her pulse started to race and she saw it happen all over again. The shouts from the men attacking them, the alarm, the blood-filled balloon bursting. Then Lessmark’s scream … In retrospect, the panic-stricken falsetto had become distorted in her head. Younger, more shrill. Like something she’d heard before. Her mouth felt tight and she swallowed drily a couple of times in an effort to lubricate it. Concentrate, Normén!
She had glanced furtively at Anderberg a few times, trying to sneak a look at his notes, but if the psychologist had noticed anything he’d concealed it well. He’d stuck to the standard questions, running through the usual script and making a couple of dutiful attempts to probe a bit deeper, but mercifully quickly he gave up his attempts at incisive analysis and accepted the concise answers she gave him. Her performance seemed to hold in spite of its shortcomings; it was good enough, once again. And the conversation was over at last.
They shook hands, and it wasn’t until she was halfway across the courtyard of Police Headquarters, heading towards the garage, that she realized that her t-shirt was soaked with sweat.
Anderberg stood at his window and watched her go. He took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then let out a deep sigh.
‘Police Inspector Rebecca Normén, thirty-four, thirteen years’ service,’ he said quietly to himself. Her career path had been fairly conventional. A few years in patrol cars after graduation from Police Academy, picking up drunks and shoplifters, breaking up fights. Then a stint in Crime via the custody-section duty desk. Then the usual – watching, investigating and pulling in wife-beaters, burglars and muggers, until she had enough experience for the Security Police and the bodyguard unit. Good references, but not exceptional. None of the over-effusive statements that were fairly common in the service when you wanted to get shot of a difficult colleague.
She could probably have applied to the personal protection unit a couple of years earlier. After the Foreign Minister was murdered the group had been expanded considerably, and female applicants had been particularly hard to find – and were therefore particularly welcome.
But Rebecca Normén had taken her time. It looked like she had wanted to put in the years and gain experience in the regular force before leaving reality behind for the secret world of the Security Police. He himself had given her a ‘highly suitable’, the second highest of the four grades used in recruitment.
‘Focused and ambitious, possibly slightly reserved,’ was how he had summarized her in his notes on that occasion, and nothing he had seen in today’s conversation had given him any real reason to change that judgement.
‘And she could also be considered fairly attractive,’ he added slightly guiltily to himself, well aware of how unprofessional the comment was. As if to make up for this slip, he qualified the thought by adding ‘if you like the tall, sporty type’, which he didn’t.
Rebecca Normén had dark eyes, defined cheekbones, and a slightly too pointed nose which, in his opinion, made her face more interesting than conventionally beautiful. Her sharp features were emphasized by the fact that she always pulled her hair back in a tight little ponytail down her neck.
But Inspector Normén wasn’t the type to draw attention to her appearance. Little or no make-up, nails cut short, and strictly practical clothing – with the possible exception of today, although he guessed this was because of the incident a few hours earlier.
Even though she had made obvious efforts to be obliging, her manner was reserved, almost defensive, offering no opening for confidential conversation. To judge from her personnel file, Rebecca kept a low profile in her unit, did her job and studiously avoided the swamp of workplace romance that was otherwise so common in the force. More than half of her male colleagues probably thought she was lesbian, and the ones who knew better had the sense not to cross the line between private life and work that Normén obviously guarded so zealously.
He doubted whether any other officer had ever got particularly close to her. A smart move if you wanted to get on in the force, and Rebecca Normén was definitely both smart and ambitious. The fact that she didn’t want to share her personal thoughts and secrets with a psychologist hardly made her unique in the force, rather the opposite.
In spite of this there was something about her that unsettled him. A vague feeling that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. As if there was something there, something she was hiding behind the rigidly maintained façade and was desperate not to reveal.
He hadn’t made any notes about this at her recruitment, so either it had become more obvious, or else he was simply more attentive than he had been last year. But he got the impression that he had picked up a small, almost imperceptible fracture in her otherwise polished and professional exterior.
He couldn’t quite shake the feeling that it was all just a façade, some sort of game where the packaging didn’t quite match the contents. But on the other hand he could be wrong. Psychology was hardly an exact science, after all.
He fetched a mug of coffee and sat down at his computer. When it came down to it, Rebecca Normén had demonstrated that she was more than capable of handling every aspect of a critical situation, so what else was there to say?
Right now she was the bosses’ favourite, and it would take more than a few vague suspicions on his part to get them to change their minds. If he couldn’t back up his feeling with facts, he would just have to let it go. After all, this concerned another person’s career, and he of all people ought to know that gut instincts were way down the priority list within the police service.
Everyone has their secrets, so why should Rebecca Normén be any different? he thought as he settled to write his report.
Welcome to the Game, HP!
On this page you will be informed about the
basic rules and regulations for participants.
I recommend that you read them carefully and think things over before deciding whether or not you wish to continue.
Do you understand?
Yes
No
Yep, he understood all right, rules, blah blah blah, but – more importantly – more information. Just what he needed.
As soon as he got home to his little two-room flat on the steeply stepped alleyway of Maria Trappgränd, he threw all the windows wide open in a vain attempt to stir up the stale air inside. The bitter coffee from the computer shop was still bubbling in his stomach and it dawned on him that he hadn’t actually eaten anything since the burger he gulped down when he was drunk the previous night. And he was desperate for a cigarette. A crumpled, half-full packet of Marlboros that he found under the sofa after a bit of a search solved the latter problem, and he took a couple of deep drags and relaxed. Sweet!
With the cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth he mounted a raid on the fridge, but without any great expectations. Apart from a couple of cans of beer it offered thin pickings, but the ice-covered freezer compartment actually managed to produce a frost-damaged Gorby pie. He zapped the little delicacy in the microwave and settled down at the kitchen table, fiddling with the mobile and trying not to burn his mouth on the melted cheese.
It was all pretty straightforward. Even though the touchscreen was fairly large, there were only five icons. Phone, calendar, email, internet, and the one he was after – ‘The Game’.
He clicked Yes and a new text appeared instantly.
Welcome to a
