Blood Song by Johana Gustawsson

Author:Johana Gustawsson [Johana Gustawsson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781912374823
Publisher: Orenda Books Ltd
Published: 2019-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

Diplomat Hotel, Stockholm

Tuesday, 6 December 2016, 5.00 pm

IT WAS HOURS SINCE the blanket of night had settled over Stockholm, yet the darkness was tinged with colour. What was black took on a bluish hue in the snow, and the lights from the buildings shimmered yellow in the sea.

Alexis was sitting in the bar of the Diplomat Hotel in Östermalm, the swanky part of the city. The hotel stood in pride of place on Strandvägen, a grand waterfront boulevard that stretched from west to east, connecting the hub of Nybroplan square to the Nobel Park along an arm of land that reached out to embrace the Baltic Sea. She couldn’t help but gaze out at the strip of frozen water surrounded by the quaysides. No matter where you went in Stockholm, the water was always whispering sweet nothings to the land and the stones of the wharves.

She swirled the wine around her glass before she took a sip. White was not her preferred colour. Still, she had succumbed to the waitress’s insistence that she should try a glass of something that would make any red pale in comparison. This Burgundy certainly was exquisite, Alexis had to admit, but nowhere near as satisfying as a full-bodied red.

Emily came in and took a seat across from her.

‘I ordered one for you too,’ Alexis said, sliding a second glass to Emily.

Emily swished the wine around a couple of times and took a sip.

After their meeting that morning, Emily and Kristian had started to contact patients of the Lindbergh Clinic whose treatments had failed. Most had not been keen to talk about their experiences and were even less inclined to explain their whereabouts at the time of the murders. Only one woman had agreed to see them: Lydia Olsen, a Dane who lived in Stockholm. She had told Emily she would be happy to meet with her that very evening. Emily and Alexis had jumped on a train to the capital city later that morning, leaving Bergström and Olofsson to keep combing through the patient files, much to Kristian’s horror, who was worried they’d be at it all night.

Just an hour ago Emily and Alexis had checked in to the hotel where Lydia Olsen had arranged to meet them.

‘Emily Roy?’

Emily looked up to see a smiling young woman extending a friendly hand over the tops of their wine glasses.

‘Good evening, I’m Lydia Olsen.’

‘Hello, Lydia. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us,’ Emily replied, clasping the woman’s hand in hers.

‘Thank you for coming all this way! My office is just over the road, so this place couldn’t be handier. You’ve travelled from Falkenberg, haven’t you?’ She looked from Emily to Alexis, her warm, generous smile creasing the corners of her eyes.

Emily nodded and returned a gentle, maternal smile. ‘This is Alexis Castells, the colleague I mentioned on the phone.’

‘Can we offer you a drink?’ Alexis asked, after a brief handshake.

Lydia’s straight, dark bob brushed softly against her jawbone. A few stray locks briefly veiled her light eyes; she flicked them away.

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