The Long Shadow Read Online Free Page B

later she read that the Costa del Sol had a Swedish-language commercial radio station, broadcasting twenty-four hours a day. There was a monthly Swedish magazine, a Swedish newspaper, Swedish estate agents, Swedish golf-courses, Swedish restaurants, Swedish food shops, Swedish dentists, vets, banks, construction firms and television engineers. She found a diary that informed her, among other things, that the Swedish Church was planning to celebrate ‘cinnamon-bun day’. Even the mayor of Marbella turned out to be a Swede or, at least, was married to one. Her name was Angela Muñoz, but she was evidently known as Titti.
    ‘Bloody hell,’ she said. ‘Marbella looks as Swedish as a rainy Midsummer Eve.’
    ‘But with a rather better chance of sun,’ Berit said.
    ‘How many Swedes live there?’
    ‘About forty thousand,’ Berit said.
    Annika raised her eyebrows. ‘That’s more than there are in Katrineholm,’ she said.
    ‘And that’s just the permanent residents,’ Berit said. ‘There are plenty more who only live there for part of the year.’
    ‘And a whole family has been murdered,’ Annika said, ‘in the midst of this Swedish idyll.’
    ‘Good angle,’ Berit said, picking up the phone to call the attorney general’s office.
    Annika clicked and read ‘Latest news from Spain’. The Spanish police had seized a large shipment of narcotics in La Campana, 700 kilos of cocaine hidden in a container-load of fruit. Three leaders of the controversial Basque party ANV had been arrested. There were fears of drought again this year; a whale had beached outside San Pedro; and Antonio Banderas’s father was going to be buried in Marbella.
    She closed Google and went into the paper’s own archive. Loads of Swedish celebrities seemed to have houses or apartments down there, actors and artists, sports stars and businessmen.
    She picked up the phone and dialled International Directory Enquiries, and had better luck this time. She asked for the numbers of La Garrapata restaurant, the
Swedish Magazine
, the
South Coast
newspaper and the Wasa estate agency, all of them in the district of Málaga.
    Then she started ringing round.
    None of the Swedes who answered on their crackly Spanish telephones knew anything about anyone being gassed to death in connection with a robbery, but they all had juicy stories about other break-ins, the history and development of the area, the weather, the people and the traffic.
    Annika found out that there were more than a million people living in the province, half a million in Málaga and a couple of hundred thousand in Marbella. The average temperature was seventeen degrees in winter and twenty-seven in summer, and there were 320 days of sunshine each year. Marbella had been founded by the Romans in 1600 BCE , when it was known as Salduba. In 711 the city had been conquered by theArabs, who renamed it Marbi-la. The oldest part was built on Roman remains.
    ‘We were still in animal skins when people down there had running water and air-conditioning,’ Annika said, after she’d hung up.
    ‘Do you want to go and get some lunch?’ Berit asked.
    They logged off their computers so that no one could send fake emails from their accounts. Annika was digging out a lunch coupon from the bottom of her bag when the phone on her desk rang. The number on the little screen was eleven digits long, and started with 34.
    ‘Annika Bengtzon? Rickard Marmén here. Okay, I’ve looked into that break-in. It seems to be true.’
    He must have moved from the motorway because now there was silence in the background.
    ‘I see,’ Annika said, losing hope of finding a lunch coupon, then discovered a crumpled one in the side-pocket.
    ‘Did you know it was Sebastian Söderström’s family?’
    She was about to say, ‘Who?’ but gasped instead. ‘The ice-hockey player?’ She let the coupon fall to the desk.
    ‘Well, it must be ten years since he last played in the NHL. He’s been living down here for a