A Death in Sweden(59)

Dan kept watching through the afternoon, and then with the street once again in darkness, he watched them leave one by one. For the most part, they left in the same order that they’d arrived, except that the two guys in the car left at the same time as the woman, doing their best to impress her as they walked the short distance along the street together.

Only one guy was left, and when Dan saw the lights go out, he made his way downstairs. The guy was sneezing even as he came out of the door, and if anything, looked worse than he had that morning. Briefly, he looked at the lit window of the pharmacy, but he checked his watch and changed his mind, heading off along the street.

Dan trailed after him, picking up his pace only when he saw that the guy was about to jump on a tram. Dan boarded further down, bought a ticket from the machine, watched casually. The guy was so out of it with his cold, though, that Dan probably could have been standing right next to him and he wouldn’t have noticed.

They didn’t stay on many more stops, and when they got off, the guy made a couple of turns, into quiet streets of apartment blocks. There was hardly anyone about. Dan checked his watch—just after six, but becoming fiercely cold. He followed him into a small apartment block, not old but already looking dated.

The guy looked at the stairs, and on a better day he’d have probably used them, but with a resigned look he headed to the elevator and pressed the button. Only as he stepped inside did he become aware that there was someone behind him.

He jumped a little, but didn’t suspect anything, and nodded, even looked ready to ask which floor Dan wanted. It only took him a second to work out that he didn’t recognize Dan from the building but from the office, and by that time Dan already had the gun on him.

Neither of them said anything. The elevator stopped, doors sliding open with a judder.

“I’m just a tech guy.”

Dan waved the gun a little and he stepped out and walked along the short corridor to a blank-looking door. He reached into his pocket for a key, and was shaking visibly as he opened the door. Dan stepped in behind him and closed the door.

They walked through into a small sitting room that looked as if a handful of students lived there, empty cartons all over the place, a games console, DVDs and magazines on every surface.

“Take off the lanyard and drop it on the table there.” The guy did as he was told. “You live here alone?”

The guy nodded vigorously and said, “I really am just a tech guy, it’s all I do, I mean . . . I’ll tell you anything, all you need to know.”

Dan could tell he was being straight with him—it was too bad.

“All I really need from you is twenty-four hours of silence.”

He shot him in the chest, the guy managing an unconvincing, “No, please,” before it hit him and his legs crumpled and he fell backwards into a chair. He moved convulsively for a few seconds, and then grew still, his eyes fixed on the TV as if he’d been paused in the moment of seeing something baffling.

Dan picked up the lanyard, looking at the card, which was blank except for its magnetic strip—deniability. He reached inside the guy’s jacket, then the pockets of his jeans where he found his phone and his wallet. His name was Adam and he was twenty-seven. He looked north of thirty, but that might just have been the cold.

Dan looked through his messages, then through his sent messages, finding one to someone called Josh which said, “Feeling really unwell, not sure if I’ll make it in today.”

It had been sent early that morning. And it really was too bad, thought Dan, because making it in had cost him his life.





Chapter Thirty-seven


Dan went back and had dinner at the hotel, then slept for a while and went out again later when the street was quiet. He could see the lights were out in the office building so he punched in the code and stepped inside.

There were no cameras in the lobby. There was an elevator, but he wouldn’t want to use that the next day. Around the corner behind it he found the stairs and walked up to the top floor.

Stairs and elevator opened into another small lobby with only one solid-looking door. It was a combined swipe and keypad. He doubted they used the same code for both doors, and didn’t want to risk trying it in case the system recorded failed entry attempts.

Instead he went back across the road and returned with his bag. He installed a small camera cut into the side of one of the polystyrene ceiling panels and checked it on the monitor, recording himself as if he were keying in.

Happy, he took the bag back across the road and then went to his hotel. He set his alarm for seven, though he didn’t sleep much and was up beforehand. He grabbed some breakfast and made his way along the street.

At eight, he sent a message to Josh on Adam’s phone, saying, “Worse this morning. Staying in bed for the day.”

Minutes later he got a message from Josh, saying, “Take it easy, buddy.”

Dan watched the rest of them arrive, just as he had the day before. The only difference this time was that the two guys in the car arrived before nine. It suggested he’d been right, that they’d been sent to beef up security.

As each one went in he looked again through the binoculars, making sure the code didn’t change from day to day. He checked, too, that the camera was working, and just from a cursory glance he already had a rough idea of the key code for the inner door. Once he was satisfied all of them were in, he went back over the tapes, firstly confirming the code, then looking at the other one to see what he could see of the office.