Хеннинг Манкелль - Before the Frost

Zeba came in, followed by Anna. The door closed behind Westin and a key turned in the lock. Linda stared at Zeba, then Anna.

“What are you doing?” Linda asked.

“Only what needs to be done.”

Anna’s voice was steady, but forced and hostile.

“She’s crazy,” said Zeba, who had collapsed onto a chair. “Out of her mind.”

“No, a person who kills an innocent child is crazy. It is a crime that must be punished.”

Zeba rushed up from her chair and grabbed Linda’s arm.

“She’s crazy,” she shouted. “She’s saying I should be punished because of the abortion.”

“Let me talk to her,” Linda said.

“You can’t reason with crazy people.”

“I don’t believe she’s crazy,” Linda said as calmly as she could.

She walked over to Anna and looked her straight in the eye, feverishly trying to order her thoughts. Why had Westin left Anna in the same room as her and Zeba?

“Don’t tell me you’re part of this,” Linda said.

“My father has returned. He has restored the hope I had lost.”

“What kind of hope?”

“That there is a meaning to life, that God has a meaning for each of us.”

That’s not true, Linda thought. She saw the same thing in Anna’s eyes that she had seen in Zeba’s: fear. Anna had turned her body so that she could see the door. She’s afraid it will open, Linda thought. She’s terrified of her father.

“What is he threatening you with?” she asked in a low tone, almost a whisper.

“He hasn’t threatened me.”

Anna had also lowered her voice to a whisper. It can only mean she’s listening, Linda thought. That gives us a possibility .

“You have to stop telling lies, Anna. We can get out of this if you’ll just stop lying.”

“I’m not lying.”

Time was short. She didn’t launch into an argument with Anna. If she didn’t want to answer a question, or answered with a lie, Linda could only go on.

“Believe what you like,” she said. “But you won’t make me responsible for people being murdered. Don’t you understand what’s going on?”

“My father came back to get me. A great task awaits us.”

“I know what task you’re talking about. Is that really what you want? Do you really want more people to die, more churches to burn?”

Linda saw that Anna was near the breaking point. She had to keep going, not relax her grip.

“And if Zeba is punished, as you call it, you will have her son’s face in front of you for all eternity, an accusation that you will never be able to escape. Is that what you want?”

They heard the sound of the key in the lock. They had run out of time. But just before the door opened Anna pulled a cell phone out of her pocket and passed it to Linda. Erik Westin appeared in the doorway.

“Have you said good-bye?” he asked.

“Yes,” Anna said. “I’ve said good-bye.”

Westin stroked her forehead with his fingertips. He turned to Zeba and then to Linda.

“Only a little while longer,” he said. “An hour or so.”

Zeba lunged at the door. Linda grabbed her and forced her down in the chair. She kept her there until Zeba started to calm herself.

“I have a phone now,” Linda whispered. “We’ll get through this.”

“They’re going to kill me.”

Linda pressed her hand over Zeba’s mouth.

“If I’m going to get us out of this, you have to help me by being quiet.”

Zeba did as she was told. Linda was shaking so hard she dialed the wrong number twice. The phone rang again and again without her dad picking up. She was just going to hang up when he answered. When he heard her voice he started to shout. Where was she? Didn’t she understand how worried he was?

“We don’t have time,” she whispered. “Listen.”

“Where are you?”

“Be quiet and listen.”

She told him what had happened after she left the station, first leaving a note on his desk. He interrupted.

“There’s no note. I stayed there the whole night waiting for you to call.”

“Then it must have gotten lost. We don’t have time, you have to listen.”

She was about to cry. He didn’t interrupt her again, only breathing heavily as if each breath were a difficult question he needed to find an answer to, an important decision that needed to be made.

“Is this true?” he asked.

“Every word. I heard them.”

“They’re completely mad,” he said.

“No,” Linda objected. “It’s something else. They believe in what they’re doing. They don’t think it’s crazy.”

“Whatever it is, we’ll alert all major cities,” he said, “I believe we have fifteen cathedrals in this country.”

“I only heard mention of thirteen,” Linda said. “Thirteen towers. The thirteenth tower is the last one and marks the onset of the great cleansing process. What it all means I don’t know.”

“You don’t know where you are?”

“No. I’m pretty sure we drove through Ystad; the roundabouts matched up. I don’t think we could have made it as far as Malmö.”

“In what direction?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did you notice anything else when you were in the car?”

“Different kinds of road. Asphalt, gravel, sometimes dirt roads.”

“Did you cross any bridges?”

She thought hard.

“I don’t think so.”

“Did you hear any sounds?”

She thought of it immediately. The airplanes passing overhead. She had heard them several times.

“I’ve heard airplanes. One was close by.”

“What do you mean by close?”

“It was about to land. Or else it was taking off.”

“Wait,” her dad said.

He called to someone in the room.

“We’re getting out a map,” he said when he came back on the line. “Can you hear an airplane right now?”

“No.”

“Were they big or little planes?”

“Jet planes. Big.”

“Then it must be Sturup Airport.”

Paper rustled in the background. Linda heard her father tell someone to call the air traffic control tower at Sturup and to patch the call into his line with Linda.

“We have a map here now. Can you hear anything?”

“Airplanes? No, nothing.”

“Can you tell me anything more about where you are in relation to the airplanes?”

“Are church towers toward the east or west?”

“How would I know that?”

Wallander shouted out to Martinsson, who answered.

“The tower is always in the west, the altar area in the east. It has to do with the resurrection.”

“Then the planes have been coming from the south. If, as I think, I’m facing east, the planes have been coming from the south heading north. Or maybe northwest. They have been passing by almost directly overhead.”

There was mumbling and scraping on the other end. Linda felt the sweat running down her body. Zeba sat apathetic, cradling her head in her hands. Wallander came back on the line.

“I’m going to let you talk to a flight controller called Janne Lundwall. I’ll be able to hear your conversation and may jump in from time to time. Do you understand?”

“I get it. I’m not stupid, Dad. But you have to hurry.”

His voice wavered when he answered.

“I know. But we can’t do anything if we don’t know where you are.”

Janne Lundwall’s voice came on.

“Let’s see if we can figure out where you are,” he said cheerily. “Can you hear any planes right now?”

Linda wondered what her dad had told him. The flight controller’s upbeat tone only increased her anxiety.

“I can’t hear anything.”

“We have a KLM flight due in five minutes. As soon as you hear it, you let me know.”