Lars Kepler - The Hypnotist

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The Hypnotist: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

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In This Spellbinding International Bestseller, a Murder Leaves Only One Route to the Killer
Tumba, Sweden. A triple homicide, all the victims from the same family, captivates Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the grisly murders – against the wishes of the national police. The killer is at large, and it appears that the elder sister of the family escaped the carnage; it seems only a matter of time until she, too, is murdered.
But where can Linna begin? The only surviving witness is an intended victim – the boy whose mother, father, and little sister were killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes intended for this boy to die: he has suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and lapsed into a state of shock. He's in no condition to be questioned.
Desperate for information, Linna sees one mode of recourse: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes. It's the sort of work that Bark had sworn he would never do again – ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl.
A number-one bestselling international sensation sure to please fans of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell, The Hypnotist is the first novel in a series, soon to be published in thirty-three countries. With its pulse-pounding hooks and twists, it announces a stirring new contribution to the annals of crime fiction.

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“Why do you say- ”

“It feels as if we’ve lost everything. You just sleep or else you’re at work, or wherever it is you are. I wanted to do things, travel, spend time together.”

He puts down the glass and takes a step towards her. “Why can’t we do that?”

“Don’t say it,” she whispers.

“Why not?” He smiles and strokes her cheek; then his expression grows serious again. Suddenly they are kissing each other. Simone can feel how her whole body has longed for this, longed for kisses.

“Hey, Dad, do you know where- ” Benjamin falls silent as he walks into the kitchen and sees them. “You’re crazy.” He sighs, and goes out again.

Simone calls after him. “Benjamin.” He comes back. “You promised to go and pick up the food.”

“Have you called?”

“It’ll be ready in fifteen minutes,” she says, giving him her purse. “You know where the Thai place is, don’t you?”

“Mum!” He sighs.

“Go straight there and back,” she says.

“Oh, please.”

“Listen to your mother,” says Erik.

“I’m just going to the corner to pick up a take-away; nothing’s going to happen,” he says, going into the hallway.

Simone and Erik smile at each other as they hear the front door close and their son’s rapid footsteps on the stairs.

Erik gets three glasses out of the cupboard, stops, takes Simone’s hand, and holds it against his cheek.

“Bedroom?” she asks.

He looks embarrassingly pleased, just as the telephone rings. “Leave it,” he says.

“It could be Benjamin,” she says, picking up the phone. “Hello?” She hears nothing, just a faint ticking sound, perhaps from a zipper being undone. “Hello?” She puts the telephone down.

“Nobody there?” asks Erik, uneasily.

Simone watches as he goes over to the window and looks down at the street. Once again she hears the voice of the woman who answered her earlier call. Stop it, Erik . She had laughed. Stop what? Fumbling inside her clothes, sucking at her nipple, pushing up her skirt?

“Call Benjamin,” says Erik, his voice strained.

“Why do I need to- ” She picks up the phone just as it rings again. “Hello?”

When no one speaks she cuts the connection and dials Benjamin’s number.

“Voice mail.”

“I can’t see him,” says Erik.

“Should I go after him?”

“Maybe.”

“He’ll be furious with me,” she says with a smile.

“I’ll go,” says Erik, moving into the hallway.

He is just taking his jacket off the hanger when the door opens and Benjamin walks in with a plastic bag stacked with cartons of steaming food.

They sit down in front of the TV to watch a movie, eating straight out of the containers. Benjamin laughs at the snappy dialogue, and Erik and Simone glance happily at each other as they did when he was a child, laughing out loud at some children’s programme. Erik puts his hand on Simone’s knee, and she puts her hand on top of his, squeezing it.

Bruce Willis is on his back, wiping blood from his mouth. The telephone rings again and Erik puts down his food and gets up. He goes out into the hallway and answers as calmly as he can.

“Erik Maria Bark.” There is no sound, just a faint clicking. “Right, that’s enough,” he says angrily.

“Erik?” It’s Daniella’s voice. “Is that you, Erik?” she asks.

“We’re just in the middle of eating.” He can hear her rapid breathing.

“What did he want?” she asks. “Who?”

“Josef,” she replies.

“Josef Ek?”

“Didn’t he say anything?” asks Daniella.

“When?”

“Just now… on the phone.”

Erik can see Simone and Benjamin watching the film in the living room. He thinks about the family out in Tumba. The little girl, the mother and father. The horrendous rage behind the crime.

“What makes you think he called me?” asks Erik.

Daniella clears her throat. “He must have talked the nurse into bringing him a phone. I’ve spoken to the exchange; they put him through to you.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Josef was screaming when I went in; he’d ripped out the catheter. I gave him alprazolam, but he said a lot of things about you before he fell asleep.”

“Like what? What did he say?”

Erik hears Daniella swallow hard, and her voice sounds very tired when she replies.

“That you’d been fucking with his head and you should leave his fucking sister alone if you don’t want to be eliminated. He said it several times. You can expect to be eliminated.”

Chapter 24

tuesday, december 8: evening

It has been three hours since Joona took Evelyn to the Kronoberg custody centre. She was placed in a small cell with bare walls and horizontal bars over the steamed-up window. A stainless steel sink reeked of vomit. Evelyn stood next to the bunk with its green plastic mattress and stared at Joona inquiringly as he left her there.

Once a suspect has been brought in, the prosecutor has up to twelve hours to decide whether the person should be arrested or released. If he decides not to release, he then has until twelve o’clock on the third day to submit an application to the court asking for the suspect to be arrested. If he fails to do this, the person is free to go. The basis for requesting an arrest can be either probable grounds for suspicion or, more seriously, reasonable grounds for suspicion.

Now Joona is back. Striding toward the women’s unit along the corridor with its shiny white vinyl floor, past monotonous rows of pea-green cell doors, he catches his own reflection in door handles and locks.

Jens Svanehjälm, Chief Prosecutor for the Stockholm district, waits for him outside one of the five interview rooms. Although Svanehjälm is forty years old, he looks no more than twenty, his boyish expression and round, smooth cheeks lending a false impression of innocence and naïveté.

“So,” he says, “did Evelyn force her younger brother to murder their family?”

“According to Josef.”

“Nothing Josef Ek says under hypnosis is admissible. It goes against his right to remain silent and his right to avoid incriminating himself.”

“I realize that,” says Joona. “It wasn’t an interrogation. He wasn’t a suspect. I thought the boy had information that would prevent another murder from taking place.”

Jens says nothing. He scrolls through e-mails on his phone.

“I’ll know soon enough what actually happened,” says Joona.

Jens looks back up, with a smile. “I’m sure you will,” he says. “Because when I took over this job, my predecessor told me that if Joona Linna says he’s going to find out the truth, that’s exactly what he’ll do.”

“We had one or two disagreements.”

“Yes, she said that, too,” says Jens.

Joona nods. Motioning towards one of the interview rooms, he asks, “Ready?”

“We’re questioning Evelyn Ek purely in pursuit of information,” Jens stresses.

“Do you want me to tell her that she’s suspected of a crime?”

“That’s up to you; you’re the lead interrogator. But the clock’s ticking. You haven’t got a lot of time.”

Joona knocks twice before entering the dreary interview room, where the blinds are pulled down over the barred windows. Evelyn Ek sits, her eyes downcast. Her arms are folded across her chest; her shoulders are tense and hunched, her jaw clenched.

“Hi, Evelyn.”

She looks up quickly, her soft brown eyes frightened. He sits down opposite her. Like her brother, she is attractive; her features are not striking, but they are symmetrical. She has light brown hair and an intelligent expression. Joona realizes she has a face that at first glance might appear plain but that becomes more and more beautiful the longer you look at it.

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