Harry Hole Mysteries 3-Book Bundle Read Online Free PDF

had said it softly, it was practically inaudible, yet it felt like a stinging slap.
    ‘You’re thin,’ she said.
    ‘So they say.’
    ‘The table …’
    ‘The waiter will come and get us.’
    She sat down on the stool opposite him and ordered an aperitif. Campari, went without saying. Harry used to call her ‘cochineal’ after the natural pigment that gave the spicy, sweet wine its characteristic colour. Because she liked to dress in bright red. Rakel had herself claimed that she used it as a warning, the way animals use strong colours to tell others to keep their distance.
    Harry ordered another Coke.
    ‘Why are you so thin?’ she asked.
    ‘Fungus.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Apparently it’s eating me up. Brain, eyes, lungs, concentration.Sucking out colours and memory. The fungus is growing, I’m dis appearing. It’s becoming me, I’m becoming it.’
    ‘What are you babbling on about?’ she exclaimed with a grimace meant to denote disgust, but Harry caught the smile in her eyes. She liked to hear him talking, even when it was just gobbledegook. He told her about the mould in his flat.
    ‘How are you doing?’ Harry asked.
    ‘Fine. I’m good. Oleg’s fine. But he misses you.’
    ‘Has he said that?’
    ‘You know he has. You should keep tabs on him better.’
    ‘Me?’ Harry looked at her, dumbfounded. ‘It wasn’t my decision.’
    ‘So?’ she said, taking the drink from the barman. ‘Just because you and I are not together doesn’t mean that you and Oleg don’t have an important relationship. For you both. Neither of you finds it easy to commit to people, so you should nurture the relationships you do have.’
    Harry sipped his Coke. ‘How’s Oleg getting on with your doctor?’
    ‘His name’s Mathias,’ Rakel said with a sigh. ‘They’re working on it. They’re … different. Mathias tries hard, but Oleg doesn’t exactly make it easy for him.’
    Harry experienced a sweet tingle of satisfaction.
    ‘Mathias works long hours as well.’
    ‘I thought you didn’t like your men working,’ Harry replied and regretted it the moment he had said it. But instead of getting angry, Rakel sighed with sadness.
    ‘It wasn’t the long hours, Harry. You were obsessed. You
are
your job, and what drives you isn’t love or a sense of responsibility. It’s not even personal ambition. It’s anger. And the desire for revenge. And that’s not right, Harry, it shouldn’t be like that. You know what happened.’
    Yes, thought Harry. I allowed the disease to enter your house as well.
    He cleared his throat. ‘But your doctor is driven by … the right things then?’
    ‘Mathias still does the night shift at A&E. Voluntarily. At the same time as lecturing full-time at the Anatomy Department.’
    ‘And he’s a blood donor and a member of Amnesty International.’
    She sighed. ‘B negative is a rare blood group, Harry. And you also support Amnesty, I know that for a fact.’
    She stirred her drink with an orange plastic stick that had a horse on top. The red mixture swirled round the ice cubes. Cochineal.
    ‘Harry?’ she said.
    Something in her inflection made him tense up.
    ‘Mathias is going to move in with me. Over Christmas.’
    ‘So soon?’ Harry ran his tongue over his palate in an attempt to find moisture. ‘You haven’t known each other for long.’
    ‘Long enough. We’re planning to get married in the summer.’
    Magnus Skarre studied the hot water running over his hands and into the sink. Where it disappeared. No. Nothing disappeared, it was just somewhere else. Like these people about whom he had spent the past few weeks collecting information. Because Harry had asked him. Because Harry had said there might be something in it. And he had wanted Magnus’s report before the weekend. Which meant that Magnus had been obliged to work overtime. Even though he knew that Harry gave them jobs like this to keep them busy in these feet-on-desk times. The uniformed division’s tiny Missing