Read Online The Golden Calf by Helene Tursten - Free Book Online

in these murders?”
    “Sanna Kaegler, Philip Bergman, and Thomas Bonetti were the founders of ph.com. They lost an incredible amount of money when the bubble burst. You remember the headlines,” Tommy said.
    So that was the connection. The light bulb lit, and Irene remembered the story of Bergman-Kaegler. They’d been a household name. When she and Tommy were taking a few days to investigate Thomas Bonetti’s disappearance, ph.com had been merely a background issue. The Internet bubble had burst in the spring of 2000. In September, by the time Bonetti disappeared, it was already history. Bonetti had been involved in a number of suspicious business affairs, and any one of them could have provided a good reason for him to lie low. That is, if he was lying low voluntarily. As time went by, and there’d been no sign of life from him, rumors began to circulate: he’d had plastic surgery and was seen by some tourists in Miami; he’d been glimpsed snorkeling in Egypt; he’d been on a luxury Mediterranean cruise, or seen at a sex club in Paris. One tipster said he’d seen him in Copenhagen pushing a twin stroller. None of the tips proved to be true. Thomas Bonetti’s description made it hard for him to hide, even if he’d undergone plastic surgery. He was thirty-one-years old and 155 centimeters tall. He weighed about 100 kilos. He had a pinkish tinge to his skin color. His hairline was receding, and he only had a few tufts of hair where bangs were supposed to be. His hair had natural red highlights, and his eyes were a watery light blue. He had thick round glasses in all the photographs that had been published. The rumor that he’d changed his appearance by wearing tinted contacts had been eliminated when his parents informed the police that Thomas couldn’t wear contacts of any kind. They also did not believe he was hiding in countries that were hot and sunny. Thomas couldn’t stand heat, and his skin couldn’t tolerate the sun.
    His bank accounts in both London and Sweden revealed that he’d taken all his money out the day after he disappeared. A sum of five million Swedish kroner had gone via Luxembourg to the Cayman Islands. There, all traces ended.
    Five million kroner would last a long time, but it costs money to stay in hiding. If Bonetti had continued to burn through money at the rate he’d done during his heyday, he should have gone broke by now.
    “At least a billion kroner went up in smoke in the bankruptcy,” Tommy pointed out.
    “They were in good company. A huge number of Internet companies went bust. At the turn of the millennium, the burst of the dot-com bubble affected the economy of the entire world,” Birgitta said.
    “That’s right. They weren’t paying any attention to their finances, and the money just went up in smoke. Bonetti wasn’t the only one who took money out of the company right before it went bankrupt. That must have been the money he had in his various bank accounts. However, we still have a lead via the bank account in Sweden, which holds the money he inherited. The day he touches that money, we got him,” Tommy said.
    “Who set up the account?” Birgitta asked.
    “His father set it up when Thomas inherited money from his paternal grandparents. According to his father, it’s a long-term savings account that doesn’t have a card attached, so if he wants to get the money, he has to contact the bank personally. At that moment, he’d leave a clue as to where he was, and then we’d get him.”
    “Or at the very least, we’d have proof he’s still alive,” Irene said.
    Tommy nodded.
    Birgitta pointed at the picture on the wall and asked, “How are Philip Bergman and Joachim Rothstaahl connected?”
    “According to Rothstaahl’s father, the two of them had been pals for a long time,” Jonny replied. “That’s all we know right now.”
    “It appears that the death rate around Sanna Kaegler’s closest friends and relatives is particularly high,” Irene commented