Lars Kepler - The Sandman

‘Mikael Kohler-Frost says he started walking just before it got dark,’ Joona begins, gazing at the large-scale map on the wall. ‘When exactly did the train driver raise the alarm?’

Benny checks his laptop.

‘At three twenty-two,’ he replies.

‘They found Mikael here,’ Joona says, drawing a circle round the northern end of the Igelsta Bridge. ‘It’s hard to imagine he could have been walking any faster than five kilometres an hour, if he was wounded and suffering from Legionnaires’ disease.’

Anja uses a ruler to measure the furthest distance he could have walked from the south, at that speed and on a map of that scale, then draws a circle using a large pairs of compasses. Twenty minutes later they’ve managed to identify five current construction projects that could match Mikael’s description.

A two-metre plasma screen is now showing a hybrid of a map and a satellite picture. Benny is still laboriously adding information to the computer which is connected to the plasma screen. Beside him Anja is sitting with two telephones, gathering supplementary information, while Nathan and Joona discuss the various building sites.

Five red circles on the map mark the ongoing construction projects within the preliminary search area. Three of them are in built-up areas.

Joona is standing in front of the map, his eyes following the railway line, then he points at one of the two other circles, in the forest close to Älgberget.

‘This is the one,’ he says.

Benny clicks the circle and brings up the coordinates, and Anja reads out a short description of the building works: NCC are building a new server farm for Facebook, but work has been at a standstill for the past month because of environmental objections.

‘Do you want me to get hold of the plans?’ Anja asks.

‘We’ll set off at once,’ Joona says.

The snow is lying undisturbed on the bumpy track through the forest. A large area has been cleared. Pipes and cable-runs are in place, and the drains have been installed. Forty thousand square metres of concrete foundations have been laid, and several ancillary buildings are more or less complete, while others are just shells. There’s a thick layer of snow on the diggers and dumper trucks.

During the drive to Älgberget, Joona received detailed plans on his mobile. Anja had got hold of them from the local planning department.

Magdalena Ronander examines the map with the rapid-response unit before they leave their vehicles and approach the site from three directions.

They’re creeping through the edge of the forest. It’s dark in among the tree trunks, and the snow is uneven. They quickly take up their positions, approaching cautiously as they observe the open area.

There’s a strange, somnolent atmosphere over the whole place. A large digger is parked in front of a gaping shaft.

Marita Jakobsson runs over and crouches down beside a pile of blast mats. She’s a middle-aged superintendent with plenty of experience. She carefully scans the buildings through her binoculars before waving the rest of the group forward.

Joona draws his pistol and heads towards a low building with the others. Snow is blowing off the roof and drifting through the air, sparkling.

They’re all wearing bulletproof vests and helmets, and two of them are carrying Heckler & Koch assault rifles.

They pass an unfinished wall and head up onto the bare concrete foundations.

Joona points towards a sheet of protective plastic that’s flapping in the wind. It’s hanging loose between two struts.

The group follows Marita through a storeroom and over to a door whose window has been smashed. There are black bloodstains on the floor and sill of the door.

There’s no doubt that this is the place Mikael escaped from.

The glass crunches beneath their boots. They carry on into the corridor, opening door after door and securing each room in turn.

Everywhere is empty.

In one room is a crate of empty bottles, but otherwise there’s nothing.

So far it’s impossible to tell which room Mikael was in when he woke up, but everything suggests that it was one of the rooms along this corridor.

The rapid-response units sweep efficiently through the industrial units and search each room before withdrawing to their vehicles.

Now Forensics can get to work.

Then the forest needs to be searched with dog patrols.

Joona is standing with his helmet in his hand, looking at the snow as it sparkles on the ground.

If I’m honest, I knew we weren’t going to find Felicia here, he thinks. The room that Mikael called the capsule had thick, reinforced walls, a water tap and a hatch for food. It was constructed to hold people captive.

Joona has read Mikael’s medical records, and knows that the doctors found traces of the anaesthetic drug Sevoflurane in his soft tissues. Now he’s thinking that Mikael must have been drugged and moved here while he was unconscious. That matches his description of just waking up to find himself in a different room. He fell asleep in the capsule and woke up here.

For some reason, Mikael was moved here after all those years.

Was it finally time for him to end up in a coffin when he managed to escape?

The temperature is falling even lower as Joona watches the police officers return to their vehicles. Marita Jakobsson’s careworn face is tense, and she looks sad.

If Mikael was drugged, then there is no way he can lead them to the capsule.

He never saw anything.

Nathan Pollock waves to Joona, to let him know it’s time to leave. Joona starts to raise his hand, but gives up.

It mustn’t end like this. It can’t be over, he thinks, running his hand through his hair.

What is left to be done?

As Joona walks back towards the cars, he already knows the terrifying answer to his own question.

Joona turns gently into the Q-Park garage, takes a ticket, then drives down the ramp and parks. He remains seated in the car as a man from the carpet warehouse above gathers up shopping trolleys.

When he can’t see anyone else in the car park, Joona gets out of the car and goes over to a shiny black van with tinted windows, opens the side door and climbs in.

The door closes silently behind him and Joona says a muted hello to Carlos Eliasson, chief of the National Police, and the head of the Security Police, Verner Zandén.

‘Felicia Kohler-Frost is being held in a dark room,’ Carlos begins. ‘She’s been there more than ten years, together with her older brother. Now she’s entirely alone. Are we going to abandon her? Say she’s dead and leave her there? If she’s not ill, she could live another twenty years or so.’

‘Carlos,’ Verner says in a soothing voice.

‘I know, I’ve lost all detachment.’ He smiles, raising his hands apologetically. ‘But I really do want us to do absolutely everything we can this time.’

‘I need a large team,’ Joona says. ‘If I can have fifty people we can try to pick up all the old threads, every missing-person case. It might not lead to anything, but it’s our only chance. Mikael never saw the accomplice, and he was drugged before he was moved. He can’t tell us where the capsule is. Obviously we’re going to carry on talking to him, but I simply don’t believe he knows where he’s been kept for the past thirteen years.’

‘But if Felicia is alive, then she’s probably still in the capsule,’ Verner says in his deep voice.

‘Yes,’ Joona agrees.

‘How the hell are we going to find her? It’s impossible,’ Carlos says. ‘No one knows where the capsule is.’

‘No one apart from Jurek Walter,’ Joona says.

‘Who can’t be questioned,’ Verner says.