Read Online Never Fuck Up: A Novel by Jens Lapidus - Free Book Online

things,his opinion and intuition. He rejected the thought. The dude was sucking up. He answered appropriately—which is to say, rudely.
    “I mean, he didn’t exactly look happy, so it was probably pretty painful.”
    Hägerström didn’t get the joke.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean he didn’t look happy, he had a strange facial expression. Bloody, might be the right word.”
    Their eyes locked again. Neither lowered their gaze.
    “Andrén, I don’t appreciate your kind of humor. Just answer the question, please.”
    “Didn’t I just do that? Considering how damn bloody that basement was, it must’ve been a real psycho freak who made the hit.”
    Thirty seconds of silence—a long time between two men who didn’t know each other.
    “Don’t worry, you’ll get to leave soon. I just have one more question. What is your spontaneous, preliminary opinion about the cause of death?”
    No point in making a fuss. If he did, the detective might keep him there even longer just to fuck with him. He offered his honest view: “I really don’t know. The dead guy had deep track marks on his arm, so it could’ve been an overdose that did him in, in addition to the assault.”
    Hägerström’s mouth fell open, looked honestly surprised for a brief moment. Caught himself. Flipped back to throwing his weight around. “Didn’t I say I didn’t like your kind of humor?”
    It was Thomas’s turn to look surprised. What did the guy mean? It wasn’t a joke.
    “Hägerström, I’m gonna be honest now. I don’t like people from Internal Affairs. I think we should stick together and not spend time ruining the lives of good professionals. But I want to be accommodating and answer your questions, just so I can get out of here. The problem is that, right now, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    “No? I mean I want you to answer my question. What is your spontaneous, preliminary opinion about the cause of death? No fucking track marks, please.”
    “Like I said, I don’t know. It was probably the assault, but it could’ve been an overdose, too. Considering the
track marks.
”
    Hägerström leaned forward. Articulated, “There were no track marks or needle wounds. The corpse was completely free of that kind of injury.”
    Silence again. Both were evaluating the situation. Their faces: less than three feet away from each other.
    Finally, Thomas said, “Sounds like you didn’t read my report. The corpse’s right arm looked like a sieve. If he or someone else pumped drugs into all those holes, he could just as well have caught a chill from an overdose. Do you understand?”
    Hägerström rummaged among the papers on his desk. Picked one up; it was Thomas’s report. The detective handed it over. Half a page. Terse sentences that he recognized. But there was something wrong about the end. There were words missing. Had he forgotten to save the last lines? Had his problems with the damn keyboard made parts of the text disappear, or had someone else deleted it?
    He shook his head. Not a word about the needle wounds in the report.
    Thomas looked up from the report.
    “This is bullshit.”
    *  *  *
    AUTOPSY REPORT
    The National Board of Forensic Medicine, June 4
    The Department of Forensic Medicine
    Retzius Road 5
    171 65 SOLNA
    E 07-073, K 58599-07
    A. Introduction
    In accordance with an order from the Stockholm County Police Department, an expanded forensic autopsy has been performed on an unknown body, found on June 3 at 10 Gösta Ekman Road in Stockholm, referred to below as “X.”
    The investigation was carried out by the undersigned at the Department of Forensic Medicine in Stockholm in the presence of the autopsy technician Christian Nilsson.
    The body has, according to the Stockholm County Police Department, not yet been positively identified. However, the following can initially be stated:
    1. X is a man;
    2. X is Caucasian;
    3. X is between 45 and 55 years old; and
    4. X died between 2100 and 2400 hours