Free Sun and Shadow by Åke Edwardson

colleagues.”
    “Shadowed? By the crime unit? They can’t have been all that discreet, then.”
    “What are you saying? Is it something that you’re behind?”
    “Eh? I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
    “Being shadowed. By the crime unit.”
    “Do you really feel you’re being shadowed by the crime unit?”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “You said precisely that just now.”
    “I said I was being shadowed by your colleagues. I meant the police.”
    She could hear the sigh all the way from the Costa del Sol.
    “Let’s start again from the beginning,” he said. “Tell me again. I’ll listen and I won’t say a word.”
    “I went out shopping and a police car followed me. Slowly. All the way. When I stopped to see if that really was what it was doing it flashed its headlights and turned off down a side street.”
    Winter said nothing.
    “When I came back and was about to go through the main door a police car appeared again and drove slowly past, in the same way,” Angela went on. ‘And after it had passed, it flashed its lights again. The taillights this time.“
    “Was that all?”
    “Yes. For God’s sake, I expect they were keeping somewhere under observation, or whatever you say. It must have been a coincidence. I said it mainly as a joke.”
    “Ha, ha.”
    “Yes, funny, wasn’t it?”
    “Did you get the license plate number? Or numbers if there were two cars?”
    “Of course. I noted everything down right away on the inside of my eyelid.” She laughed. “I’m afraid not. I didn’t go to police academy.”
    “Well ... I don’t know what to say.”
    “Forget it. It was a coincidence, of course. Always assuming that you haven’t ... haven’t put somebody on to keeping a discreet watch on me, to make sure I’m all right while you’re away.”
    “It doesn’t seem to be all that discreet.”
    “Well, have you?”
    “Are you joking?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    “I don’t have the power to do anything like that. Not yet, at least.”
    “But soon, perhaps?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “If something happens to your boss? The chief of police. What’s his name?”
    “Birgersson. What are you talking about, Angela?”
    “Nothing.” She laughed again. “I’m just talking in my sleep, as it were. Or in my daydreams.” Not a sound from the Costa del Sol. “Hello? Are you still there, Erik?”
    “This is a very odd conversation.”
    “It’s my fault. I’m sorry. I still feel an outsider in this building, even though I’ve been here so often for so many years. But it’s different now. And I suppose it’s really to do with me wanting you back at home again. As quickly as possible. As soon as your dad’s better.”
    “We must keep hoping.”
    “It might take time.”
    “If he has any time left.”
    “It sounds as if he has.”
    “Now you’d better fix those anchovies.”
    “I suppose you get a lot of that kind of thing down there.”
    “I haven’t tried any yet.”
    “No tapas?”
    “There hasn’t been any ... time. I stayed at the hospital last night.”
    “What was it like?”
    “Better than being somewhere else. Anyway, make sure you get some salt down you, so that you don’t think so much about ghosts.”
    “Mrs. Malmer?”
    “Police cars.”
    “I’ve bought some cola sweets as well.”
    “Eat them with mashed anchovies and Parmesan cheese.”
    “I’ve made a note of that,” Angela said.
    The car drove around the town center, then returned to Vasaplatsen. The driver was listening to the emergency call-outs. A traffic jam near the Tingstad Tunnel. A mugging in Kortedala. Somebody who ran away from a tram in Majorna without paying.
    He parked at the newspaper stand and bought a paper, any paper. Maybe he’d read it, or just leave it on one of the seats. Maybe he’d just drop it in the trash bin.
    Lights were on in most of the apartments. He knew which block, but not which apartment. It would be easy to check the names on the intercom on