The Beige Man Read Online Free PDF

This luxury transportation system ought to have leather-covered handles, heated rearview mirrors and side airbags, given the price.
    Hölzer went over to the large living room window and looked down at the courtyard. He nipped off one of the poinsettia’s shriveled leaves and crumbled it between his thumb and forefinger. With his back to the room, he asked, “Do you seriously believe that my car has something to do with the murder of this girl?”
    “It’s being examined carefully in order to cover every eventuality,” Irene replied diplomatically.
    Hölzer merely nodded at his reflection in the window.
    “We’d like to know if you’ve come up with anything else regarding the description of the boys who took your car,” Irene said.
    He slowly turned around and looked at her with a frown. However, the concentration on his face suggested that he really was making an effort to try to remember any further details. Eventually he shook his head.
    “No. Two boys wearing baggy pants and jackets. Woolen hats. Dark clothes. Young.”
    “Did you see their hair?”
    “No. No hair,” he said firmly.
    Irene mentally crossed Fredrik Svensson off her list. Just to be on the safe side, she asked, “Did you manage to see anything of their faces?”
    “I only caught a glimpse of them.”
    “And you didn’t notice anything in particular?”
    “Not that I remember.”
    “No scars? Skin color? Eyes?”
    “They were too far away for me to see their eyes. It was dark, so it was hard to tell what color their skin might have been. And as I said, I didn’t see their hair. But they were definitely two white guys. Not black. Although of course some of those Hispanics have pretty light-colored skin.”
    Hispanics
. Irene thought about her daughter’s boyfriend. Felipe was half-Swedish and half-Brazilian, and could easily be classed as both Hispanic and black by someone who was inclined to think that way.
    Fredrik Svensson was definitely off the list. That left Daniel Lindgren, Fredrik’s wingman, and the two boys from Gräskärr, Niklas Ström and Björn “Billy” Kjellgren. If it turned out that none of them were involved in the theft of the BMW, then the investigation was going to be tricky. There was still a chance that the perpetrators were hiding out in the Delsjö area, in which case the patrols ought to find them at some point during the day. If not, there was a significant risk that they would suffer severe frostbite, or even freeze to death. The temperature hadn’t risen above minus twelve degrees so far, and as the afternoon wore on, the cold would once again intensify its grip. For several reasons, finding the two boys was a matter of urgency.

Chapter 3
    “N O LUCK SO far. A helicopter equipped with a thermal imaging camera has been searching the area all afternoon, but it hasn’t spotted a thing. No break-ins have been reported in the holiday village. We’ve found no trace whatsoever of the missing boys, but the dog teams are still out there searching. Our theory is that they’ve got another vehicle, but no cars have been reported stolen in the local area in the past twenty-four hours.”
    Detective Inspector Erik Lind, head of the search unit, was bouncing gently up and down on the soles of his sturdy boots. He had taken off the thick winter snowsuit he’d been wearing out in Delsjö all day, and he was now facing the Violent Crimes Unit team in full uniform, hands behind his back: a habit from his time spent patrolling the streets of Östra Nordstan a quarter of a century ago. With his cropped grey hair and his sharp pale blue eyes, he looked like the Hollywood template of a Nazi officer. This was far removed from the reality; he was a very likable individual who inspired great trust among his colleagues. If Lind and his team couldn’t find the hit-and-run drivers, no one could.
    “Could they have had a getaway car nearby?” Tommy Persson suggested.
    Erik Lind considered the possibility for a moment before