Ларс Кеплер - The Rabbit Hunter

A tremulous child’s voice is echoing from a mobile phone on the table.

‘ Six little rabbits, all dressed in white, tried to get to heaven ...’

Absalon stands up, and macaroni falls from his lap onto the floor. Elsa and Peter are staring at the man in their kitchen in horror.

‘I don’t know what you want, but can’t you see you’re scaring the children?’ Absalon says unsteadily.

Five long rabbits’ ears are dangling by one of the man’s cheeks. They’re stained dark red where they were sliced off before being threaded onto wire and wound around the balaclava.

Kerstin’s heart is beating so hard that she can barely breathe. With shaking hands she picks up her handbag from the counter and offers it to the stranger.

‘There’s some money in here,’ she says, almost inaudibly.

The man takes the bag and puts it down on the table, then raises the knife and gestures towards Absalon’s face with the point.

Kerstin watches her husband weakly try to swat the knife away.

‘Stop doing that,’ he says.

The hand holding the knife sinks back down, then jabs forward and stops. Absalon draws a ragged breath and looks down. The entire blade of the knife is embedded in his stomach.

A bloodstain spreads out across his shirt.

When the stranger pulls the knife out, a gush of blood follows it and splats onto the floor between Absalon’s feet.

‘Daddy!’ Elsa yelps in a frightened voice, and puts her spoon down on the table.

Absalon stands absolutely still as blood fills the bottom of his tucked-in shirt, then runs down inside his trousers, down his legs and out over his feet.

‘Call an ambulance, Kerstin,’ he says, dazed, as he takes a step back.

The man watches him, then slowly raises the hand holding the knife.

Elsa runs over to Absalon and wraps her arms around his legs, making him sway.

‘Daddy!’ she sobs. ‘Daddy, please...’

She picks up his napkin from the table and holds it to his stomach.

‘You’re stupid!’ she shouts at the masked man. ‘This is my daddy!’

As if in a dream, Kerstin goes over and pulls Elsa away from her husband, picks her up in her arms and holds her tight, feeling her small body tremble.

Peter crawls under the table, clutching his head with his hands.

The man looks at Absalon with interest, then brushes the rabbits’ ears from his cheek, slowly adjusts the angle of the knife, and thrusts it into the other side of his torso.

The explosion of pain makes Absalon cry out.

The man lets go of the knife, leaving it sticking out, wedged beneath his bottom ribs.

Absalon lurches sideways but his fall is broken by the table. He throws one arm out, and his bloody hand sends a glass of milk flying.

The masked man pulls a machete from a strap inside his raincoat and walks towards Absalon again.

‘Stop it!’ Kerstin screams.

Absalon slumps onto a chair, holds his hand up in self-defence and shakes his head.

‘Please, stop now!’ Kerstin sobs.

The ceiling lamp above the table is spinning slowly. The light from the two bulbs wanders across the tablecloth. Milk drips steadily onto the floor.

‘What have I done?’ Absalon gasps.

He’s sweating and breathing fast, on his way to circulatory shock. The masked man stands still and looks at him.

‘You must have come to the wrong house,’ Kerstin says in a shaky voice.

Elsa is squirming in her arms, trying to escape and see what’s going on.

A trickle of blood falls from the chair.

The second hand on the clock ticks slowly on.

There are children playing outside, and Kerstin hears a bicycle bell.

‘We’re just normal people. We don’t have any money,’ she goes on weakly.

Peter is sitting under the table staring at his father.

Absalon tries to say something, but a convulsion fills his mouth with blood. He swallows and coughs, then swallows again.

The neighbour’s car pulls in and parks next to theirs. Car doors open and close. Bags of groceries are unloaded from the boot.

Absalon’s shirt is dark red, almost black. A steady stream of blood is running from the chair, the pool has reached Peter now.

‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy...’ the boy whimpers in a high voice.

The masked man looks at the time, then grabs hold of Absalon’s hair.

‘Can I take the children out?’ Kerstin asks, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

Elsa is whimpering and Kerstin’s field of vision becomes distorted. There’s a loud buzzing sound in her head as she sees her husband’s lips turn white.

He’s in a lot of pain now.

The stranger leans over and whispers something to Absalon. The rabbits’ ears sway beside his cheek. He straightens up again and Absalon meets his gaze and nods.

Without any urgency, he lifts Absalon’s head and raises the machete.

The lamp above the kitchen table starts spinning the other way.

Peter shakes his head. Kerstin wants to yell at him to close his eyes, but no words will come out.

With great force, the man brings the machete down on the back of Absalon’s neck, through his vertebrae.

Blood sprays across the stove.

The dead body collapses onto the floor. Its legs are still twitching, heels hitting the plastic mat.

Peter stares at his father with his mouth gaping open.

Absalon’s head is hanging loosely from his body, brightly coloured blood pumps out of his throat in heavy pulses.

Blood is dripping from the handle of the oven.

The man leans over, pulls the knife from Absalon’s stomach and shakes the blood from its blade before leaving the kitchen.

While Saga is taking a shower at the boxing club, Joona calls Carlos to make sure that the police have gone to Ratjen’s home. He tries calling five times before giving up and leaving a voicemail saying that he’s out of prison, and wants to question Absalon Ratjen as soon as possible.

‘We might be able to stop the killer before anyone else dies,’ he concludes.

Joona and Saga leave the boxing club and walk together towards the car park.

‘Verner promised to take care of your release himself,’ Saga says.

‘If I don’t hear anything I have to be back at the prison in three hours.’

They cross the street and walk through the black gates. Suddenly Saga stops.

‘My phone just died,’ she says, holding it up. ‘Look, it’s been blocked. I’ll have to go to the office and find out what’s happened.’

They reach Joona’s Volvo, then see two serious-looking men wearing dark suits and earpieces heading in their direction.

‘Move away from the car, Bauer,’ the younger of the two agents calls out.

Taking her laptop out of her gym bag, Saga does as he says.

‘Is this Verner’s idea?’ she asks.

‘Give us the laptop,’ the older agent with cropped grey hair says.

‘This one?’ Saga asks, unable to hold back a grin.

‘Yes,’ he replies, and holds out his hand.

She tosses the laptop over the roof of the car, and it spins through the air before Joona catches it without changing his expression.

The two agents switch direction and start walking towards him. Melodic folk music is streaming out from an open window at the school. Joona stands still with the computer in his hand. The men walk around the car and approach with don’t-mess-with-us expressions.

‘That laptop is being sequestered according to paragraph—’

Just before they reach him Joona throws the laptop across the car roof again. Saga catches it with one hand and takes a step back.

‘This is just childish,’ the older agent says, struggling to suppress an involuntary smile.

They turn around again and start walking towards Saga. The younger one adjusts the cuffs of his sleeves.