Lars Kepler - The Sandman

‘Disa,’ Joona whispers, and feels goosebumps rising on his arms.

He leans back on the pillows and looks up at the heater above him, but can’t feel anything but cold.

After a while the door opens and a tall woman with her hair pulled up and a tight silk sweater under her doctor’s coat comes in. It’s Daniella Richards, he’s met her many times before.

‘Joona Linna,’ she says in a heavy voice. ‘I’m so sorry—’

‘Daniella,’ Joona interrupts hoarsely. ‘What have you done to me?’

‘You were on the point of freezing to death, in case you hadn’t noticed. We thought you were dead when you were brought in.’

She sits down on the edge of the bed.

‘You have no idea how incredibly lucky you were,’ she says slowly. ‘No serious damage, from the look of it... We’re warming up your internal organs.’

‘Where’s Disa? I have to...’

His voice cracks. There’s something about his thoughts, his brain. He can’t put the words together properly. All his memories are like crushed ice in black water.

The doctor lowers her gaze and shakes her head. She has a small diamond on a necklace round her neck.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Daniella repeats slowly.

As she tells him about Disa, her face starts to quiver with sad little spasms. Joona looks at the veins in her hand, sees her pulse beating, and her ribcage rise and fall under her green sweater. He tries to understand what she’s saying, shuts his eyes, and suddenly everything that’s happened crashes into his consciousness. Disa’s white face, the cut on her neck, the scared set of her mouth and her bare foot in just her nylon tights.

‘Leave me alone,’ he says in a hollow, hoarse voice.

Joona Linna is lying still, feeling the glucose running through his veins and the warm air from the heater above his bed, but he’s not feeling any warmer.

Waves of cold are rolling through his body, and every so often his vision switches off and everything goes black and turns to flaring darkness.

An impulse to grab his gun, put the barrel in his mouth and shoot himself flickers through his thoughts.

Jurek Walter has escaped.

And Joona knows he’ll never be able to see his daughter or wife again. They’ve been taken from him for good, in the same way Disa was torn from his hands. Jurek’s twin brother worked out that Summa and Lumi were still alive. Joona knows it’s only a matter of time before Jurek realises as well.

Joona tries to sit up, but doesn’t have the energy.

It’s impossible.

He can’t escape the feeling that he’s sinking deeper and deeper through the mosaic of ice with every passing second.

He can’t stop feeling frozen.

Suddenly the door opens and Saga Bauer walks in. She’s wearing a black jacket and dark jeans.

‘Jurek Walter’s dead,’ she says. ‘It’s over. We found him in the Söderleden Tunnel.’

She stands at the foot of the bed and looks at Joona Linna. He’s closed his eyes again. It feels like her heart’s about to stop. He looks terribly ill. His face is almost white, his lips pale grey.

‘I’m heading out to see Reidar Frost now,’ Saga goes on. ‘He needs to know that Felicia’s alive. The doctors say she’s going to make it. You saved her life.’

He hears what she says, and turns his face aside, keeping his eyes closed to hold back the tears, and suddenly he understands the pattern.

Jurek is closing a circle of revenge and blood.

Joona repeats the thought to himself, moistens his mouth, takes some deep breathes, then says quietly:

‘Jurek’s on his way to Reidar.’

‘Jurek Walter’s dead,’ Saga repeats. ‘It’s over now—’

‘Jurek’s going to take Mikael again... he doesn’t know that Felicia is free... he mustn’t find out that she—’

‘I’m about to go out and see Reidar, to tell him you saved his daughter,’ she says again.

‘Jurek’s only let Mikael out on loan, he’s going to take him back.’

‘What are you talking about?’

Joona looks at her and the expression in his grey eyes is so cold it makes her shiver.

‘The victims aren’t the ones who were locked up or ended up in graves,’ he says. ‘The victims are the ones who were left behind, the ones who were waiting... until they couldn’t bear to wait any more.’

She puts a calming hand on his.

‘I have to go...’

‘Make sure you’re armed,’ he says.

‘I’m only going to tell Reidar that—’

‘Do as I say,’ he interrupts.

It’s still a long time before dawn when Saga reaches the manor. The old house is nestled in the cold and the depths of the dark morning. There’s only one light visible, in a window on the ground floor.

Saga gets out of the car and walks across the drive, shivering. The snow is untouched and the darkness stretching off over the fields is ancient.

There aren’t even any stars twinkling in the night sky.

The only sound comes from an open stretch of water nearby.

She approaches the house and sees a man sitting at the kitchen table with his back to the window. There’s a book on the table next to him. He’s drinking slowly from a white cup.

Saga carries on across the snow-covered gravel, up the stone steps to the big front door, and rings the bell. A short while later the door is opened by the man who had been sitting in the kitchen.

It’s Reidar Frost.

He’s wearing striped pyjama trousers and a white T-shirt. He’s got white stubble, and the look on his face is exhausted and brittle.

‘Hello, my name’s Saga Bauer, I work for the Security Police.’

‘Come in,’ he says in a voice that’s close to breaking.

She takes a couple of steps into the dimly lit hall with its broad staircase leading to the upper floor. Reidar moves backwards. His chin has started to tremble and he puts one hand to his mouth.

‘No, not Felicia, not—’

‘We’ve found her,’ Saga says quickly. ‘She’s alive, she’s going to be all right...’

‘I... I have to...’

‘She’s seriously ill,’ Saga explains. ‘Your daughter has advanced Legionnaires’ disease, but she’s going to be OK.’

‘She’s going to be OK,’ Reidar whispers. ‘I have to go, I have to see her.’

‘She’s being moved from intensive care to the infectious diseases unit at seven o’clock.’

He looks at her with tears trickling down his cheeks.

‘Then I’ve got time to get dressed and wake Mikael and...’

Saga follows him through the rooms to the kitchen she saw through the window a few minutes before. The ceiling-light is casting a pleasant glow over the table with the coffee cup on it.

The radio is on, playing gentle piano music.

‘We’ve been trying to call,’ she says. ‘But your phone—’

‘That’s my fault,’ Reidar says, wiping the tears from his cheeks. ‘I’ve had to start switching the phone off at night, I don’t know, so many crazy people keep calling with tip-offs, people who...’

‘I understand.’

‘Felicia’s alive,’ Reidar says tentatively.

‘Yes,’ Saga says.

His face cracks into a broad grin, and he looks at her with bloodshot eyes. It appears he’s going to ask her again, but he just shakes his head and smiles. He picks up a large pot of coffee from the black stove and pours a cup for Saga.

‘Some warm milk?’

‘No thanks,’ she says, taking the cup.

‘I’m just going to wake Mikael...’

He starts to walk towards the hall, but stops and turns back to look at her.

‘I have to know... Have you caught the Sandman?’ he asks. ‘The man Mikael calls the—’

‘He and Jurek are both dead,’ Saga says. ‘They were twin brothers.’