The Abominable Man (25 page)

He kicked it down and found himself on the roof. To be exact, right next to the chimney between the two penthouse apartments.

He saw Eriksson at once, standing legs astraddle on the penthouse roof with the much discussed Johnson automatic in his hands. But Eriksson didn’t see Gunvald Larsson. His interest was apparently completely occupied by the first explosion and his attention was directed to the south half of the building.

Gunvald Larsson put one foot on the guard rail toward the street, gathered his weight and landed on the penthouse roof. Eriksson turned his head and looked at him.

The distance between them was only twelve feet and the outcome was clear. Gunvald Larsson had the man in his sights and his finger on the trigger.

But Eriksson didn’t seem to care. He went on turning, swinging the automatic around toward his antagonist. And Gunvald Larsson didn’t shoot.

He stood motionlessly with his pistol aimed at Eriksson’s chest, and the barrel of the rifle continued to swing.

Just then Bohlin fired. It was a masterful shot. His view was largely blocked by Gunvald Larsson, but with unerring precision he nevertheless put a bullet in Eriksson’s left shoulder, from a range of more than sixty feet.

The automatic rifle rattled down onto the metal roof, and Eriksson twisted halfway around and sank down on all fours.

Then Hult was there, slamming the flat side of his pistol into the back of Eriksson’s head. The blow made a cruel-sounding smack.

The man on the roof lay unconscious, with blood streaming from his head.

Hult was breathing hard. He lifted his weapon again.

“Hold it,” said Gunvald Larsson. “That’s plenty.”

He put his own pistol back on its clip, straightened the bandage on his head and flicked a fat, oily grain of soot from his shirt with his right index finger.

Bohlin too climbed up on the roof and looked around.

“For Christ’s sake why didn’t you shoot?” he said. “I don’t get it—”

“No one expects you to,” Gunvald Larsson interrupted him. “By the way, have you got a license for that pistol?”

Bohlin shook his head.

“In that case you’re probably in trouble,” said Gunvald Larsson. “Now come on, let’s carry him down.”

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, her husband and coauthor, wrote ten Martin Beck mysteries. Mr Wahlöö, who died in 1975, was a reporter for several Swedish newspapers and magazines and wrote numerous radio and television plays, film scripts, short stories, and novels. Maj Sjöwall is also a poet.

Books by MAJ SJÖWALL and PER WAHLÖÖ

ROSEANNA

On a July afternoon, a young woman’s body is dredged from Sweden’s beautiful Lake Vättern. With no clues, Beck begins an investigation not only to uncover a murderer but also to discover who the victim was. Three months later, all Beck knows is that her name was Roseanna and that she could have been strangled by any one of eighty-five people on a cruise. As the melancholic Beck narrows the list of suspects, he is drawn increasingly to the enigma of the victim, a free-spirited traveler with a penchant for casual sex, and to the psychopathology of a murderer with a distinctive—indeed, terrifying— sense of propriety.

Crime Fiction/978-0-307-39046-2

THE MAN WHO WENT UP IN SMOKE

Inspector Martin Beck of the Stockholm Homicide Squad has his vacation abruptly terminated when the top brass at the foreign office pack him off to Budapest to search for Alf Matsson, who has vanished. Beck investigates viperous Eastern European underworld figures and—at the risk of his life—stumbles upon the international racket in which Matsson was involved. With the coolly efficient local police on his side and a predatory nymphet on his tail, Beck pursues a case whose international implications grow with each new clue.

Crime Fiction/978-0-307-39048-6

THE MAN ON THE BALCONY

In the once peaceful parks of Stockholm, a killer is stalking young girls and disposing of their bodies. The city is on edge, and an undercurrent of fear has gripped its residents. Martin Beck, now a superintendent, has two possible witnesses: a silent, stone-cold mugger and a mute three-year-old boy. With the likelihood of another murder growing as each day passes, the police force works night and day. But their efforts have offered little insight into the methodology of the killer. Then a distant memory resurfaces in Beck’s mind, and he may just have the break he needs.

Crime Fiction/978-0-307-39047-9

THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN

On a cold and rainy Stockholm night, nine bus riders are gunned down by a mysterious assassin. The press portrays it as a freak attack and dubs the killer a madman. But Superintendent Martin Beck thinks otherwise—one of his most ambitious young detectives was among those killed—and he suspects it was more than coincidence. Beck seeks out the girlfriend of the murdered detective, and with her help Beck reconstructs the steps that led to his murder. The police comb the country for the killer, only to find that this attack may be connected to a much older cold-case murder.

Crime Fiction/978-0-307-39050-9

THE FIRE ENGINE THAT DISAPPEARED

The cunning incendiary device that blew the roof off a Stockholm apartment building not only interrupted the small, peaceful orgy underway inside, it nearly took the lives of the eleven occupants. And if one of Martin Beck’s colleagues hadn’t been on the scene, the explosion would have led to a major catastrophe since—for reasons nobody could satisfactorily explain—a regulation fire truck has vanished. Was it terrorism, suicide, or simply a gas leak? And what, if anything, did the explosion have to do with the peculiar death earlier that day of a forty-six-year-old bachelor whose cryptic suicide note consisted of only two words: “Martin Beck”?

Crime Fiction/978-0-307-39092-9

MURDER AT THE SAVOY

When Viktor Palmgren, a powerful Swedish industrialist, is shot during his after-dinner speech in the luxurious Hotel Savoy, it sends a shiver down the spine of the international money markets and terrifies the tiny town of Malmö. No one in the restaurant can identify the gunman, and local police are sheepishly baffled. That’s when Beck takes over the scene and quickly picks through Palmgren’s background. What he finds is a web of vice so despicable that it’s hard for him to imagine who wouldn’t want Palmgren dead, but that doesn’t stop him and his team of dedicated detectives from tackling one of their most intriguing cases yet.

Crime Fiction/978-0-307-39091-2

THE ABOMINABLE MAN

The gruesome murder of a police captain in his hospital room reveals the unsavory history of a man who spent forty years practicing a horrible blend of strong-arm police work and shear brutality. Beck and his colleagues comb Stockholm for the murderer, a demented and deadly rifleman, who has plans for even more chaos. As the tension builds and a feeling of imminent danger grips Beck, his investigation unearths evidence of police corruption. That’s when an even stronger sense of responsibility and something like shame urge him into taking a series of drastic steps, which lead to a shocking disaster.

Crime Fiction/978-0-307-39090-5

THE LOCKED ROOM

A young blonde in sunglasses robs a bank and kills a hapless citizen. Across town, a corpse with a bullet shot through its heart is found in a locked room—with no gun at the scene. The crimes seem disparate, but to Martin Beck they are two pieces of the same puzzle, and solving it becomes the one way he can escape the pains of his failed marriage and the lingering effects of a near-fatal bullet wound. Exploring the ramifications of egotism and intellect, luck and accident, this tour de force of detection bears the unmistakable substance of real life.

Crime Fiction/978-0-307-39049-3

COP KILLER

In a country town, a woman is brutally murdered and left buried in a swamp. There are two main suspects: her closest neighbor and her ex-husband. Meanwhile, on a quiet suburban street a midnight shootout takes place between three cops and two teenage boys. Dead, one cop and one kid. Wounded, two cops. Escaped, one kid. Martin Beck and his partner Lennart Kollberg are called in to investigate. As Beck digs deeper into the murky waters of the young girl’s murder, Kollberg scours the town for the teenager, and together they are forced to examine the changing face of crime.

Crime Fiction/978-0-307-39089-9

THE TERRORISTS

An American senator is visiting Stockholm and Martin Beck must lead a team to protect him from an international gang of terrorists. In the midst of the fervor created by the diplomatic visit, a young, peace-loving woman is accused of robbing a bank. Beck is determined to prove her innocence, but gets trapped in the maze of police bureaucracy. To complicate matters a millionaire pornographer has been bludgeoned to death in his own bathtub.
The Terrorists
is the stunning conclusion to the series that changed crime fiction forever.

Crime Fiction/978-0-307-39088-2

VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD
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