Red Wolf_ A Novel - Liza Marklund [152]
Then Annika was back again, a brief summary of her work and achievements.
He put the palm of his hand over her face and shut his eyes.
Strangely, he thought he could feel warmth from the newspaper.
A moment later the phone rang, and he picked it up with a smile.
‘I have to see you,’ Sophia Grenborg said, sobbing loudly. ‘Something terrible has happened. I’m on my way to you now.’
For a moment he was caught up in her panic, his throat constricting, terrorists, hitmen, people frozen to death.
Then everything fell into place. Sophia’s terrible things were not Annika’s. He cleared his throat and looked at the time, trying to think of an excuse not to see her.
‘There’s a committee meeting in quarter of an hour,’ he said, blushing at the lie.
‘I’ll be there in five minutes.’
She hung up and he was left sitting there with an unidentifiable summer tune in his head.
On Friday she had been happy as a lark, because she was going to be in an article in County Council World. They had asked her what she wanted for Christmas.
‘I said you,’ she had whispered, then kissed him on the ear.
He looked at the front page of the Evening Post, one of the biggest papers in Scandinavia, his serious-looking wife uncovering a group of terrorists. She was changing reality, while he and his colleagues were trying to tame it and administer it; she was making a difference while he was putting up smokescreens.
The telephone rang again, an internal call from reception.
‘There’s someone here to see you.’
He stood up and stared out across the churchyard below, frosted and frozen. He rolled his shoulders in an attempt to shake off the disquiet, the clamminess, the feeling of reluctance and obligation.
A few seconds later Sophia Grenborg stumbled into his room, her eyes red with crying, her nose puffy and swollen. He went over and helped her take off her coat.
‘I don’t understand what’s happened,’ she sniffed, pulling a handkerchief from her bag. ‘I don’t know what’s got into them.’
He stroked her on the cheek and tried to smile. ‘What’s happened?’
She sank onto a chair, holding the handkerchief to her mouth.
‘Management want to move me,’ she said, breathing unevenly. ‘Clerk in the traffic safety department.’
She lowered her head, her shoulders began to shake, he shuffled his feet a couple of times, bewildered, then leaned over her, paused.
‘Sophia,’ he said. ‘Oh dear, come on, poor you . . .’
She stopped, looking up at him in genuine confusion.
‘After all the work I’ve done,’ she said. ‘I’ve put everything into this job for five years. How can they downgrade me like this?’
‘Are you sure it isn’t a promotion?’ he said, sitting down on the desk and putting his hand on her back.
‘Promotion?’ she said. ‘I’m losing my project management bonus, and I have to clear my room this afternoon and move out to an open-plan office in Kista. I won’t even have my own desk.’
Thomas rubbed her shoulders, looking down at her hair, breathing in the smell of apples.
‘What reason are they giving?’
Sophia started to cry again, he stood up and pushed the door shut properly.
‘Come on, love,’ he said, crouching down and stroking the hair from her face. ‘Tell me what happened.’
She pulled herself together and wiped her nose.
‘We’ll sort this out,’ he said. ‘Tell me.’
‘They called me in for a meeting,’ she said. ‘I was really pleased. I thought I was going to join the congress group, or maybe one of the committees, but instead this happened.’
‘But why?’
She shook her head. ‘They said it was part of the reorganization ahead of the merger with you, and then they sent me out. Thomas, I don’t understand. What’s going on?’
He kissed her on the forehead, stroked her hair, looked at his watch.
‘Darling,’ he said, ‘I have to get to my meeting, and I don’t have any contacts in the Federation . . .’
The words hung in the air. She looked at him, wide-eyed.
‘Can’t you pull any strings?’
He patted her cheek. ‘Well, I can try. This will all sort itself out, you’ll see.’
‘Do you think so?’ she said, and