Read Online Farewell to Freedom by Sara Blædel - Free Book Online

otherwise I won’t pay. And I have to get her before they can have the money.”
    â€œWhen?” Lars asked.
    â€œTonight at 6 P . M .,” he replied.
    â€œWhat do the two Albanians look like?” Louise asked.
    â€œArian has shoulder-length hair,” MiloÅ¡ said, gesturing with his hands that it came down just below his shoulders, “and he wears glasses. Hamdi has short hair and is short and thin.”
    A slight smile crossed Lars’s lips as he jotted down the descriptions. Half the people they encountered on Istedgade would match them.
    â€œWe’re going to have to talk to Pavlína as well and find out if maybe she knows anything about the woman who was killed, and we’ll need her help if we’re going to try to put a stop to those two and their trade in Czech women,” Louise said.
    â€œOf course,” MiloÅ¡ said, “but I think she’d prefer to be free to come in on her own.”
    â€œWe could meet in the parking lot at Bella Center, where the two of you went that time, if that would make her feel safer,” Lars suggested.
    MiloÅ¡ nodded and promised to get back to them once he’d paid the money and she was hopefully back home again.
    He didn’t say anything as Louise escorted him back downstairs, but when they parted he thanked her for taking on the case and helping him so the Albanians couldn’t continue with their outrageous extortion.

    Willumsen was standing in their office when she got back upstairs. Lars had filled him in about their visitor and was just explaining how the Albanians had kidnapped Pavlína and sent her back out onto the street after MiloÅ¡ paid for her freedom.
    â€œShouldn’t we move in as he hands over the money?” Louise asked, eyeing Willumsen.
    Toft stopped on his way down the hall and leaned against the doorframe to listen in. He had one of those plastic nicotine inhalers in his mouth that he always used, a sorry substitute for the cigarettes he used to smoke until the ban on indoor smoking went into effect at police HQ. In the beginning Louise thought they were to help him quit smoking, but as time went by she realized they had nothing to do with smoking cessation. Her colleague had simply replaced his cigarettes with the nicotine from the inhaler so he wouldn’t have to keep running outside every time he wanted to smoke.
    Willumsen stroked his chin, lost in thought.
    â€œSo he thinks the two Albanians might have some connection to the woman we found? I don’t think there’s enough here for us to get involved yet,” Willumsen decided. “Instead, let’s try to figure out what’s going on and how big a network we’re talking about. Try to get a sense of the organization the Albanians are part of so we’re sure we wrap up the whole syndicate when we do strike.”
    â€œWhere was the girl living until the Serb bought her and she moved in with him?” Toft asked, stuffing his hands into the angled front pockets of his corduroy pants and looking at Louise.
    â€œAt one of the cheap hotels on one of the side streets off Istedgade,” she replied.
    â€œMaybe we should do a round of the hotels in the area with a picture of our murdered woman and find out if anyone knew her?” Toft suggested.
    Willumsen nodded to him. “Do that. If that doesn’t give us any leads, we’ll go back again after Rick and Jørgensen have talked to the Czech woman. Surely she can show us where she was staying,” he added.
    â€œIf she can recognize it. You hear about how these women are kept on such a short leash they never see anything other than the inside of the room they’re kept locked in and the stretch of street where they earn money,” Toft interjected.
    â€œWe could also take a look at the Albanian club,” Lars suggested, but Willumsen waved off the idea.
    â€œFor now let’s focus our attention on the Skelbækgade woman,”