The Shadow Woman

before gliding back up to the surface. He saw a face flicker into view above him.

“Trying to break some kind of record?” Vennerhag asked, and held a beer out over the water.

Winter stroked his hair back over the top of his head and took the bottle. It was cool in his hand. “You live a comfortable life,” he said, and drank.

“I deserve to.”

“Like hell you do.”

“No need to be bitter, Inspector.”

Winter heaved himself up and sat down on the edge of the pool.

“Swimming in your underwear. What happened to your sense of style and taste?”

Winter didn’t answer. He drank down the last of his beer and set the bottle on the paving stones, then took off his wet boxers and pulled on his shorts.

“Who was it that beat up my Aneta?” Winterasked, and turned toward Vennerhag.

“What are you talking about?” Vennerhag sat up again.

“A woman on my tea-from my department was assaulted and badly beaten last night, and if you find out who did it, I want to know,” Winter said. “Now or in due course.”

“That’s not your style either.”

“I’m a different man now.”

“Well, you can sa-”

“This is serious, Benny.” Winter had stood up. He walked over to the deck chair and crouched down, bringing his face close to his host’s. He smelled alcohol and coconut oil. “I tolerate you as long as you’re honest with me. As soon as you stop being honest with me, I won’t tolerate you anymore.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Then all this is over,” Winter said, stone faced.

Vennerhag gazed around at his property.

“What kind of a threat is that? And how am I supposed to know what happened to your fellow officer, Erik?”

“You know more lowlifes than I do. You’re a criminal. You’re a racist. If you’ve heard anything, I want to know.”

“I’m also your ex-brother-in-law,” Vennerhag said, and smiled. “Don’t come here and start acting all cocky.”

Winter suddenly grabbed hold of the man’s jaw and squeezed hard.

“They smashed off this part of her face,” he said, and leaned in closer and pressed harder. “You feel that, Benny? You feel that, when I squeeze here?”

Vennerhag jerked his head to the side, and Winter let go.

“You’re out of your mind, you fucking bastard,” Vennerhag said, and massaged his chin and cheeks. “You should get help.”

Winter felt dizzy. He closed his eyes and heard the rasping sound as the other guy ran his hand over his chin again.

“Jesus Christ,” Vennerhag said. “You shouldn’t be free to roam the streets, you fucking maniac.”

Winter opened his eyes again and looked at his hands. Were they his? It had felt good clenching his fingers around Vennerhag’s jaw.

“That’s how I oughta talk to Lotta,” Vennerhag said.

“You don’t go anywhere near her,” Winter said.

“She’s damn near as crazy as her brother anyway.”

Winter stood. “I’ll call you in a few days,” he said. “Meanwhile ask around.”

“Thanks for the visit,” Vennerhag said. “Jesus Christ.”

Winter stuffed his wet boxers into his pocket and pulled on his T-shirt. He left the same way he came in, climbed into his car, and drove toward town. He drove past the police station and continued to Korsvagen and drove across Guldheden to Sahlgrenska Hospital. The city looked cold again through the windows.

The street services had planted three palm trees at the entrance to the hospital, but through the tinted windows of Winter’s Mercedes the trees looked frozen in their pots.

Aneta Djanali seemed to stiffen as she reached for something on the wheeled table by her bed. He saw the surprise in her eyes as he entered her room and went quickly to her bedside, smiling and handing her the newspaper.

“I’ll just sit here for a spell,” he said. “Until the worst of the heat has settled.”

4

MOMMY WASN’T THERE ANYMORE. SHE HAD CALLED OUT FOR her, but the man said that Mommy would be coming soon, and so she waited and stayed quiet. It was dark and no one turned on the light. She had to go wee-wee, but she was too scared to say anything, so she held it in, and that made it feel even colder as she sat on the chair by the window.

She could see through the gap at the bottom of the shade that the forest was just outside the window. The wind blew through the trees. It smelled bad in here. Mommy’s gotta be coming soon.

The man said something to another man who had entered the house. She crept closer to the wall. She was hungry but more scared than hungry. Why hadn’t they gone home after that awful thing happened? When they drove away from there? There had been a man driving the car, and they had driven back and forth between the houses, and then another man had carried her with him when he jumped out of the car. Then they had jumped into another car, and that one had taken them away. She had looked around when she finally felt brave enough, but then Mommy wasn’t there.

“Mommy!” she had cried out, and the man had said that Mommy would be coming soon. She had cried out again and the man had become really angry and squeezed her shoulder hard. He was mean.

They were all mean, and they shouted and smelled bad.

“What do we do with the kid?” one of them said, but she couldn’t hear what the other man answered. He mumbled as though he didn’t want her to hear.

“We have to decide tonight.”

“Don’t talk so damn loud.”

“Let’s go into the kitchen.”

“What about the kid?”

“What do you mean? Where’s she gonna go?”

She stayed sitting in the chair by the window after they left. She heard an owl hoot out in the forest and pulled back the shade a little so she could see better. There was a bush growing just outside. She saw a car. It was lighter above the trees now. She looked in at the room and kept her hand on the shade. A faint beam of light came in from the window. It was like a band reaching across the floor, and there was something lying in the middle of that band. When she let go of the shade, the light disappeared and she couldn’t see the thing anymore. When she pulled back the shade again, the band came back and she saw that the thing on the floor looked like a piece of paper.

The men were talking somewhere. It sounded like they were far away. She kneeled down and felt along the floor with her hand and picked up the thing that was lying there. It was a piece of paper, and she stuffed it into the secret pocket on the inside of her pants. She had wanted to wear just those pants today, and they had a secret pocket inside the regular one.

She went back to the chair by the wall and climbed up onto it again.

She had a secret in her pocket. Stuff like that was usually fun and exciting, only not this time. What if the man who dropped the piece of paper starts looking for it and finds out that I’m the one who took it? I’ll put it back, she thought, but then the men came into the room again and both looked at her. Then they came closer, and one of