Lars Kepler - The Sandman

Carlos pulls up smoothly in an empty parking space on Dalagatan, not far from Joona’s flat at Wallingatan 31. They both get out of the car, walk down the snow-covered pavement and stop outside the door.

‘As I mentioned, I knew Roseanna Kohler,’ Carlos says with a sigh. ‘And when their children disappeared I did all I could, but it wasn’t enough...’

‘No.’

‘I told her about Jurek. She wanted me to tell her everything, wanted to see pictures of him, and...’

‘But Reidar didn’t know.’

‘No, she said it was better that way. I don’t know... Roseanna moved to Paris, she used to call all the time, she was drinking far too much... It wasn’t that I was bothered about my career, but I thought it was embarrassing, for her as well as me...’

Carlos falls silent and rubs his neck with one hand.

‘What?’ Joona asks.

‘One night Roseanna called me from Paris, screaming that she’d seen Jurek Walter outside her hotel, but I didn’t listen... Later that night, she killed herself...’

Carlos hands Joona the car keys.

‘Get some sleep,’ he says. ‘I’m going to head down to Norra Bantorget and get a taxi.’

Anders is thinking that My looked slightly bemused when he told her she could get some sleep in the rest-room again.

‘I just can’t see any reason for us both to be awake,’ he said in a measured voice. ‘I don’t have any choice, I’ve got to do a couple more hours’ work to get finished. After that you and Leif can divide things up however you like.’

Now he’s alone. He walks down the corridor, stops outside the door to the rest-room and listens.

Silence.

He carries on to the security control room and sits down in the operator’s seat. At last it’s time to turn the lights out. The large screen is showing nine different scenes. Jurek went to bed early. Anders can see his thin frame outlined beneath the covers. Jurek Walter is lying unnervingly still. It’s almost as if he isn’t breathing. Saga is sitting with her feet on the ground. Her chair is on its side on the floor.

He leans closer to the screen and looks at her. His eyes follow the outline of her shaved head, her slender neck and shoulders, the muscles in her thin arms.

There’s nothing to stop him.

He can’t understand why he got so scared last night when he was in her room. There was no one at the monitors, and even if there had been, the room was so dark that they wouldn’t have seen anything.

He could have slept with her ten times, he could have done whatever he wanted.

Anders takes a deep breath, inserts his ID card into the computer, types the code and logs in. He opens the unit’s administrative programme, highlights the patients’ zone and clicks on nocturnal lighting.

All three patients’ rooms go black.

Seconds later Saga turns on her bedside lamp and lifts her face up towards the camera.

It’s as if she’s looking at him because she knows he’s looking at her.

Anders checks on the two guards; they’re standing talking to each other by the entrance. The male one is saying something that makes the tall female guard laugh – he’s smiling as he mimes playing a violin.

Anders stands up and looks at Saga again.

He gets a pill from the medicine store and puts it in a plastic cup, goes over to the security door and runs his card through the reader.

As he approaches her door his heart starts thumping hard. Through the thick glass he can see her sitting on her bed with her eyes fixed on the camera, as if she were a little mermaid.

Anders opens the hatch and sees her turn her head in his direction. She gets to her feet and walks slowly towards him.

‘Did you sleep well last night?’ he asks in a friendly voice.

When she reaches her hand through the hatch he holds her fingers for a few moments before giving her the plastic cup.

He closes the hatch and sees her walk back into the room. She puts the pill in her mouth, fills the cup with water and swallows it, then turns out the lamp by the bed and lies down.

Anders goes and gets the straps that fit the bed, removes the plastic covering and then stands outside the steel door watching her through the reinforced glass.

Under cover of darkness Saga hides the pill in her shoe, then lies down on the bed. She doesn’t know if the young doctor is still standing outside the glass in the door, but she’s sure he’s planning to come into her room as soon as he thinks she’s asleep. She could see quite clearly in his eyes that he wasn’t finished with her.

Yesterday she was so taken aback by his abuse of power that she let it go way too far. Today she doesn’t even know if she cares what happens.

She’s here to save Felicia, and maybe she’ll have to put up with this place for a few more days.

She tells herself that tomorrow or the day after Jurek will reveal everything to her, and then this will be over, then she can go home and forget what she’s been through.

Saga rolls onto her other side, glances at the door and immediately catches sight of the silhouette behind the glass. Her heart begins to beat harder in her chest. The young doctor is waiting outside the door until she’s knocked out by the medication.

Is she prepared to let herself be raped in order to conceal her mission? It doesn’t really matter. Her thoughts are far too chaotic for her to be able to prepare herself for what seems to be happening.

Just let it be over quickly.

There’s a metallic scraping sound as the key is slipped into the lock.

The door opens and cooler air sweeps in.

She doesn’t bother pretending to be asleep yet, and keeps her eyes open, watching the doctor close the door behind him and walk over to the bed.

She shuts her eyes and listens.

Nothing happens.

Maybe he just wants to look at her.

She tries to breathe out soundlessly, then waits for ten seconds before breathing in again, waits, imagining a mental square in her mind, where each side is a moment.

The doctor puts his hand on her stomach, following the movement of her breathing, then it slides to her hip and takes hold of her underwear. She lies quite still and lets him pull her pants off, easing them over her feet.

She can feel the warmth of his body clearly now.

Carefully he strokes her right hand and raises it gently above her head. At first she thinks he’s going to measure her pulse, then she realises that she can’t move. When she tries to pull her hand away, he puts a broad strap over her thighs and tightens it with terrible strength before she has a chance to wriggle off the bed.

‘What the hell are you doing?’

She can’t kick out, and realises that he must have tied her ankles while she was trying to free her right hand with her left. He switches on the bedside lamp and looks at her, wide-eyed. Her fingers are trembling, slipping on the thick strap round her wrist, and she has to try again.

The doctor stops her, quickly pulling her free hand away.

She jerks to get loose, tries to twist round, but it’s impossible.

When she slumps back he starts to attach another strap across her shoulders. The angle is almost impossible, but when he leans over her she punches him in the mouth with her clenched fist. As the blow connects, he stumbles back and sinks down onto one knee. Shaking, she starts to untie the strap round her right wrist.

He’s back at the bed now, shoving her hand away.

There’s blood running down his chin as he roars at her to lie still. He tightens the strap round her right wrist again, then moves behind her.

‘I’ll kill you,’ she shouts, trying to follow him with her eyes.

He’s quick, and grabs her left arm with both hands, but she pulls free, gets hold of his hair and yanks him towards her. As hard as she can, she rams his forehead against the frame of the bed. She pulls him forward again and tries to bite his face, but he hits her so hard across the neck and one breast that she lets go.