Dark Secrets Read Online Free PDF

her leadership. But she had long ago promised herself that she would never be afraid of uncomfortable decisions. There was too much at stake.
    A boy was dead.
    Murdered.
    It was time to work with the best.

    “There’s a call for you,” said Vanja, poking her head around Torkel Höglund’s door. His office, like most things about Torkel, was lean and simple. Nothing fussy, nothing expensive, hardly even anything personal. With its furniture sourced from a central storage depot somewhere, the room gave the impression that it was occupied by a school principal in some cash-strapped small town, rather than by one of themost senior police chiefs in Sweden. Some of his colleagues found it strange that the person responsible for the national homicide unit, known as Riksmord, had no desire to show the world how far he had come. Others interpreted it differently, concluding that his success had not gone to his head. The truth was simpler: Torkel never had any time. His job was demanding; he was always traveling around the country, and he wasn’t the kind of man who wanted to spend his spare time beautifying an office he rarely used.
    “It’s Västerås,” said Vanja, sitting down opposite him. “The murdered sixteen-year-old boy.”
    Torkel watched Vanja settle down. Clearly he wouldn’t be taking this call in private. He nodded and picked up the phone. Since his second divorce it felt as if phone calls were about nothing but sudden death. It was more than three years since anyone had wondered if he’d be home on time for dinner, or anything else so gloriously mundane.
    He recognized the name: Kerstin Hanser, who headed up the team at police headquarters in Västerås. He had gotten to know her during a training course a few years ago. A good person and undoubtedly a good boss, he had thought at the time, and he remembered feeling pleased when he read about her new position. Now her voice sounded stressed and strained.
    “I need help. I’ve decided to ask for Riksmord, and I’d really appreciate it if you could come. Might that be possible?” Her tone was almost pleading.
    For a second Torkel considered ducking the question. He and his team had just returned from an unpleasant investigation in Linköping, but he realized that if Kerstin Hanser had called him, it was because she really needed help.
    “We got this one wrong from the start. There’s a risk the whole thing might blow up in our faces, so I really do need your help,” she said, as if she had picked up on his hesitation.
    “What’s it about?”
    “A sixteen-year-old. Missing for a week. Found dead. Murdered. Brutally.”
    “If you e-mail me all the material I’ll take a look at it,” Torkel replied, looking at Vanja, who had moved to the other phone and picked it up.
    “Billy, can you come to Torkel’s office? We’ve got a job,” she said before hanging up. It was as if she already knew what Torkel’s response would be in the end. She always did, apparently. Torkel felt proud and slightly annoyed at the same time. Vanja Lithner was his closest ally on the team. She had only just turned thirty, but in spite of her tender age she had developed into a fine murder investigator in the two years she had worked with him—he found her almost irritatingly good. If only he had been as good when he was her age. He smiled at her as he ended the conversation with Kerstin Hanser.
    “I’m still the boss here,” he began.
    “I know. I’m just getting the team together so that you can hear what we think. Then it’s your decision, as always,” she said with a glint in her eye.
    “Oh yes, as if I had a choice once you get your teeth into something,” he replied, getting to his feet. “I might as well start packing—we’re off to Västerås.”

    Billy Rosén was driving the van up the E18. Too fast as usual. Torkel had stopped commenting on it long ago. Instead he concentrated on the material about the murdered boy, Roger Eriksson. The report was