The Beige Man by Tursten Helene

Author:Tursten, Helene [Tursten, Helene]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781616954017
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2015-02-03T08:00:00+00:00

AFTER LUNCH IRENE went back to writing her reports. Tommy came in when she had almost finished the last one, which was about the fax from Tenerife and the identification of Andres Tamm as Sergei Petrov. It consisted of just a few lines because she had requested translations of the Spanish and German text. Irene felt optimistic about the prospect of revealing Tanya’s true identity. The question was whether they would also succeed in revealing the identity of her killer.

Irene showed Tommy the faxed picture of Tanya. He raised his eyebrows when he saw it.

“Well how about that. Tanya. So the little Russian has a name. Although obviously it’s not her real name. But it might make it slightly easier to track her down.”

“Let’s hope so.”

“Where did the fax come from?”

“Linda Holm got it from her Comandante in Tenerife. Apparently he’s in a real mess; he sounds pretty desperate.”

Irene told Tommy what he had said to Linda over the phone, and they both laughed, partly with relief at not having an ongoing gang war on their patch. They knew from experience how difficult that could be from a purely investigative point of view, and they also knew that dealing with gangs swallowed up resources on a huge scale. As a rule they just went on until the majority of the combatants were either dead or behind bars. “A kind of natural selection,” as Jonny put it.

“Have you spoken to Hannu?” Irene asked.

“Only in passing. He was going over to the ME’s office. They’ve finished the autopsy on Torleif.”

“You heard that the car’s been found?”

“Yes. It’s a remarkable coincidence that his car was stolen, although I would go with the theory that the thief had been keeping an eye on the parking lot and noticed the car hadn’t been used for a few days.”

“You’re probably right. I mean, Stefan doesn’t know when it was stolen. He didn’t notice if it was there when he arrived on Saturday evening because it was already dark.”

“We’ll see what forensics have to say tomorrow. They might find prints belonging to one of the star names on our records.”

“That would be way too simple. Every single petty thief knows that you need to wear gloves. Or wipe every surface. Or torch the car. Bearing in mind how cold it was, I’m sure the thief had something on his hands.”

“Let’s hope you’re wrong. Maybe his hands were freezing and he took the car so that his fingers wouldn’t fall off with frostbite.”

When Tommy finished speaking, Irene realized she was sitting staring at him without saying a word.

“What is it?” he said with a curious look.

“You said something that triggered a thought in the back of my mind. But it’s gone.”

“What did I say? That he took the car so that his fingers wouldn’t fall off?” Tommy ventured helpfully.

Irene shook her head sadly. “It’s no good; it’s gone.”

She knew there was no point in trying to force the issue. Whatever it was would float to the surface eventually.

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