Hakan Nesser - The Inspector and Silence

‘I’m afraid not,’ said the chief inspector.

‘The missing bike!’ said Reinhart. ‘The bastard has gone off on his bike!’

The caravan was on its way back to base through the forest. In slightly different formation – the chief inspector, Reinhart and Jung in the first car. Tolltse, Lauremaa and Mrs Fingher in the second. Kluuge, Servinus and Mr Fingher in the third.

‘What should we do now?’ said Jung.

‘Issue a Wanted notice, of course!’ snorted Reinhart. ‘Get every damned police officer for miles around out of bed and set ’em on the bastard’s tail! On his bike!’

Van Veeteren nodded.

‘Phone Suijderbeck immediately,’ he said. ‘It’s not five o’clock yet, but we can’t lose any more time. Yes, get that Wanted notice out in every single branch of the media that exists!’

Reinhart followed the chief inspector’s instructions, then stepped on the gas.

‘I feel awful,’ he said. ‘Fucking hell, I hate every second of this! We’re up the creek without a paddle again.’

Van Veeteren said nothing.

‘Do we have a picture?’ wondered Jung.

‘Hell’s bells,’ said Reinhart. ‘Of course we ought to…’

‘Przebuda,’ said Van Veeteren.

‘Eh?’ said Jung.

‘The local newspaper,’ the chief inspector explained. ‘They must have one. I’ll phone the editor and wake him up when we get to the station.’

Reinhart cleared his throat.

‘Do you think…?’ he began. ‘I mean, do you think he’s at it again?’

‘What do you think?’ said Van Veeteren.

For the rest of the journey all three of them remained immersed in their own silence.

Van Veeteren carried the tray in himself and placed it in front of Mirjan Fingher.

Tea. Juice. Sandwiches with cheese and cold sausage. He stepped back to close the door, then sat down on the other bunk.

‘Help yourself,’ he said. ‘I have a few questions. I take it for granted that you will cooperate – there’s no point in making things even more difficult for yourself.’

She nodded and took a sip of tea. He watched her closely. Her powerfully built body seemed to have shrunk during the journey to Sorbinowo. It was noticeably smaller. As if her outer features were being eaten up from inside, he thought.

‘Where do you think he is?’

She tried to shrug, but it remained no more than an attempt.

‘I don’t know.’

Her voice was on the very edge of breaking down.

‘We must catch him before he does it again,’ said the chief inspector. ‘The way we look at it there’s quite a big risk that he’s gone off for that very reason. Or do you have any other suggestion?’

She shook her head.

‘No.’

‘He surely can’t have known that we were on our way?’

‘No… No, certainly not. I think…’

‘Well?’

‘I think it could well be like you say.’

Not much more than a whisper. How much longer can she keep going? he asked himself. We must make sure she holds herself together.

‘Have a sandwich,’ he said. ‘Let’s see if we can sort this out now.’

She looked at him. Stroked back a wisp of her pale brown hair and straightened her back slightly. Took another sip of tea but didn’t touch anything else.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘That’s probably it. A longer time has passed than between the other two.’

Van Veeteren nodded and changed his toothpick for a new one.

‘How much did you know about it?’

‘A fair amount.’

‘Were you the one who phoned?’

‘Yes.’

‘How did you know when he’d done it?’

‘I could tell by looking at him. I’m his mother, after all.’

‘Why did you make that call?’

‘To put a stop to it.’

‘Make sure the girls moved out?’

‘I don’t know… Yes, I suppose so.’

‘You found the bodies and then moved them so that we would find them?’

‘Only one of them.’

‘You didn’t find the first one?’

‘Not to start with, no. But…’

‘Yes?’

‘I thought… No, I don’t know what I thought. I daren’t go after the first one, but then I was forced… Yes.’

He hesitated for a moment. Saw that she was starting to tremble now. Her hands were shaking, her face twitching.

‘His daughter?’ he said eventually.

‘Yes.’ She cleared her throat and braced herself. ‘She… My daughter-in-law told me about it when they divorced. It was… Well, I refused to believe her of course, but I understood eventually. If it’s possible to understand. I thought it was all over and done with, you have to believe that. Nothing had happened all those years since he moved back home. Not until that sect, those damned young girls…’

‘Last summer?’ asked the chief inspector.

She shook her head.

‘No. Wim was working in Groenstadt for a few months then. For my brother. He has a market garden. I found some magazines he’d hidden away, and so…’

She dried up.

‘I understand,’ said Van Veeteren. ‘But let’s get back to the most important thing. Where do you think he is right now? You must try and help us with this.’

She gazed out of the window and appeared to be thinking.

‘In the forest,’ she said in due course. ‘That’s where he feels safe, as it were, he might well be there – oh God!’

She suddenly seemed to fall to pieces. She flung herself down onto the floor on her knees next to the bunk, wrapped her arms around her head and began swaying from side to side.

‘Help him, please! Please help him!’

Van Veeteren stooped down and stroked her back rather awkwardly. Then he opened the door and shouted for Inspector Tolltse.

No, he thought. I can’t take any more of this.

‘We haven’t forgotten anything, I hope?’ said Reinhart.

‘The Wanted messages are all seen to,’ said Kluuge.

‘All over the country!’ snorted Suijderbeck ‘This is where the bastard’s lying in wait. He’s riding a bike, have you forgotten that?’

‘We have twenty-five officers in place here,’ continued Kluuge, not to be deterred. ‘And twenty more on their way. Two helicopters have already scrambled.’

‘And the summer camps warned,’ said Lauremaa.

‘How many of those are there?’ wondered Jung.

‘Far too many,’ said Kluuge with a sigh. ‘At the moment we have between three and four hundred girls of about the right age in various camps.’

‘Good God!’ said Reinhart.

‘But they’ve been given strict instructions,’ said Lauremaa.

‘That’s no guarantee,’ said Servinus.

‘No,’ said Reinhart. ‘There are never any guarantees in our line of business, dammit.’

Inspector Lauremaa stood up in irritation and walked over to the window.

‘Anyway,’ she said, ‘if he turns up on the streets of this town, he’s had it. Every man jack will recognize him. We’ll catch him all right, it’s just a matter of time.’

‘There’s something else that’s just a matter of time,’ said Reinhart.

‘I know,’ said Lauremaa. ‘I don’t need reminding.’

The door opened and Van Veeteren came in, a toothpick sticking out of each side of his mouth. He flopped down onto Lauremaa’s empty chair and looked around.

‘The forest,’ he said. ‘His mother thinks he’s in the forest.’

Nobody spoke for a few seconds.

‘Okay,’ said Suijderbeck ‘That sounds plausible. We can tell the helicopters to do a sweep over the forest. Around the lake first and foremost, that’s probably where he thinks he’ll get a bite.’

‘Most probably,’ said Jung. ‘What kind of communications set-up do we have access to?’

‘The cars parked outside,’ said Suijderbeck, pointing. ‘Servinus and I will see to that right away. What are the twenty-five officers who’ve already arrived doing?’