Lars Kepler - The Hypnotist

Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Lars Kepler - The Hypnotist» — ознакомительный отрывок электронной книги совершенно бесплатно, а после прочтения отрывка купить полную версию. В некоторых случаях можно слушать аудио, скачать через торрент в формате fb2 и присутствует краткое содержание. Жанр: Детектив, на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале библиотеки ЛибКат.

The Hypnotist: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «The Hypnotist»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.

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.

The Hypnotist — читать онлайн ознакомительный отрывок

Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «The Hypnotist», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.

Тёмная тема
Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

“Chances are you’ll be out of here- oh, in an hour or two.”

“Out of here?”

“Well, I don’t think we can hold you for anything.” He smiles.

She wraps her arms around herself. “You never answered my question.”

“Question?”

“Is Josef locked up?”

Joona looks her square in the eye. “No, Evelyn. Josef is in the hospital. We haven’t arrested him. I don’t know that we can.”

She begins to tremble, and her eyes fill with tears.

“What is it, Evelyn?”

She wipes the tears from her cheeks with the heel of her hand. “Josef did come to the cottage once. He took a taxi and he brought a cake,” she says, her voice breaking.

“On your birthday?”

“He… it was his birthday.”

“When was that?”

“On the first of November.”

“Just over a month ago,” says Joona. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” she says. “It was a surprise.”

“He hadn’t told you he was coming?”

“We weren’t in touch.”

“Why not?”

“I need to be on my own.”

“Who knew you were staying there?”

“Nobody, apart from Sorab, my boyfriend… well, actually, he broke up with me, and we’re just friends, but he helps me, tells everybody I’m staying with him, answers when Mum calls.”

“Why?”

“I need to be left in peace.”

“So you’ve said. Did Josef go out there again?”

“No.”

“This is important, Evelyn.”

“He didn’t come again,” she replies.

“You’re certain?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you lie about this?”

“I don’t know,” she whispers.

“What else have you lied about?”

Chapter 25

wednesday, december 9: afternoon

Erik is walking between the brightly lit display cases in the NK department store’s jewellery department. A sleek saleswoman dressed in black murmurs persuasively to a customer. She slides open a drawer and places a few pieces on a velvet-covered tray. Erik pauses to study a Georg Jensen necklace: heavy, softly polished triangles, linked together like petals to form a closed circle. The sterling silver has the rich lustre of platinum. Erik thinks how beautifully it would lie around Simone’s slender neck and decides to buy it for her for Christmas.

As the assistant is wrapping his purchase in dark-red shiny paper, the cell phone in Erik’s pocket begins to vibrate, resonating against the little wooden box with the parrot and the native. He answers without checking the number on the display.

“Erik Maria Bark.”

There’s a strange crackling noise, and he can hear the distant sound of Christmas carols. “Hello?” he says.

A very faint voice can be heard. “Is that Erik?”

“Yes,” he replies.

“I was wondering…”

Suddenly Erik thinks it sounds as if someone is giggling in the background. “Who is this?” he asks sharply.

“Hang on, doctor. I need your expert advice,” says the voice, dripping with contempt. Erik is about to end the call when the voice on the phone suddenly bellows, “Hypnotize me! I want to be- ”

Erik snatches the phone away from his ear. He presses the button to end the conversation and tries to see who called, but it’s a withheld number. A beep tells him he has received a text message, also from a withheld number. He opens it and reads: can you hypnotize a corpse?

Bewildered, Erik takes his purchase in its red and gold bag and leaves the jewellery department. In the lobby he catches the eye of a woman in a bulky, black coat. She is standing underneath a suspended Christmas tree, three storeys high, and she is staring at him with a hostile expression. He has never seen her before.

With one hand he flips open the lid of the wooden box in his coat pocket, tips a codeine capsule into his hand, puts it in his mouth, and swallows it.

He goes outside into the cold air. People are crowded before a shop-window where Christmas elves are dancing around in a landscape made of candy. A toffee with a big mouth sings a Christmas song. Pre-schoolers dressed in yellow vests over thick snowsuits gaze in open-mouthed silence at the scene.

The mobile phone rings again, but this time he checks the number before answering. It’s a Stockholm number.

“Erik Maria Bark,” he says cautiously.

“Hi, there. My name is Britt Sundström. I work for Amnesty Inter national.”

“Hi,” Erik says, puzzled.

“I’d like to know whether your patient had the opportunity to say no to the hypnosis.”

“What did you say?” asks Erik, as a huge snail drags a sledge full of Christmas presents across the window display. His heart begins to pound, and a burning acidity surges up through his gut.

“The CIA handbook for torture that leaves no trace does actually mention hypnosis as one of the- ”

“The doctor responsible for the patient made the judgment.”

“So you’re saying you bear no responsibility?”

“I have no comment,” he says.

“You’ve already been reported to the police,” she says curtly.

“I see,” he says feebly, and ends the call.

He begins to walk slowly toward Sergels Torg, with its shining glass tower and Culture House, sees the Christmas market, and hears a trumpeter playing “Silent Night.” He turns onto Sveavägen. Outside the 7-Eleven he stops and reads the display boards showing the headlines from the evening papers:

“I KILLED MUM AND DAD”

Hypnotist Dupes Boy into Confession

IN YOUR HEAD

Doctor Risks Boy’s Life to Coerce Admission

BARK WORSE THAN BITE

New Hypnosis Scandal for Tarnished Doc

OUTRAGE!

Stumped Cops Enlist Hypnodoc, Scapegoat Victim

Erik can feel his pulse begin to pound in his temples and hurries on, avoiding looking directly at those around him. He passes the spot where Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated back in 1986, walking home with his wife from the movies. Three red roses are lying on the grubby memorial plaque. Erik hears someone calling after him and slips into an exclusive electronics shop. Although just a few minutes ago he’d been so tired he felt almost drunk, that feeling has been replaced by a feverish mixture of nervousness and despair. His hands shake as he takes yet another strong painkiller. He feels a stabbing pain in his stomach as the capsule dissolves and the powder goes into the mucous membranes.

The radio in the shop is broadcasting a debate about the extent to which hypnosis should be banned as a form of treatment. A caller is telling the story of how he was once hypnotized into thinking he was Bob Dylan.

“I mean, like, I knew it wasn’t true,” he drawls, “but it was like I was kind of forced to say what I said, you know? I knew I was, like, being hypnotized. I could see my buddy was, like, sitting right there, like, waiting for me? But I still thought, like, I’m Dylan! I was even speaking English. Like, I couldn’t help it; I would’ve admitted just about any thing.”

The Minister for Justice says in his Småland accent, “There is absolutely no doubt that using hypnosis as a method of interrogation is a violation of the rights of the individual.”

“So Erik Maria Bark has broken the law?” the journalist asks sharply.

“We expect the Prosecutor’s Office to conduct a thorough investigation of the legality of his actions.”

Chapter 26

wednesday, december 9: afternoon

By the time Erik reaches Luntmakargatan 73, sweat is pouring down his back. He punches in the code to open the door. With fumbling hands he finds his keys as the lift hums its way upwards. Once inside the apartment, he staggers into the living room and tries to take off his coat, but the pills have made him dizzy. He topples onto the couch and switches on the television.

Читать дальше
Тёмная тема
Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

Похожие книги на «The Hypnotist»

Представляем Вашему вниманию похожие книги на «The Hypnotist» списком для выбора. Мы отобрали схожую по названию и смыслу литературу в надежде предоставить читателям больше вариантов отыскать новые, интересные, ещё непрочитанные произведения.


Отзывы о книге «The Hypnotist»

Обсуждение, отзывы о книге «The Hypnotist» и просто собственные мнения читателей. Оставьте ваши комментарии, напишите, что Вы думаете о произведении, его смысле или главных героях. Укажите что конкретно понравилось, а что нет, и почему Вы так считаете.

x