Lars Kepler - The Nightmare

“I thought I would try to talk to Beverly’s father as well,” Anja says. “He is a pleasant man, but he’s had a rough day with an injured cow. He had to comfort it, he says. His family has always lived on the same farm. Now he’s the only one left. We chatted about The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and then he found some letters that Beverly had written to him. He hadn’t even opened them. Can you believe that man? So stubborn! Beverly’s telephone number was in every single letter.”

Saga Bauer thanks Anja profusely and calls Beverly’s number. She’s already pulling to a stop in front of the Riessen house while the signal goes to Beverly Andersson’s cell phone.

One beep after another disappears into the darkness of space. The sun shines through a little dust in the air in front of the church. Saga feels her body tense with determination. There’s little time left. Joona will be on his own when he goes against Raphael Guidi.

With the phone still to her ear, she walks up to Robert Riessen’s door and rings the bell. Suddenly someone picks up on the other end of the phone line. Saga can hear a slight rustling.

“Beverly?” Saga asks. “Is that you?”

Saga can hear breathing.

“Answer me, Beverly,” Saga says in the gentlest voice she can muster. “Where are you?”

“I-”

“What did you say, Beverly? What did you say? I can’t hear you.”

“I can’t come out yet,” the girl whispers, and hangs up.

Robert Riessen is silent and pale. He leaves Saga in Beverly Andersson’s room and asks her to lock up when she’s done. The room doesn’t look lived-in. There are just some white clothes in the wardrobe and a pair of rubber boots, a field jacket, and a cell-phone charger.

Saga locks Beverly’s room as she leaves and goes into Axel Riessen’s rooms. She tries to understand what Joona meant and how this girl could be important. She walks through the drawing rooms, salons, and the peaceful library. The door to Axel Riessen’s bedroom is slightly ajar. Saga steps over the thick Chinese carpet, past the bed, and into the adjoining bathroom. She returns to the bedroom. Something is making her edgy. There’s a nervous energy in the room. Saga puts one hand over her Glock in her shoulder holster. There’s a whiskey glass on the table with the drooping remains of a dandelion.

The dust floats slowly in the sunlight in a room almost vibrating with silence. Her heart jumps when a branch from a tree outside scrapes against the window.

She walks over to the unmade bed and considers the two pillows and the disarray of the bedding.

Saga thinks that she might be hearing steps in the library and turns to leave when a hand grabs her ankle. Someone is under the bed. She twists loose, falls backward, and draws her gun in one motion while, inadvertently, she knocks over the table with the dandelion.

Saga rolls to her knees and aims, but then lowers her gun again.

The girl peers out of the darkness under the bed. Her eyes are wide open and frightened. Saga replaces her gun in the holster and sighs deeply.

“You’re shining,” Beverly says.

“Are you Beverly?” Saga whispers.

“May I come out now?”

“Yes, I promise, you may come out,” Saga says.

“Has it been an hour? Axel told me to wait a whole hour.”

“It’s been more than an hour, Beverly.”

Saga helps her stand up. The girl wears only underwear and is a bit stiff after lying in the same cramped position for so long. Her hair is very short, and her arms are covered with ink drawings and letters.

“What are you doing under Axel Riessen’s bed?” Saga asks, keeping her voice calm.

“He’s my best friend,” Beverly answers as she pulls on a pair of jeans.

“I believe that he’s in danger-please tell me what you know.”

Beverly pauses, holding on to her T-shirt. Her face flushes red and tears fill her eyes.

“I haven’t done-”

Beverly’s lower lip starts to tremble.

“Take it easy,” Saga says, trying to keep the tension from her voice. “Start from the beginning.”

“I was in bed when Axel came in,” Beverly says in a weak voice. “I knew something bad was happening. He looked white. I thought he was mad because I’d gotten a lift. I’m not supposed to hitchhike.”

She pauses and turns her head away.

“Please go on, Beverly, we’re almost out of time.”

Beverly whispers, “Sorry.” She wipes her face with her T-shirt. Her eyes are damp and the end of her nose is red.

“Axel ran into the room,” Beverly says when she’s collected herself. “He told me to get under the bed and hide for an entire hour and then he ran out again to the library and I don’t know… I just saw their legs, but two guys came after him. They did something awful to him. He yelled and they threw him on the floor and wrapped him in white plastic and then they carried him outside. Everything happened so fast. I didn’t see their faces… I’m not sure they’re even human beings.”

“Just a second,” Saga says. She pulls out her phone. “You have to come with me and tell your story to a man named Jens Svanehjalm.”

Saga calls Carlos. Her hands shake.

“We have a witness! She saw Axel Riessen being kidnapped! We have a witness!” she repeats. “She saw Axel Riessen overpowered and taken away, and that should be enough.”

Saga and Beverly look at each other while Saga listens to Carlos’s reaction.

“Good,” she says. “We’ll be right in. You go get Svanehjalm. Make sure he prepares a statement for Europol.”

Raphael Guidi is walking through the dining room carrying a black leather folder, which he sets down on the table and pushes toward Axel Riessen.

“Pontus Salman’s nightmare, as you perhaps already understand, was to be forced to harm his wife or his sister,” Guidi explains. “I don’t know. I’ve never felt the need to be so explicit before, but… how can I put this? Lately there have been people who thought they could escape their nightmares through suicide. Please don’t misunderstand me. Usually our plans go very well. We can all be civilized. I can be an extremely generous man to those who are loyal to me.”

“You’re threatening to hurt Beverly.”

“You can always choose someone else… perhaps choose between her and your younger brother, if you’d rather?” Raphael says nonchalantly as he sips his vitamin drink. He wipes his mouth and then turns to Peter and asks him to fetch his violin.

“Have I told you that I acquire only instruments played by Paganini?” he asks. “They are the only ones I care about. People say that Paganini hated the appearance of his face… I personally believe he sold his soul to the Devil so that others would worship him. He called himself an ape, but when he played, the women came crawling to him. It was worth the price. He would play and play so unbelievably that people said they could smell hellfire around him.”

Axel looks out the wide windows at water that now seems to barely move. He knows that if he turned and looked toward the foredeck he would see the helicopter that had brought him here. Axel’s thoughts avoid the appalling film he’s just seen and instead search for a way out of all of this.

He feels drained. He sits still and listens to Raphael, who goes on and on about violins, Stradivarius’s fixation on the clearest sound, the hardness of the wood, the slowly growing maple and spruce trees he chooses for his workshop.

Raphael stops and smiles his lifeless smile while he says, “As long as you are loyal to me, you will enjoy everything possible on one side of the scale. You will receive a healthy organ and you’ll sleep better than you ever have before. In return, I demand that you will never betray the contract we are about to sign.”