The Shadow Girls by Henning Mankell Page B

like.’
    ‘That she’s going to write you out of her will?’
    Humlin frowned.
    ‘She said that?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Then why would you say that?’
    ‘For God’s sake, what’s the big deal?’
    Humlin realised it probably wasn’t the right time to talk about it. Both he and Andrea had drunk too much wine. That could lead to an explosion. But he couldn’t stop himself.
    ‘She said you two talk about our sex life. According to my mother you said we aren’t sleeping with each other very often.’
    ‘It’s true, isn’t it?’ Andrea said.
    ‘Do you have to tell her about it?’
    ‘Why not? She’s your mother.’
    ‘She has nothing to do with us.’
    ‘But we talk about everything. I like your mother.’
    ‘That’s not what you used to say.’
    ‘I’ve changed my mind. And she is very frank with me. I know things about her that you could never imagine.’
    ‘Like what?’ Humlin asked.
    Andrea topped up their wine glasses and smiled enigmatically. Humlin didn’t like the look in her eye.
    ‘Like what?’ Humlin repeated. ‘What is it I don’t know about my mother?’
    ‘Things you don’t want to know.’
    ‘How can I know if I want to know them or not before I know what they are?’
    ‘She has a job.’
    Humlin stared at her.
    ‘What kind of a job?’
    ‘That’s what you don’t want to know.’
    ‘My mother has never worked a day in her life. She’s jumped from one ridiculous artistic endeavour to another. But she’s never held down a real job.’
    ‘Well, she is now.’
    ‘What does she do?’
    ‘She’s a phone sex operator.’
    Humlin slowly put his wine glass down.
    ‘I don’t want you saying things like that about her. It’s not funny.’
    ‘It’s true.’
    ‘What’s true?’
    ‘She’s a phone sex operator,’ Andrea repeated.
    ‘She’s eighty-seven years old.’
    ‘I’ve heard her myself. And why can’t an eighty-seven year old woman be a phone sex operator?’
    Humlin was starting to get the gnawing feeling that there was something to what Andrea was saying. He was just having trouble putting it all together.
    ‘What exactly does this work involve?’
    ‘There are ads at the back of every newspaper with phone numbers for these kinds of services. You call up to talk dirty andhear someone moan on the other end and God only knows what else. One of your mother’s friends came up with the idea that there might be a market for older men who would want to masturbate to the sounds of women their own age.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘Well, she was right. They formed one of these services, an incorporated business, actually. It’s run by four women, the youngest of whom is eighty-three and the oldest ninety-one. As it happens, your mother is the CEO. Last year, after deductions they made a profit of four hundred and forty-five thousand kronor.’
    ‘What kind of deductions? What are you talking about?’
    ‘I’m just telling you that your mother spends a few hours every day making sexy sounds into the phone for money. I’ve heard her myself and she sounds very convincing.’
    ‘Convincing?’
    ‘That she’s horny. Don’t play stupid. You know what I mean. How is your book coming along?’
    ‘I’m going to Gothenburg next week to get things going.’
    ‘Good luck.’
    Andrea got up and started to clear the table. Humlin stayed where he was. What Andrea had told him made him both angry and uneasy. He knew deep down that what she had said was true. He had a mother who was capable of just about anything.
    *
    When Humlin got on the train to Gothenburg a week later he had spent most of the time in between fielding questions from more reporters wanting to know all about the crime novel he wasn’t going to write but that was nonetheless scheduled to come out next autumn. He had also had a fight with Viktor Leanderwho called him on the phone to accuse him of being a spineless plagiarist who stooped to stealing his best friend’s ideas. In exchange for the promise of total secrecy