Read When the Devil Holds the Candle for Free Online Page A

handbag."
    Zipp maneuvered the car cautiously down toward the sea.
    "Slowly. We're strangers here, we're looking for something."
    "Looking for what?"
    Andreas shook his head in disbelief.
    "We're going to stop someone and ask for directions."
    "Who?"
    "Whoever turns up," Andreas said, with a groan. His friend's simplemindedness was unbearable.
    "What a shitload of trouble it is to live in a society that charges forty kroner for a pint. If we want to have any fun tonight, we're going to need at least a thousand," Zipp said.
    The sea poured in over the shore, grayish green, foaming, and ice-cold. They came to an old dilapidated clubhouse. Outside it, pieces of broken patio furniture had been piled into a heap, a Midsummer bonfire that would never be lit. The summer had been very dry. They turned into the parking lot and surveyed the area and saw a figure in the distance, plodding along the shoreline. Andreas opened the glove compartment and took out a cap, pulled it down over his forehead and tucked his curls underneath. Zipp grinned when he read the words on the blue fabric.
    "'Holy Riders. On the Road for Jesus.' Shit, you're bad, Andreas!"
    A strong wind was blowing. Andreas stuck one foot outside the car.
    "A woman," he said. "With a stroller. Excellent."
    "Why?"
    "Women get so helpless when they're pushing a stroller." He turned to look at Zipp. "Just think what's inside."
    "What exactly are you planning to do?"
    Zipp was nervous. He couldn't very well object; they were friends, they did everything together. But he often thought that one day they would cross one boundary too many. Andreas had his knife in his belt, under his shirt.
    "First we have to see if she's got a handbag with her. If she lives nearby, she's probably left it at home. Otherwise, women always carry a handbag."
    They waited as the figure slowly came closer. She was pushing the stroller along the beach, and the wheels were sinking into the soft sand. She was very tall, and wore a scarf around her head and a light-colored coat that flapped in the wind.
    "She must be six foot six tall!" said Zipp, who was five foot seven himself.
    "Doesn't matter. Girls don't have much in the way of muscles."
    The woman caught sight of the car. She leaned down to pat what lay inside the stroller. They could see part of a blue quilt. Andreas strained to see more.
    "There's her handbag," he whispered. "It's on top of the blanket. That's great!"
    "Why?"
    "It's more difficult when they carry their bags over their shoulders." He sat for a moment, squinting under the visor of his cap, going over his plan of attack. It wasn't a time for threats or violence, but for pure cunning.
    "You stay here. Keep the engine running. Find something in the glove compartment. Pretend that you're sitting here looking at a map or something. I'll get out and ask for directions to somewhere. The football field. I'll snatch the handbag and hightail it back."
    "She'll get our registration number!"
    "They usually don't. They get too damned scared."
    Andreas got out and approached the woman. She took stock of him and slowed her pace, with an uneasy glance at the car.
    Women are strange,
Andreas thought.
It's as if they can smell that something is up. Or maybe they just look at things in a different way from men. Because they have more enemies, maybe that's it. To be a woman and have to be on guard all the time, what a fucking strain that must be!
She had actually started in the direction of the parking lot, but then she would have to pass the car. Suddenly she turned the stroller around and set off in the opposite direction. The maneuver was pitifully obvious; he wondered what had inspired it. Maybe it was the foaming sea, blocking her path on one side, or maybe the child, the responsibility for someone other than herself. Or the fact that they were male: a sudden fear. Besides, the wind was fierce and the waves were slamming hard against the shore. No one would hear her if she yelled. Andreas stopped,