Without a Trace Read Online Free Page A

even closer to the screen. What the hell was this?
     
Admittedly, there are those who claim he sacrificed his ethics and morals on the altars of the paper’s proprietors and capitalism when he left state-funded television and took charge of the most frivolous, attention-seeking tabloid in Sweden, but the Light of Truth judges no one without giving them a fair hearing. We value tolerance and openness here, and we stick to verifiable facts.
     
    Schyman glanced up at the top of the screen: yes, the blogger had evidently called the site ‘The Light of Truth’. It sounded ominous.
     
We’re all aware of his magnificent past achievements, his personal appeal, his considerable background in journalism: a university lecturer, chair of the Newspaper Publishers Association, the editor who made the
Evening Post
‘Sweden’s Biggest Daily Paper’ – as well as winning the Award for Excellence in Journalism twice! What an achievement! What a triumph! An (almost) unparalleled accomplishment! Let us all break out into a heartfelt chorus of hallelujahs!
     
    Well, it was hardly that remarkable. Several other journalists had won the prize twice.
     
But the Light of Truth didn’t acquire that name for nothing. This is the home of the Light that illuminates Reality and What Really Matters. This is a haven for Critical Thinking and Counterintuitive Thought, Opposition to the ghastly Political Correctness of the Media Establishment. Feel free to call me the Scourge of Hypocrisy and Cant.
Let us take a closer look at Anders Schyman’s great journalistic achievements. Let us take a step closer to the Light, and examine these triumphs carefully …
     
    What on earth was going on?
     
No one remembers the first time Our Hero was accorded the extraordinary honour known as the Award for Excellence in Journalism.
It is Anders Schyman’s second journalistic triumph that warrants proper illumination, his true media breakthrough, the documentary that led him to step out of the concrete grey shadows of state-funded television and into our cosily furnished living rooms. Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, let us shine the Light on Viola Söderland.
     
    ‘He’s still alive.’
    Anders Schyman started. The head of news, Patrik Nilsson, was standing, legs apart, on the other side of the desk, his voice full of disappointment. Schyman clicked away from the blog with a quick, embarrassed gesture. He hadn’t heard the glass door slide open and was still seeing Viola Söderland before him in all her surgically enhanced elegance. ‘I was as certain as anyone could be,’ he said. ‘She disappeared of her own volition.’
    Nilsson looked at him blankly. ‘Södermalm Hospital has just issued a new statement,’ he said. ‘Lerberg suffered a cardiac arrest during the operation and the staff had to use a defibrillator to get him going again. He’s being kept sedated because of the extent of his injuries.’
    Schyman’s thoughts were running like lava through his head, but he tried to maintain a neutral expression. He cleared his throat and looked at the empty screen in front of him. The blog post had shaken him, and he felt as if its insinuations were written on his face.
    ‘Do you remember Viola Söderland?’ he asked.
    Nilsson’s face shifted from expressionless to confused. ‘Who?’
    Schyman stood up and went to the sofa. ‘The billionairess. Golden Spire.’ He sank down on the worn cushions.
    Nilsson hitched up his jeans under his burgeoning beer-gut and glanced out at the newsroom on the other side of the glass wall. ‘The woman who disappeared? The one with the massive tax debt?’
    At first Schyman was offended, then relieved. The Light of Truth had evidently over-estimated the level of general awareness of his journalistic triumph. No one cared any more. It wasn’t an issue. ‘The woman who disappeared,’ he confirmed.
    ‘What about her? Has she turned up?’
    ‘In a way. Is Lerberg going to make it?’ he asked.
    ‘What