The Long Shadow Read Online Free PDF

in the NHL for several seasons,’ she said, ‘first with the Anaheim Ducks, then Colorado Avalanche. He was in defence. In the early nineties he was selected to play for the Three Crowns national team several years running. I think he was in the team that won gold in the World Championships in Finland in ’ninety-one, and Czechoslovakia in ’ninety-two …’
    Berit put down her fork.
    ‘How do you know all this?’
    Annika took a sip of mineral water. ‘He was my ex-boyfriend’s idol,’ she said, and Berit let the matter drop.
    ‘There’s something about fading sports stars,’ she said. ‘They seem to attract misery.’
    Large raindrops were striking the window.
    ‘Imagine hitting the top when you’re twenty-four,’ Annika said. ‘You’d spend the rest of your life as a has-been.’
    They skipped coffee and went back up to the newsroom.
    Patrik was practically jumping up and down beside Annika’s chair. ‘I’ve got something for you,’ he said. ‘As of this afternoon Kicki Pop is going to be presenting the radio programme that goes out before P1’s in-depth news programme. I want you to call Erik Ponti at Radio News and find out what he thinks about that.’
    Annika stared at the … head of news, and waited for the laugh that would tell her it was a joke. It didn’t come. ‘Are you kidding?’ she said. ‘I’m busy with the murders in Marbella. That’s a huge story. There are loads of Swedes down there who—’
    ‘Berit can deal with that. I want you to do this now.’
    She couldn’t believe her ears. ‘You’re telling me to call Erik Ponti and try to get him to bad-mouth a femalecolleague? One who just happens to be young and blonde?’
    ‘He’s famous for saying that bimbos are the lowest of the low.’
    Annika sat down, her back ramrod straight. ‘Ponti may be pompous and self-important,’ she said, ‘but he’s not stupid. He criticized a blonde female colleague once when he had every reason to do so. But considering the amount of shit he caught, do you really think he’d do it again?’
    Patrik leaned over her. ‘Make the call,’ he said.
    Annika picked up the phone and dialled Radio News.
    Erik Ponti didn’t feel like making any unpleasant comments, not about Kicki Pop personally and not about her programme.
    ‘What a surprise,’ Annika said, pulling her jacket on and heading towards the caretaker’s desk.
    ‘Where are you going?’ Patrik called after her.
    ‘I’ve got a meeting at two o’clock,’ she said, over her shoulder.
    ‘Who with?’
    She turned round and looked him in the eye. ‘There’s such a thing as confidentiality of sources,’ she said. ‘Ever heard of it?’
    ‘Not where your superiors are concerned,’ he said, and his ear-lobes were dark red.
    ‘Not where the legally responsible publisher is concerned,’ she corrected.
    Then she went to the caretaker’s desk and booked out a car from Tore.

2
    The rain was heavy now, so she had to keep the windscreen wipers on. It was only half past one but darkness was edging in, creeping up on frozen pedestrians, filthy streetlamps and lorries with flickering headlights.
    She was heading west, towards Enköping, past Rissne, Rinkeby and Tensta. She passed blocks of flats, terraced houses, empty schools and an abandoned football pitch. The traffic on the motorway ground to a complete halt outside the railway station in Barkarby and Annika peered through the windscreen of the car in front to see if there had been an accident she could phone in to the paper. It didn’t look like it. Maybe a pedestrian had been knocked down. Or someone had jumped in front of a train. That was fairly common.
    Soon the traffic was moving again, if slowly. The residential buildings thinned out, pine forest and industrial units taking over. The road surface was terrible, with brownish-grey sludge thrown up at the windscreen. She switched the radio on, but it was in the middle of a segment of adverts so she turned it off