Read Online Marked for Life by Emelie Schepp - Free Book Online Page A

company by your side,” Anneli said and tilted her head.
    â€œBut you don’t have to go through everything again. Just take what’s of interest.”
    â€œWell, that’s obvious. What do you take me for, huh?” Anneli straightened her head and put her hand on her waist.
    â€œAnd talking about going through things,” said Gunnar, “I’ve been tidying in the storage room and found some stuff that belongs to you.”
    â€œYou’ve been tidying the storage room?”
    â€œYes. What of it?” Gunnar said and shrugged his shoulders. “I needed to get rid of some junk and I found a large cardboard box with ornaments in it. Perhaps you’d like them back?”
    â€œI can fetch them later in the week.”
    â€œNo, better if I bring the box to work. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll see if those lists have arrived as promised.”
    Anneli was just about to leave the room when she almost bumped right into a stressed Ola Söderström in the doorway.
    â€œWhat is it?” said Gunnar.
    â€œI think I’ve found something. Come and see!”
    Gunnar got up from his desk and followed his colleague Ola into the computer room.
    Ola, twenty years his junior, was tall and thin with a pointed nose. He was dressed in jeans, a red checked shirt and, like every other day of the year, a cap. Regardless of the temperature on the thermometer, be it minus or plus thirty degrees Celsius, he had his cap on. Sometimes it was red, sometimes white. Sometimes striped, sometimes with a check pattern. Today it was black.
    Gunnar had told Ola many times that he should avoid wearing headgear during working hours, but he finally gave up because his irritating hat was trivial compared with Ola’s skill with computers.
    â€œLook at this.” Ola pressed some keys and the recorded tape started to play. Gunnar saw the little boy on the film.
    â€œHe turns up at exactly 18:14,” said Ola. “He cuts across the street and seems to be on his way up toward Östanvägen, toward Hans Juhlén’s house.”
    Gunnar observed the boy’s movements. Stiff. Almost mechanical.
    â€œPlay it again,” he said when the boy disappeared from view.
    Ola did as he was told.
    â€œFreeze it there!” said Gunnar and moved closer to the screen. “Can you zoom in?”
    Ola pressed some keys and the boy came closer.
    â€œHe’s got his hands in that hoodie pocket. But the pocket is bulging too much. He must have something else in there,” said Gunnar.
    â€œAnneli did find the handprints from a child,” said Ola. “Could it be this boy?”
    â€œHow old?” said Gunnar.
    Ola looked at the figure. Although he was dressed in a large hooded sweatshirt, you could still make out the size of his body under it. But it was his height that decided the matter.
    â€œI’d guess eight, perhaps nine,” said Ola.
    â€œDo you know who’s got a child of that age?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œHans Juhlén’s half brother.”
    â€œShit.”
    â€œZoom in closer.”
    Ola zoomed in another step.
    Gunnar put his face right up to the screen so he could examine the bulging pocket better.
    â€œNow I know what he’s got in his pocket.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œA gun.”
    * * *
    Henrik Levin and Mia Bolander were driving from Norrköping toward FinspÃ¥ng. They sat in silence, deep in their own thoughts as they passed a road sign that told them they had five kilometers to go.
    Henrik pulled over to the side of the road so he could look up the address he wanted on the GPS navigator. The digital map showed that they had 150 meters to go to their final destination, and the navigator’s voice told him to keep driving straight ahead at the next roundabout. Henrik followed the directions and approached the given address, which was in the Dunderbacken district.
    Mia pointed to an empty parking space next to a