Read Online The Shadow Girls by Henning Mankell - Free Book Online

his coat he still wasn’t sure what he was going to do. The thought of calling Andrea and telling her of the change in his plans seemed too much. He got out his mobile phone to call a taxi when his phone rang. Hedidn’t recognise the number that appeared on his display. He answered. It was his mother.
    ‘Where are you?’
    ‘Why don’t you ask me how I am?’
    ‘We live in a new age now. With mobile phones one never knows where people might be. Why don’t you ask me where I am?’
    ‘I don’t recognise the number. Where are you?’
    ‘I’ve been invited out to a restaurant.’
    ‘By whom?’
    ‘A secret admirer.’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘I’m not going to tell you.’
    ‘Is that why you called? So you can tell me you’re not going to tell me who has invited you out to dinner?’
    ‘I’d like you to drop by later this evening. We have something important to talk about.’
    ‘I can’t come by this evening. I’m out of town.’
    ‘I spoke to Andrea earlier. She said very definitely that you were coming home tonight.’
    Humlin felt trapped.
    ‘I could be dead by tomorrow night. I’m almost ninety years old.’
    ‘You’re not going to die tonight. I’ll be over tomorrow evening.’
    ‘That’s not possible. Andrea is coming over then.’
    ‘Andrea?’
    ‘I’d like to see you tonight and her tomorrow.’
    ‘Why can’t we come over together?’
    ‘I have some important things to tell you. But I would like to speak to you separately.’
    Humlin tried to understand what could be going on with his mother.
    ‘I’ll be by if I make my flight.’
    ‘Where are you?’
    ‘Andrea didn’t tell you?’
    ‘She couldn’t remember if it was Luleå or Malmö.’
    ‘I’m in Gothenburg.’
    ‘I don’t have any more time to talk now. I’ll be home after midnight. We’ll have a glass of wine.’
    ‘I don’t want to have any wine.’
    The connection was already broken. Humlin called the taxi company but the number was busy. He found a phone book on a shelf in the hallway where he quickly looked up other companies. Everyone’s number was busy. Humlin was starting to sweat. I don’t want to go to a party, he thought. Maybe I would like to be alone with Amanda and explain the meaning of my poetry to her.
    He called the first company again and got through this time.
    ‘We can send a taxi out to you in twenty minutes.’
    ‘That’s too late. I’m trying to catch a flight.’
    ‘There’s a medical conference on in town. That’s why we’re so busy tonight.’
    ‘I need a cab out here immediately.’
    ‘I’m sorry, sir. It doesn’t look like we can help you.’
    Humlin decided he would try to wave one down on the street. He found the back exit and thought to himself that he was leaving by the door of the Failed Poets. Bestselling crime novelists probably always left through the front door.
    But when he got outside Törnblom was there waiting for him.
    ‘Amanda went the other way,’ Törnblom said. ‘We were afraid we might lose you.’
    Humlin felt humiliated.
    ‘I saw it in your face that you were going to try to stand us up,’ Törnblom said accusingly. ‘I have to look out for my kids, for everyone who’s going to be disappointed if you don’t show.’
    ‘You don’t know Andrea.’
    Törnblom held out his hand impatiently.
    ‘Give me your phone. I’ll call her.’
    ‘What are you going to say?’
    ‘That you’re indisposed.’
    ‘She knows I never get ill. She’s a nurse. She knows me.’
    ‘I’ll say you had a fainting spell.’
    ‘I’ve never had one before.’
    ‘Diarrhoea. That can happen any time.’
    ‘You don’t understand. Even if I actually had a heart attack she would accuse me of not keeping my promise.’
    Törnblom seemed to see the seriousness of the situation. He thought for a moment.
    ‘What time does the plane leave?’
    ‘In exactly seventy-seven minutes.’
    ‘Then let’s wait one hour and call and say that the car broke down while I was taking you to the