Dark Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page A

area,” Emma suggested. Joakim nodded; he was impressed. Emma was smart.
    “Shall we carry on, or wait for the others?” Alice wondered.
    “I think we should carry on,” Joakim replied quickly, then added, “unless you’d rather wait?”
    He looked at the girls—Emma with her bright blue eyes and her soft face, Alice with her slightly more angular features. They were both gorgeous, he thought, suddenly wishing that they would suggest waiting for the others. And that the others would take a long, long time to come.
    “I suppose we might just as well carry on. If we’re here, it’s not far from where we were supposed to meet up anyway,” said Emma, pointing at the map.
    “Yes, but you’re right, the others are behind us, so maybe we ought to wait for them,” Joakim ventured.
    “I thought you wanted to get there first. I mean, you took off like abat out of hell,” said Alice. The girls laughed, and Joakim realized it was good to laugh with pretty girls. He gave Alice a playful little shove.
    “You weren’t exactly hanging about yourself.”
    They started chasing one another. They ran between the pools of water, randomly at first, but after Emma stumbled into one the aim was to get the others as wet as possible. It was a brilliant break from the slightly boring search, and just what Joakim needed. He ran after Emma and briefly grabbed her arm. She tore herself free and tried to run away from him, but her left foot caught on a protruding tree root and she lost her balance. For a second it looked as though she would stay on her feet, but the area around the pool was slippery with mud and she fell in, the water reaching her waist.
    Joakim laughed, but Emma was screaming. He fell silent and moved toward her. She screamed even louder.
Odd
, thought Joakim. It wasn’t that bad, surely. Just a bit of water. Then he saw the pale white body sticking up just a short distance away from Emma. It was as if it had been lying beneath the surface, waiting for its victim. That was the end of innocence and their childish game. There was nothing left now but dizziness and blind panic. Emma threw up; Alice started sobbing. Joakim stood there frozen in time, staring at the image that would be with him for the rest of his life.

    Haraldsson was in bed, dozing. Jenny was lying next to him, the soles of her feet on the mattress, a pillow underneath her bottom. She hadn’t wanted to drag things out.
    “Best if we get it over with, then we can do it again before I have to get back.”
    Get it over with.
Is there a bigger turnoff in any language? Haraldsson doubted it. But there you go, they’d gotten it over with and Haraldsson was dozing. Someone somewhere was playing ABBA. “Ring Ring.”
    “That’s your phone.” Jenny poked him in the side. Haraldsson woke up, well aware that he wasn’t supposed to be in bed with his wife. Hegrabbed his pants from the floor and dug out his cell phone. Hanser. Obviously. He took a deep breath and answered.
    Five words this time.
    “Where the fuck are you?”

    Hanser hung up angrily.
Sprained his ankle.
Not a chance. She had a good mind to drive to the hospital, or at least send a car there just to prove that the bastard was lying. But she didn’t have time. She was suddenly responsible for a murder investigation. It hadn’t exactly helped that the person responsible for the team working around Listakärr hadn’t been on-site or that he had agreed to use underage Scouts in the search party. Minors for whom she would now need to arrange counseling, since one of them had fallen into a pool of water and brought a corpse up with her when she got to her feet.
    Hanser shook her head. Everything to do with this disappearance had gone wrong.
Everything.
No more mistakes. From now on they had to start getting it right. Being professional. She looked at the phone, which was still in her hand. An idea was born. It was a big step to take. Too early, many people would think. It might possibly undermine