Ларс Кеплер: The Rabbit Hunter

Both gestures were unnecessary.

It’s likely that he wants Joona to think he isn’t holding a pistol beneath the desk, to test if he’s the first police officer on the scene.

But Joona knows that the murderer is ambidextrous, and he knows that he’s in the middle of an unspoken hostage situation.

The murderer would definitely have time to shoot both Rex and Sammy before Joona managed to put his hand under his wet jacket and draw his own pistol from its holster.

He knows he has to wait, even if that might mean incurring losses, and suddenly finds himself thinking of his former lieutenant, Rinus Advocaat, who quoted Wei Liao-Tzu before their first training session in unconventional close combat.

The tactical balance of power is located at the extremities of the Tao, he said in his usual joyless way. If you have something, pretend that you don’t have it; if you’re missing something, pretend that you have it.

Even a child is familiar with the strategy, but it takes strong will to stick to it in a tense situation where it would normally be natural for a police officer to draw his weapon.

Right now, this extreme game is Joona’s only chance of saving the lives of the hostages.

Like all spree killers David Jordan has got a plan, and he’ll want to stick to it.

If he thinks Joona is a police officer, he will shoot at once. That’s the only rational option, even if it means deviating from the plan. But if Joona is merely a man who’s run out of petrol, it makes more sense to wait and let him leave.

The killer has tried several times to show Joona that he’s unarmed, to prompt him to act. So by now he’s probably started to drop the suspicion that Joona could be an armed police officer.

‘What are you guys doing up here?’ Joona asks.

‘Hunting.’

Every second he lingers takes them closer to a dangerous situation, but as long as Joona pretends not to have a gun, there’s a chance he can separate Rex and Sammy from the killer.

‘Well, I’d better get going, but... I was just thinking,’ Joona says with a smile. ‘There must be some sort of garage here with snow mobiles, that sort of thing?’

‘There should be,’ Rex replies, coming closer to the desk.

‘It would be great if I could just siphon off a bit of petrol... I’ll pay, obviously,’ Joona says, undoing one of his jacket buttons.

‘We only have the keys to the main entrance, and they don’t fit the barn or the annexe,’ David Jordan says, sounding stressed.

‘I see,’ Joona nods. ‘Well, thanks anyway.’

He turns his back on David Jordan, undoes the last button and starts to walk towards the door.

‘Don’t you want to wait until the worst of the rain has passed?’ Rex says behind him.

‘That’s kind of you.’

He turns around again and sees that Sammy has started shaking, and that David Jordan has had his eyes closed for an unusually long time.

Wait, wait, Joona thinks.

David Jordan moves with lightning speed, yet it still feels like he’s pushing his arm through gushing water as he raises a pistol and pulls the trigger.

The hammer hits the pin, the percussive gas forces the bullet through the barrel and the bolt clicks.

Blood squirts out behind Rex as the bullet passes through his torso.

David Jordan has already turned the gun on Joona and moves out from behind the desk without losing his line of fire for a second.

He has both eyes open, and is scanning the whole room as he moves. Rex looks bemused as he staggers backwards, clutching his hand to his bleeding stomach.

‘Dad!’ Sammy cries.

Joona forces himself not to put his hand inside his jacket. David Jordan is aiming at his chest, and his finger is on the trigger.

DJ reaches Rex, grabs him from behind and kicks him in the back of the knee so he slumps to the floor. He never takes his eyes off Joona.

‘This is none of your business,’ he says to Joona. ‘If you stay out of it, you’ll get out of here alive.’

Joona nods and holds both hands up in front of him.

‘Take my son with you,’ Rex gasps to Joona. ‘This is between the two of us, we can end it without anyone else here.’

David Jordan pauses for breath, presses the end of the silencer to Rex’s temple and closes his eyes again. Joona reaches his hand out and takes Sammy’s arm. He pulls him towards the front door, slowly and carefully. They pass the table with the rifles and the dark fireplace. David Jordan looks up at them. It almost looks like he’s having trouble staying awake, even though his knuckles on the hand holding the pistol are turning white.

Joona reaches the door and gently pushes the handle down. The killer’s eyes start to close again.

‘Sammy, I love you,’ Rex says to his son.

David Jordan’s eyes immediately snap open and he raises the pistol towards Sammy. Joona yanks Sammy backwards just as the bullet slams into the glass behind them.

They stumble out into the rain and biting wind. Sammy collapses onto the stone deck, and the door is thrown back so hard by a gust of wind that the glass shatters.

Joona drags Sammy to his feet and sees through the flying glass that David Jordan is running across the foyer with his pistol raised in front of him.

‘We have to take cover,’ Joona shouts over the wind, and pulls the boy off to one side.

Water is cascading off the roof, gushing from the overflowing gutters and spraying up from the bottom of the drainpipes.

‘Dad!’ Sammy cries.

Joona drags him past the rocks on the edge of the deck and straight into the bushes. They tumble over the edge, hit the ground and slide down a drenched slope, dragging stones and soil with them.

Sammy lets out a groan as they come to a stop among a thicket of birch saplings.

Joona is already on his feet, and quickly pulls Sammy further away from the hotel. Torrential rain is pouring down on them, forming new streams and carrying off soil and leaves.

They hide beneath the protruding rock-face and hear David Jordan calling out to them.

‘Sammy!’ David Jordan shouts from the edge of the terrace. ‘Your dad’s dying. He needs you.’

The boy is breathing far too quickly, and he tries to sit up. Joona holds him down and sees that his eyes are wide with shock.

‘I have to talk to my dad...’

‘Be quiet,’ Joona tells him.

‘He doesn’t think I care, but I do, and he needs to know that,’ he whispers.

‘He already does,’ Joona says.

The rain is lit up by the light from the windows, and a figure darts across one of the panes. DJ’s footsteps send small stones over the edge of the terrace, and Sammy shakes as they hit the ground in front of them.

But suddenly the footsteps stop.

David Jordan has stopped, and is standing absolutely still, listening, waiting for them to start running and give themselves away. Like rabbits.

Saga tries her best, but she doesn’t manage to wake Grace before the doctor reaches the room on her round. She opens the door, turns away from the staff, walks to the cafeteria and pours herself a mug of coffee.

A middle-aged woman with beautiful green eyes stares at her, then shakes her head.

‘It isn’t visiting time,’ she mutters, then starts to pull a muffin to pieces on her lap.

Saga drinks the weak coffee, puts the mug down and takes another look at David Jordan when he was in the military. His eyes and cheekbones look a little like Rex’s, but otherwise they don’t look particularly alike.

She picks up the mug again and takes another sip, then walks around the cafeteria and watches as the staff leave Grace’s room and knock on the next door.

Saga waits a few more seconds, then hurries back inside, closes the door carefully behind her, goes over to Grace and pats her on the cheek.