Stallo

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Authors: Stefan Spjut

BOOK: Stallo
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STALLO
A Supernatural Thriller
STEFAN SPJUT
Translated from the Swedish
by Susan Beard
Stallo
Contents
 
  1. Title Page
  2. Map
  3. The worm glued to the tarmac is as long as a snake. No, longer…
  4. Because the first news picture of Magnus Brodin, carried in the…
  5. She drove through intervals of snow, particles streaming fast in…
  6. It had been snowing all morning. It fell and fell in thick masses,…
  7. They plodded through snow a metre deep. Susso glanced towards…
  8. Seved had driven the tractor into the barn and switched off the…
  9. It got to be four o’clock, then five and then five thirty, and still …
  10. Cecilia was sitting in a corner of the sofa wearing jogging pants…
  11. After he had replaced the receiver on the wall he remained standing…
  12. The long hours of daylight that fortify us and the unyielding…
  13. The icy wind whipped in grainy blasts along Adolf Hedingsvägen…
  14. Seved stood on the veranda with his hands in the pockets of…
  15. It had been dark for a long time when the dogs started barking…
  16. The water that flowed through the heating system in Susso’s flat…
  17. It had taken Seved just over an hour to drive to Arvidsjaur and… 
  18. In the evening Susso and Gudrun drove to the supermarket, a…
  19. The road to Ammarnäs was unlit. There was only the glimmer…
  20. With her hat pulled down over her forehead, Susso walked home…
  21. It seemed the lemming shapeshifters had been useful after all…
  22. Susso’s sleep was more like a hibernation, with intermittent explosions…
  23. There was a news programme on the television. Some social…
  24. When Susso entered the kitchen Gudrun was standing with her…
  25. Seved knew he would never be able to snatch a child. It would be…
  26. An aroma of coffee and cardamom met Susso as she walked into…
  27. It was not even half past five in the morning when Seved was…
  28. ‘A week or so ago’, said Susso in a low voice, ‘I got an email from…
  29. The snowsuit stood out like a red dot against the piles of snow…
  30. Torbjörn sat up, reached out his slim arm and pulled the pizza box…
  31. The boy was dressed in his outdoor clothes and holding the…
  32. Susso told me to put on teletext, and when I didn’t do as she said…
  33. The squeaking from the metal springs hurt Seved’s ears but it was…
  34. I had been sitting so long at the laptop that I had given myself…
  35. ‘Are you making a grotto?’…
  36. The police station in Jokkmokk was a yellow wooden two-storey…
  37. Seved recognised the little man immediately…
  38. Torbjörn stood holding the coffee-filled glasses, glaring at the…
  39. He tugged at the padlock a couple of times before returning to…
  40. They had decided to meet Magnus Ekelund at a pizzeria called…
  41. Jirvin had come out of the barn and was standing there in his…
  42. ‘This is Anette,’ said Magnus with a grin. ‘My mum.’…
  43. Ivan Wikström was the name of the plain-clothes police officer…
  44. After Magnus and his mother had left, Susso and Torbjörn stayed…
  45. Detective Chief Inspector Ivan Wikström put the small bundle…
  46. Edit Mickelsson was sitting in the kitchen in front of her laptop…
  47. Getting the foxshifter into the car was easy. Like an obedient dog…
  48. ‘You going up to Riksgränsen for Christmas?’ Susso stared at the…
  49. For the last ten kilometres or so Jirvin had been talking to himself…
  50. They had pulled in at the Statoil filling station in Gällivare. Susso…
  51. Seved took a dish from the washing-up rack, put it on the table…
  52. Sigrid Muotka tentatively felt a bag of walnut kernels. She…
  53. The Vaikijaur man is not a man. At least, not if you believe cryptozoologist…
  54. Lennart sat with the open newspaper in front of him, staring at…
  55. One evening at the beginning of the new year I was sitting in the…
  56. Lars Nilsson had cut out the Norrländskan interview with Susso…
  57. The sound of a television was coming from the upstairs landing…
  58. ‘If it’s true he’s been living with those Laestadians in Årrenjarka,’…
  59. First there was barking. Then beams of light…
  60. The sky was layered. Dark blue highest up, then greenish-yellow,…
  61. The police arrived at Holmajärvi only thirty minutes after Susso…
  62. It was morning, bitterly cold with a high, cloudless sky, and Seved…
  63. Susso sat in Torbjörn’s kitchen reading the newspaper. Torbjörn…
  64. Seved and Signe were building with Duplo bricks at the kitchen…
  65. Torbjörn must have been standing waiting in the entrance hall…
  66. It was not only the fact that Susso Myrén was still alive. The…
  67. They slept late and then ate breakfast sitting at the same table as…
  68. Seved stood with the red bucket in his hand, looking into the…
  69. The village where Mats Ingvar lived was about twenty kilometres …
  70. Animals were not allowed in the hostel, Seved was pretty sure…
  71. Mats had recommended the Mas Grill when they asked him if…
  72. Did it get into his mind? Could it really radiate that far?…
  73. They had taken the left exit at the roundabout south of Gränna…
  74. The shop was empty when Seved arrived. A woman was sitting…
  75. Susso had wandered off towards the pasture in protest. She was…
  76. Subdued music met Seved as he opened the door. Pan pipes, he…
  77. They found themselves on the outskirts of Mjölby. Swollen…
  78. Seved was sitting in his shirt and underpants, eating a meal he…
  79. It was nine by the time they stepped out of the car, stiff and tired…
  80. The phone had started ringing as soon as I had put the tray on the…
  81. The dark-red mobile swivelled and buzzed on the table…
  82. Tessin Park was ringed by tall chestnut trees with spreading black…
  83. Seved was aware that the old-timers could know things, that they…
  84. Fortunately the window in Sven Jerring’s old bedroom was slightly…
  85. Börje had left the kitchen and stamped up the stairs. Seved usually…
  86. ‘Why don’t we go there?’ Gudrun suggested. ‘To Magnus’s mother?’…
  87. Its eyes shone like small peppercorns and its mouth was wide…
  88. Susso had pulled out the yellowing newspaper articles and spread…
  89. At first Seved thought it was the boy standing at the top of the…
  90. I was scared to death of meeting Mona Brodin. I imagined a…
  91. He greeted them by imperceptibly lifting his chin, and when…
  92. In among the fir trees a stone’s throw behind Hybblet there was a…
  93. It was big. So big the Passat dipped as it leaned against it. It had…
  94. When Seved carried the petrol can out of the barn and hurried
  95. When the troll threw itself at Susso, when it wrapped its long…
  96. ‘Karats is dead,’ Börje said…
  97. Torbjörn turned on his phone and held the screen towards them…
  98. Tracks from paws of various shapes and sizes criss-crossed the…
  99. Mona had been staying the night with friends in Sundbyberg and…
  100. Seved was lying in bed fully dressed, and he could hardly breathe…
  101. It took time to find a garage that could repair the car window…
  102. He trudged on through the thin light of daybreak. The snow had…
  103. They had left the E4 at Luleå and driven in the direction of…
  104. It took them almost an hour to get down to the house and it was…
  105. Inger and Yngve Fredén told them the troll had been with them…
  106. He could not sleep, of course, but it was not the fear of being…
  107. Inger and Yngve Fredén said they were relieved the giant had gone…
  108. The tunnel was a black rectangle in the far wall and Seved thought…
  109. Ulf Eskilsson sat in his car with his elbows resting heavily on his…
  110. They were sitting leaning against the wall on either side of the…
  111. The snow fell thicker and thicker, and they drove as fast as they…
  112. The smoke had intensified in the tunnel and now their eyes…
  113. Amid the smoke from the blaze Susso went through corridors…
  114. I had parked outside Randolf Hedman’s house in Sorsele, but…
  115. There was a shower fitting in the room and a brittle, plastic shower…
  116. From his closed fingers it looked as if Lars Nilsson wondered…
  117. Towards the end of February we decided to arrange a presentation…
  118. About the Author
  119. Copyright

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