The Beige Man Read Online Free PDF Page A

quite some time. Just as she was running out of patience and was reaching out to push the door, it was yanked open. She was confronted by an overweight man in his fifties, dressed in a red golf sweater with a prestigious logo on the breast, black chinos and noticeably elegant shoes.
    “Yes?” he said brusquely.
    “Detective Inspector Irene Huss. I’m looking for Alexander Hölzer.”
    “That’s me. What do you want?”
    At first Irene was surprised by his dismissive attitude. She made an effort not to show what she was thinking, and carried on in a pleasant tone of voice, “It’s about the theft of your car yesterday. I’d just like to ask you a few more ques—”
    Before Irene could finish the sentence, she saw the color rising in Hölzer’s face. His voice shook with suppressed fury. “I have nothing to say to you until we get the stroller back. I’ve called several times, but they just keep saying they haven’t finished examining it yet. What the hell are they examining the stroller for? The thieves weren’t riding around in it, were they? It’s just the police on some fucking power trip! It’s ridiculous! I’m the one who’s had my car stolen, and yet I’m being treated like some kind of—”
    “In that case perhaps you’d like to accompany me to the station so that we can continue this conversation.”
    Hölzer’s face turned purple and the words stuck in his throat; he eventually managed to force something out. “What the hell …?”
    Irene’s expression remained impassive. “This is not just about the theft of your car. This is part of a murder inquiry.”
    “A murder inq—” Hölzer’s eyeballs looked as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.
This guy definitely needs to check his blood pressure
, Irene thought. He simply stood staring blankly at her for a long time, not making any attempt to move from the doorway. The only sound in the stairwell was his heavy breathing. Gradually his high color began to subside; it was as if the steam were slowly hissing out of him. He shuffled backward to let Irene in, then silently led the way, lumbering through an empty hallway and into a virtually empty living room. A few packing cases stood by the wall, and a poinsettia wilted in the window.
    “That’s the last of the boxes. The moving guys will be back to collect them at any minute. The contract cleaners will be here tomorrow,” Alexander Hölzer said wearily. He fell silent for a moment, then cleared his throat several times before going on. “What did you say about … about a murder inquiry?”
    Irene briefly explained what had happened at the scene where Hölzer’s car had been found.
    “You’re kidding me.” Hölzer shook his head and didn’t speak for a little while. He ran a hand over his hair, which was peppered with grey, and with a practiced gesture, he arranged a long strand over his incipient bald patch. “I can’t cope with this. I’ve been told that the stroller is undamaged, and we really need it. Eleanor is five months old, and she’s too heavy to be carried everywhere. I asked if I could come and pick up the stroller, and I was told that was out of the question. It cost ten thousand kronor, so I don’t feel like buying a new one. Andeverything has been really stressful: the move, the car being stolen and … everything,” he concluded apologetically.
    That was probably the closest Irene was going to get to an actual apology, so she nodded to indicate that she understood the strain he was under.
    When Hölzer mentioned that the stroller had cost ten thousand kronor, an image flickered through Irene’s mind: the well-used twin stroller made of blue corduroy that she had pushed her girls around in. It had cost five hundred kronor. She could still remember how happy she had been when she and Krister could afford to buy a new one made of red and white striped nylon. That was almost twenty years ago; she presumed that strollers were more basic back then.