Lars Kepler - The Nightmare

“And now they’re really uptight to find out he hadn’t done it.” Joona smiles.

“Everything’s left hanging,” Saga says.

“I was brought in quickly,” Axel says. “They practically forced a pen into my hand to make me sign the contract.”

“But?”

“I wanted to make my own decisions.”

“And you have.”

“Right.”

“And all the paperwork looked fine?” Saga asks.

“Yes… and I promised to sign and I would have, without a doubt, if I hadn’t seen that photograph and connected it with the Kenyan deal.”

They all stand quietly, contemplating the iron statue of the boy. It’s the smallest public artwork in Stockholm. Joona leans forward and pats the boy’s shiny head. The metal radiates warmth after a full day in the sun.

“They’re already loading the container ship in Gothenburg Harbor,” Axel says quietly.

“I’ve guessed as much,” Saga says. “But without export authorization, then-”

“Then the ammunition cannot leave Sweden.”

“They expect you to sign today?” Joona asks. “Can you delay it somehow? We’ve got to keep on with our investigation and releasing that cargo might hinder it.”

“They’re not going to just sit around and wait.”

“Tell them that you’re still going through the paperwork,” Joona suggests.

“Well, I can do that, but it won’t be easy. The deal’s already delayed because of me, but I’ll give it a shot,” Axel says.

“Keep in mind your safety, too. Our investigation is important, but-”

Axel smiles and asks skeptically, “Do you think they’ll threaten me?”

Joona smiles back gravely. “As long as they want a signature from you, you’re not in danger. But if you block this, they’ll lose an incredible amount of money. Just imagine what it’s already taken to bribe people all the way from Sweden to Kenya.”

“I can’t delay the signature forever. Salman’s been trying to reach me all day. These people know the field. You can’t deceive them too long.” Just then, Axel’s cell phone rings.

He looks at the display and grimaces. “It’s Pontus Salman again-”

“Pick it up,” Joona says.

“All right,” Axel says, and takes the call. They can all hear the staccato voice on the other end.

“I couldn’t reach you,” Salman says accusingly. “You know the ship is already loaded and waiting. It costs money to keep it in the harbor. The ship’s owner has also tried to contact you. They haven’t gotten the authorization form yet.”

“I am so sorry,” Axel says soothingly. He looks at Joona and Saga. “Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to take one last look at-”

“I’ve talked to the government officials and they said you were going to sign today.”

Axel blanks, his thoughts suddenly scattering. He’s tempted to just hang up. Instead, he clears his throat, apologizes, and then he lies. “Something else came up that required my immediate attention. I had to put this aside for a moment-”

Axel can hear how false his voice sounds, and he had taken too long to answer. He was tempted again to simply tell the truth: that there would be no export authorization because he now knows the truth about the illegal deal.

“We understood this would be completed today,” Salman says, not trying to hide his anger.

“You took a risk,” Axel says.

“What are you telling me?”

“Without my authorization there can be no shipment-”

“But we have… excuse me?”

“You had permission to manufacture the ammunition and there’s been a positive preliminary decision. But that’s all.”

“You understand there’s a great deal at stake here,” Salman says pleadingly. “What can I tell the ship’s owner? Can you give us any idea at all about how long the delay will be? He needs to know how long he must stay in port. It’s purely a question of logistics.”

“I remain positive. But I still need to go through everything one last time. Then you’ll get my decision,” Axel says firmly.

Saga Bauer has been jumping rope for fifty minutes in the police station’s gym when a worried colleague comes up to her and asks how she’s doing. Her face is sweaty and serious, but her feet keep dancing as if unaware of the quickly passing jump rope.

“You’re hard on yourself,” he says.

“Nope,” she replies, and keeps jumping.

Twenty-five minutes later, Joona comes down to the gym and sits on an incline bench next to a barbell.

“What a bunch of shit,” she says, and she keeps jumping rope. “They’re going to pump this ammunition into Darfur and we can’t do a damn thing about it.”

“Well, at any rate, we know what they’re up to,” Joona replies calmly. “We know that they’re trying to go through Kenya and-”

“But what the hell can we do about it?” she asks as she jumps. “Arrest that bastard Pontus Salman? Contact Europol about Raphael Guidi?”

“We still have no proof.”

“This is a big thing, much bigger than anyone realized. We certainly didn’t want to have anything to do with something this huge,” she reasons while the jump rope whirls around her and whacks the floor. “Carl Palmcrona is involved, Pontus Salman from Sweden… Raphael Guidi, he’s a bigwig… and someone in Kenya’s government, otherwise this whole deal wouldn’t work… and probably someone in Sweden’s government.”

“We probably won’t get everyone,” Joona says.

“The smartest thing would be to drop the case,” she says.

“So let’s drop it.”

She laughs at his joke as she keeps jumping with a serious expression.

Joona says thoughtfully, “Palmcrona has probably been taking bribes for years, but once he received Bjorn’s blackmail letter, he realized the party was over… so he called someone… probably Raphael… but during the conversation he realized that he was expendable… and he was even a problem now that the photograph’s existence was known. All the people investing in this deal wanted him gone. They were not about to lose their money and risk their situation because of him.”

“So then he kills himself.” Saga begins jumping even faster.

“He’s out of the picture, so that leaves the photograph and the blackmailer.”

“In comes the international hit man.” Saga is beginning to be out of breath.

Joona nods while she jumps with raised knees.

“If Viola had not been on the boat at the last minute, he would have killed Bjorn and Penelope and sunk the boat,” he says.

Saga does one last, fast burst and then stops.

“We would have…” she says, panting. “We would have written it off as an accident. The hit man would have gotten the photograph, cleaned out all the computers, left the country without a trace.”

“Though I think that he’s not the kind to be afraid of being discovered. He’s practical,” Joona says. “It’s easier to solve the problem without getting the police involved, but solving the problem is what he’s all about… otherwise, he wouldn’t bother to burn the apartments. This draws attention. He’s just being thorough and he prioritizes thoroughness above all.”

Saga steadies herself with her hands on her thighs. Sweat drops from her face.

“Of course, we’d put the apartment fires and the boat accident together sooner or later,” she says. She straightens up.

“But then it would be too late,” he says. “The hit man’s job is to erase the evidence and eliminate the witnesses.”

“But now we have the photograph and Penelope,” Saga says with a smile. “That hit man hasn’t solved the problem.”

“Not yet…”

Saga gives a few random blows to the boxing bag hanging from the ceiling and then looks Joona over. “During my training, I saw a film of a bank robbery and how you rendered the suspect harmless with a broken pistol.”