The Double Silence (Andas Knutas 7)

was still time. Eagerly she opened her shoulder bag and took out her mobile. Then she tapped in a text message.

JOHAN AND PIA had finished editing their report about the Bergman festival, and the Stockholm bureau was pleased with it. There were no regional news broadcasts on Saturday, so they had produced the story for
Rapport
, which was going to include it in their main programme. Pia Lilja was thrilled. She was young and ambitious and dreamed of getting a job at one of the big TV stations in Stockholm, so of course she was always eager to show off her talents. Since she was working away from the mainland, that was essential in order to draw the attention of the national news programmes. For some reason they didn’t really seem to value anyone who ‘only’ worked with the local news, treating her almost as if she were less intelligent. A lower-echelon creature in the rigid and inflexible hierarchy of television. Pia was well aware that she’d probably have to spend a number of years struggling before she could hope of getting even a temporary summer position in Stockholm.
    The following day Johan’s replacement was due to arrive, so the report on the Bergman festival was going to be his last for quite a while. He had a sense of unreality as he gathered up his belongings in the editorial office. He had never been away from his job for such a long time. Pia sat there with her feet propped up on the desk and watched him from under her straggly black fringe. She had a different coloured gemstone in her nostril today. It was just as black as her hair and the heavy kohl eyeliner she favoured.
    ‘I’m going to miss you, you know,’ she muttered.
    ‘Same here.’ Johan glanced up from the boxes he was packing and smiled. ‘You might not even be here when I get back.’
    ‘Oh, I don’t think I’m ever going to escape this place. I’ll probably be shooting pictures of herds of sheep, flags on the municipal building and the ring wall until the day I die.’
    ‘Right. If there’s anyone who’s going to be hanging around here until retirement, it’s me. The difference is that I actually wouldn’t mind.’
    ‘I know. You silly Mr Mum. We used to be able to go out partying together. But not any more. In that respect, Madeleine Haga is going to be a lot more fun.’
    Madeleine had been hired as Johan’s replacement. He had worked with her in Stockholm and knew her well. They’d even had a bit of a fling a long time ago. That had happened, too, with several other women who had come and gone at the news bureau over the years. Before he met Emma, he’d lived a very different sort of life.
    ‘By the way, I’m getting hungry. Isn’t it about time for our little farewell dinner?’
    ‘Absolutely,’ Johan said with a grin. ‘The sooner I get out of here, the better.’
    Pia had booked a table at a newly opened place on Adelsgatan. The Élite was a first-class restaurant that also had a popular outdoor bar. They walked over there and, as usual, Pia attracted a lot of attention. She was almost six feet tall and slender, with piercings in her nose and navel, which she liked to show off by wearing tops that were much too short. She had unusually large breasts and the biggest eyes that Johan had ever seen. And she used a sooty-coloured eye shadow to enhance the effect. The result was that people stared – both men and women. And Pia enjoyed the attention.
    Normally she had a new boyfriend every week, especially during the summer season, but a year ago she had changed completely when it came to that aspect of her life. And her choice of lover was unexpected, to say the least. She had met a sheep farmer on Sudret – a taciturn and morose sort of man, in Johan’s opinion. But Pia was more in love than she’d everbeen before. When Johan asked her how she was planning to combine a TV career in Stockholm with the life of a sheep farmer, she had merely shrugged, telling him that plenty of people commuted between Stockholm and Gotland.
    ‘I can come home at the weekends. For me, that would be enough, because then we’d have even more fun when we were together. And I wouldn’t have to feed those dumb sheep every morning,’ she’d said, giving a whoop of laughter.
    Johan would never fully understand Pia, but she was the best camera-person he’d ever worked with, and he enjoyed her company. He really meant it when he said that he would miss her.
    They sat down at the table and ordered white wine and seafood