Top Dog

by Jens Lapidus

Genres: International Crime & Mystery; Crime Fiction; Psychological Thrillers

Synopsis

A number one bestseller in Sweden, Jens Lapidus's Top Dog is a thrilling, character-driven look at Stockholm's drug-and-sex-fueled underworld. A Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original.

Emelie is a young lawyer who's just started her own firm. Teddy is a reformed criminal looking for a fresh start. The first time they teamed up, in Stockholm Delete, they uncovered the secrets of a Swedish sex ring. Though their partnership proved rewarding—both professionally and personally—they haven't seen each other since. But when a vulnerable young client of Emelie's is murdered before she can testify against her abusers, Emelie turns to her ex-partner/lover for help.

Meanwhile, Teddy's nephew Nikolas has resolved not to repeat his uncle's felonious mistakes. But the gang-related murder of his best friend sets him back on a trail of violent vengeance—and into the path of Roksana, a naïve hipster whose discovery of a drug cache is giving her a dangerous crash course in Stockholm's dark side. And as Teddy and Emelie's investigation heats up, police corruption threatens to land him back in prison—or both of them in body bags.

Release date: November 6, 2018

Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

Print pages: 560

Sample

1
 
The only good thing about this meeting was that it was with the same case worker who had helped Teddy when he was first released. Her name was Isa, and she looked just like she had when they first met. Still around forty, still dressed like some kind of hybrid bohemian Södermalm woman and blingy Östermalm lady. Still wearing brightly coloured scarves and weird wrist warmers alongside small diamond earrings which weren’t actually that small.

‘Hi, Teddy! It’s been a while,’ said Isa. Small dimples appeared on her cheeks when she smiled. For some reason, Teddy liked her, even though her only role was to put him to work.

‘Yeah, time flies,’ he said, trying to seem friendly in return. The whole thing was really just embarrassing.

When he first got out of prison, he hadn’t thought he would need to sit here. And certainly not several years later. He had thought he would come out to a different Sweden, that he would be on a different level. He had been motivated, ready to work hard and to give up his time. He really had changed: he was ready to take the hard route, to leave all the crap behind him. But being ready was one thing – actually changing was another. Reality had quickly caught up with him. There was an eight-year black hole in his CV, and by now he had almost become accustomed to people’s suspicion. Though only almost.

‘Well, let’s go over how the past few years have been, job-wise,’ Isa suggested.
‘Where do you want to start?’

‘I know you found a job at a law firm?’

Teddy wanted to keep this brief. ‘Yeah, I took a few assignments as a special investigator for a firm called Leijon.’

‘Special investigator, what does that mean?’

‘It’s kind of hard to explain, but the partner in charge, Magnus Hassel, he called me a fixer.’

Teddy thought back to how many of those jobs had led to violence, and how he had risked becoming the Teddy he no longer wanted to be. He hadn’t worked for the firm over a year now, ever since the whole Mats Emanuelsson case.

Isa asked a few questions about wages, work experience and whether he had taken any training courses. ‘And after the law firm?’ she wondered. ‘What did you do then?’

‘Since then it’s been tricky. I’ve taken some KRAMI courses.’

Isa looked down at her papers. He knew she wouldn’t just be able to see that he had taken all of the guidance courses and group activities run by KRAMI, but also that he had completed at least five practical placements. None of them had led to a permanent position.

KRAMI was an initiative run by the Public Employment Service and the Prison Authorities, aiming to help guys like him – people with a so-called criminal history – find and, above all, hold down a job. He didn’t know why it never worked out for him.

Isa talked about guidance courses and work plans. Her desk was made of pale wood. The floor was linoleum, the walls covered in white textured paper, and the chairs felt plastic. Behind her, there was a glass panel through which Teddy could see other employment officers and his own reflection. He was tall, and always felt like his hair was invisible somehow: ash blonde, short-ish, or maybe it was mid-length.

With the exception of Isa’s earrings, everything in the room reminded him of prison. It wasn’t a personal room, it wasn’t Isa’s own office, it was a meeting cell, a place which looked in to the Employment Service but not out onto reality.

Though maybe Teddy did know what his problem was. After all those years in prison and his subsequent years of freedom, he still didn’t know anyone but the people he had met inside and those he had known before he was sent down, people who belonged to his old life. He could count the number of people he was close to on one hand: his sister, Linda, and her son, Nikola. Dejan, from the past. Tagg and Loke, from his corridor in Hall Prison. Those were the people he felt comfortable around. It was in their company that he could be himself. Then there was Emelie, of course, but he didn’t want to think about her right now. In any case, none of them could offer him a job, other than possibly Dejan. But that work would hardly contribute any tax to the Swedish state. In fact, there was a risk it would actually lead to increased costs for the country – in the form of a greater burden on the law enforcement agencies investigating whatever Dejan was up to.

Maybe he should just accept his predicament: realise that he didn’t fit in. Teddy would never be a part of the Sweden that he had longed for while he was inside, ever the outsider. But that wasn’t the same thing as saying he wanted to be a criminal again.

‘Are you listening, Teddy? You have to listen, otherwise I can’t help you.’

Teddy stretched out his legs beneath the table, they had almost gone stiff from sitting still for so long. ‘Sorry. I was just thinking about a friend who might be able to help me find a job.’

It was a long shot. But what was he meant to do? None of the courses, placements or group seminars had led anywhere. Dejan was bound to be able to help him, for old time’s sake. Isa tapped away at the keyboard as Teddy told her about his friend’s construction company. Then she cocked her head and gave him a serious look.

‘I’m sorry, Teddy, but I think it could be tricky with your friend. I don’t want to sound judgemental, but his firm has a very modest turnover, and he hasn’t declared any income for the past ten years. I don’t think he can offer you a real job. Not a job that I can approve, anyway.’

Isa was right.

But she was also wrong.