The Spring Tide Read Online Free PDF Page A

their own spot in the city. It was written on the plastic card that hung around their necks, and had their name too. On Benseman’s card it had said ‘Benseman/Söder Market Hall’.
    ‘Benseman’s not going to be here for a while,’ said Vera.
    ‘It’s his pitch. Have you been allocated it temporarily?’
    ‘No, have you?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Well then, what are you doing here?’
    Jelle didn’t answer. Vera took a step in his direction.
    ‘Anything against me standing here?’
    ‘It’s a good pitch.’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Can we share it?’ said Jelle.
    Vera gave a slight smile and looked at Jelle. The sort of look that he backed away from as quick as he could. Like now. He looked down at the ground. Vera came right up to him, leant over and tried to catch his eye from below. About as easy as catching a trout with your hand. Hopeless. Jelle just twisted away. Vera let out that hoarse laugh which immediately causedfour families with little kids to swerve away with their designer pushchairs.
    ‘Jelle!’ she laughed.
    Pärt moved away from the wall. Was there trouble brewing? He knew Vera was a temperamental woman. Jelle was more of an unknown factor. It was said that he came from the archipelago , far out somewhere. Rödlöga, somebody had said? His father had hunted seals! But there was so much talk, and there was so little substance to it. And now the supposed seal hunter was standing outside the market hall having an argument with Vera.
    Or whatever it was they were doing.
    ‘What’s the row about?’
    ‘We’re not having a row,’ said Vera. ‘Jelle and me, we never have a row. I just say how it is, and he stares at the ground. Don’t you?’
    Vera turned towards Jelle but he had already moved off. Now he was fifteen metres away. He wasn’t going to argue with Vera about Benseman’s pitch. Really he didn’t give a damn about where Vera sold her magazines. She could decide that herself.
    He was fifty-six years old, and really he didn’t give a damn about anything.
    * * *
    Olivia steered her car through the late summer’s evening, on her way to Söder. It had been an intense day. A poor start, Ulf Molin had pestered her as usual, but then she’d found that murder case. And things were suddenly going very nicely. For several reasons. Private and otherwise.
    The hours she had spent at the National Library had left their mark.
    Weird how things turn out, she thought. It wasn’t at all how she had planned things. She would soon be on summer holidayafter a tough and intense spell. At college on weekdays, and working weekends at the Kronoberg remand centre. After that she was going to take things easy. She’d managed to save a bit of money so that she could stay afloat awhile. A cheap last-minute charter flight was the rough idea. Besides, she hadn’t had any sex for almost a year. She was going to do something about that too.
    And then this comes along?
    Perhaps she should skip the murder-case project after all? It was voluntary, right? Then Lenni phoned.
    ‘Yeah?’
    Lenni was her best mate from her final years at school. A girl who drifted around and desperately tried to find something to cling on to so she wouldn’t sink. As always, she wanted to go out in town, see what was happening, afraid to miss out. Now she’d got together with four other mates so that she wouldn’t miss Jakob, the guy she was interested in just now. She had read on Facebook that he was going to the Strand at Hornstull this evening.
    ‘You’ve got to come along! It’ll be great! We’re going to meet at Lollo’s at eight o’clock and…’
    ‘Lenni…’
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘Can’t make it, I’ve got to… it’s some college work, I need to sort it this evening.’
    ‘But Jakob’s mate Erik is going and he’s been asking about you several times! And he’s dead handsome! Absolutely perfect for you!’
    ‘Yeah but I can’t make it.’
    ‘Livia, how can you be such a pain in the arse? You really need to get laid if