Free The Man Who Went Up In Smoke by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö Page A

her lower teeth, as if she was just about to say something. She was hardly taller than five foot one, but strongly and harmoniously built, with well-developed shoulders, broad hips and quite a narrow waist. Her legs were muscular and her feet short and broad, with straight toes. She had a very deep suntan and her skin appeared soft and elastic, especially across her diaphragm and stomach. Shaved armpits. Large breasts and curved stomach with thick down that seemed very light against her tanned skin. Here and there, long and curly black hairs had made their way out from under the elastic at her loins. She might have been twenty-two or twenty-three years old, at the most. Not beautiful in the conventional sense of the word, but a highly functional specimen of the human race.
    A questioning look in large, dark-brown eyes. Finally she said, "Yes, that's me. Were you looking for me?"
    Not quite such fluent German as her aunt's, but almost.
    'I'm looking for Alf Matsson."
    'Who is that?"
    Her general attitude was that of a child in a state of shock. It made him incapable of discerning any definite reaction to the name. Quite possibly it was completely new to her.
    'A Swedish journalist. From Stockholm."
    'Is he supposed to be living here? There's no Swede here at the moment. You must have made a mistake."
    She thought for a moment, frowning.
    'But how did you know my name?"
    The room behind her was an ordinary boarding-house room. Clothes lay carelessly strewn about on the furniture. Only women's clothing, as far as he could see.
    'He gave me this address himself. Matsson is a friend of mine."
    She looked suspiciously at him and said: "How odd."
    He took the passport out of his pocket and turned to the page with Matsson's photo on it. She looked at it carefully. "No. I've never seen him before." After a while she said, "Have you lost each other?" Before Martin Beck had time to reply, he heard a padding sound behind him and took a step to one side. A man in his thirties went past him into the room. Wearing bathing trunks, below average height, blond, very strongly built, with the same formidable tan as the woman. The man took a position behind her and to one side and peered inquisitively at the passport.
    'Who's that?" he said in German.
    'I don't know. This gentleman has lost him. Thought he'd moved here."
    'Lost," said the blond man. "That's not good. And without his passport too. I know what a bother that can be. I'm in that line myself."
    Playfully, he pulled the elastic of the woman's bathing suit as far as he could and let it go with a smack. She gave him a quick look of annoyance.
    'Aren't we going out for a swim?" said the man. "Yes, I'm ready."
    'Ari Boeck," said Martin Beck. "I recognize the name. Aren't you the swimmer?"
    For the first time, the girl's eyes wavered. "I don't compete any longer." "Haven't you done some swimming in Sweden?" "Yes, once. Two years ago. I was last. Funny that he gave you my address."
    The blond man looked inquiringly at her. No one said anything. Martin Beck put the passport away. "Well, good-bye, then. Sony to have troubled you." "Good-bye," said the woman, smiling for the first time. "Hope you find your friend," said the blond man. "Have you tried the camping site by the Roman Baths? It's up here, on the other side of the river. A huge number of people there. You can take a boat over." "You're German, aren't you?" "Yes, from Hamburg."
    The man rumpled the girl's short dark hair. Lightly she brushed his chest with the back of her left hand. Martin Beck turned around and went away.
    The entrance hall was empty. On a shelf behind the table that served as a reception desk lay a little stack of passports. The top one was Finnish, but underneath it lay two in that familiar moss-green color. As if in passing, he stretched out his hand and took one of them. He opened it and the man he had met in Ari Boeck's doorway stared glassily up at him. Tetz Radeberger, Travel Agency Official, Hamburg, born in