping mobile phones and phones.
Blue Blue Eyes: Crime Novel Page 11