Читать книгу Shadows of Sören - Nicola Stöhr - Страница 17

Sören was standing at his office window, admiring the view of the Kalmar castle against the frosty morning sun. It was the middle of September now and days were noticeably getting cooler. He loved the castle, had always loved it. Its history stretched back over 800 years. During the 12th century a defense tower was erected to protect against pirates and other sea-faring enemies. A harbour was constructed and in the course of time a castle grew around the original tower. Nowadays the castle hosted various events, like concerts, dinners and banquets and fairs. And of course it was always possible to just simply visit and wander the rooms of the exhibition.

Kalmar had the makings of a big city, it was a bustling centre of commerce, and yet retained its old worldly charm and small town intimacy. An intimacy Sören had wanted to escape from when he was younger.

Kalmar was, as ever, surrounded by water. Few cities could boast of a natural beach so close to the city centre. It was unique and it was beautiful to him.

Lately he had been spending a lot of time gazing out of windows, lost in daydreaming. Surely that was a bad sign, but for what? Middle age or discontentment or the opposite? He really couldn´t say. He supposed he could rule out middle-age, since he wasn´t even in his mid thirties yet and he didn´t feel the least bit discontent.

He had gotten rid of Anna as soon as possible.

They had talked through her business plan and when she had asked him out to lunch, he had graciously declined and she had understood that she had only been one-night stand for him. He hoped she wasn´t desperate or clingy, because he had had his fare share of bad experiences with hysterical, love- sick women. One had once put an axe through the windshield of his brand new Aston Martin. Women really knew how to hurt you and that had really hurt.

An axe for God´s sake. That had been in London.

He had sold the car when he moved back to Öland. There was just no way you could be respected and liked by Ölanders and drive yourself around in an Aston Martin. People just wouldn´t have it, unless you were King Gustav, who was regularly spotted in the summer driving his Ferrari or one of his other sports cars around the island. It was also acceptable if you were a Stockholmare, meaning someone from Stockholm, who had a summer house on the island, but spent most of the year in Stockholm. But for him as someone who lived there permanently, it was just not on. People would think he was an idiot for spending that much money on a car and they would probably be right.

God, he hoped Clarice was still there when he got home and Per Nielson had miraculously died of a heart attack.