Ларс Кеплер - Stalker

Up ahead near the ruined buildings he can see empty cisterns and heaps of crushed glass.

A deep pothole in the road forces Joona to slow down and swerve. There’s a bang, and the light of the headlamps lurches high above the two figures.

And then he sees the light reflect off something yellow at the side of the road.

Nelly.

She’s standing not far behind Erik and Jackie. Her raincoat catches the light from the headlamps. She’s moving forward with her face lowered, across a shimmering green layer of crushed glass.

Joona blows his horn, changes gear and puts his foot down. Grit flies up beneath the underside of the car. The car lurches and the glove compartment opens, scattering its contents across the seat. He veers off the side of the track and tall weeds lash the windscreen.

Joona blows his horn as Nelly gets closer to the pair from behind. She’s striding purposefully through the nettles and undergrowth.

Erik squints towards the car, he looks relieved as he waves.

Joona blows his horn again and again, loses sight of them for a moment, rounds a slight bend and sees that Nelly is holding a knife in her hand.

She steps across the ditch and now she’s right behind them, crouching down and staying in their shadow.

Still blowing his horn, Joona speeds up along the track, and the engine roars. In the shaky light of the headlamps he sees Nelly walk right up to Jackie and stick the knife into her.

A heavy branch smashes one of the headlights and the ruins to the right of the car disappear in sudden darkness.

In the weakened light Joona sees Jackie collapse on the rough track. Erik is still holding her hand.

Some branches are swaying by the side of the road, but Nelly has vanished.

Joona brakes hard, the tyres smoke as they slide across the loose grit, he swerves and the windscreen smashes, sending glass swirling into the car and hitting his face. Branches and grass lash the body of the car as it slides to a halt with two wheels in the ditch.

Joona clambers out onto the bonnet of the unsteady car, jumps down onto the track and runs over to Erik, who’s kneeling down next to Jackie.

‘I didn’t see anything,’ he says, tugging Jackie’s blouse open and touching the knife to see how deep it goes. ‘It could have hit one of her kidneys, we need an ambulance as soon as—’

‘Where’s Maddy?’ Joona interrupts.

‘At home in the flat, we’ve got to call—’

‘She’s not in the flat,’ Joona says. ‘Nelly snatched her along with Jackie.’

‘Dear God,’ Erik whispers, looking up at him.

‘Could she be inside the house?’

‘There’s a cage in the basement, and loads of tunnels that...’

Jackie is gasping for breath and Erik can feel her pulse getting weaker. He glances quickly towards the house, brushes his fringe from his face and sees something yellow glint in one of the windows on the upper floor.

‘There’s a light in the window,’ he points. ‘They must be...’

He breaks off when Jackie’s pulse disappears completely, and puts his ear to her chest. Her heart has stopped, all he can hear is a muffled sound from deep within her.

‘Get an air ambulance!’ he yells. ‘Her heart’s stopped, it’s urgent, it’s desperately urgent!’

So as not to have to pull the knife out, Erik leaves her on her side. He begins chest compressions, no longer aware of the pain in his arm as he counts thirty quick compressions, then blows into her lungs twice before resuming the compressions again, hearing Joona give the address and coordinates to the emergency services operator.

‘Make sure Jackie survives — I’ll get her daughter,’ Joona says, and sets off running towards the house.

Joona runs across the yard and draws his pistol. The headlights of the police car are still shining towards the car with the open boot, as well as straight at the yellow house. A smell of fire suddenly fills the still night air. He pushes through the tall nettles and sees white smoke billowing like steam from the weeds around the foundations of the building.

He jumps up on to the veranda, raises his gun, opens the front door and sees the dead police officer on the floor.

His torso is dark with blood, his face turned aside.

Joona aims his pistol at the next door as he steps over the body, leans down and picks up the cracked torch from the floor and shines it into the kitchen.

In the dwindling light he can see a scene of horrific brutality. The floor is covered with blood and the other policeman’s head is lying a metre away from his body. He never even managed to pull his pistol from its holster. Blood has splashed the glass of an unlit paraffin lamp standing on a chair. There’s a roaring sound from deep down in the basement, and a thin veil of grey smoke slips across the ceiling and envelops an old smoke alarm.

Joona hurries through the chaotic kitchen and through another door. He carries on past a living room and into a narrow passageway with an open staircase leading to the next floor. Sooty smoke is rolling beneath the ceiling like a murky river.

A paraffin lamp explodes from the heat in the next room, and pale blue flames take hold of the walls and ceiling. Parts of the burning floor collapse into the basement and sparks and smoke swirl up.

He can feel the rising heat in his face as he carries on up the stairs. The wallpaper is alight and the fire is curling around the floor of the upper storey.

Joona realises that Nelly is burning the little that implicates her as the perpetrator. If Jackie doesn’t survive and the house is gone, all that will be left is the evidence against Erik.

The light from the torch turns yellow as it grows even weaker.

He reaches the upper floor, aims the pistol in front of him and makes his way into a girl’s room. The pink, rose-patterned wallpaper is covered with photographs of Erik. A lot have been taken surreptitiously, but some are portraits, and others seems to have come from professional journals and photograph albums.

On a shelf in the darkness stands a collection of things she’s stolen from Erik. Wine glasses, books, deodorant, and the wooden elephant from Malaysia. A brown corduroy jacket is draped over a blue shirt on a wooden hanger.

There’s a hissing sound from deep below the floor under his feet. He hears the fire sucking up more oxygen and can feel the air getting harder to breathe.

The torch goes out and he shakes it and gets back a weak, unsteady beam.

Joona carries on and sees that Nelly has arranged her trophies from the victims in front of a mirror on a dressing-table.

It doesn’t amount to much, just some bottles of nail-varnish, a lipstick from H&M and a red bra. On a pink plate lies the metal tongue-stud in the shape of Saturn, a hairclip and Susanna Kern’s earrings, some false fingernails and a pearl necklace that’s blackened with blood.

The torch goes out and Joona puts it down carefully on the floor.

He approaches the door to a bedroom with a sloping roof, moves slightly to one side and suddenly catches sight of Madeleine in the murky light.

She’s lying on the floor next to a bed, in the middle of the room. Her mouth is covered with tape, and there’s a pool of blood under her head.

Joona thinks that the little girl is the trophy Nelly took from Jackie.

She’s breathing, but seems to be unconscious.

He can’t see any sign of Nelly, but the door beside the bed is sticky with blood around its handle.

The room is rapidly filling with pale smoke, and Joona is aware that time is running out.

He glances quickly at the little girl, then aims his gun to the right and hurries forward.

The heavy axe comes towards him from the left. Joona has misread the room and sees the movement too late. He just manages to pull his head back, and the blade swings past his face and embeds itself deep in the wall.