Ларс Кеплер - The Rabbit Hunter

‘Is he armed?’ he asks.

‘I don’t know, but I don’t think so,’ she replies.

Joona moves towards the closed doors.

The whole room is creaking, like a taut rope.

Joona holds his pistol aimed at the cupboard, glances back towards the kitchen again, then takes a few steps back to get a better view of the entire boathouse.

The floor creaks.

Aiming directly at the doors, he looks quickly at the bound woman, the empty pulley block up in the roof, and Jack, who is approaching along the side of the dining table.

There’s a scraping sound beneath the boathouse, like wood being dragged across wood. The draught lifts a tuft of blond hair from the floor.

Jack takes a step forward, holding back the hook on the end of the chain beneath the pulley in order to get past.

‘I’m almost there now,’ Joona says towards the cupboard. ‘Can I ask you, please...’

There’s a loud crash as two huge trapdoors open up beneath Jack. They drop away abruptly, slam into the wall below and bounce back a short distance.

Jack falls through the hole in the floor, but is still holding onto the chain that runs through the wooden block.

The hook flies up and latches into the pulley.

Jack’s fall is abruptly halted and he yells out loud as his shoulder is dislocated.

Tables and chairs splash into the dark water below him.

Jack is swaying precariously, but manages to hold on.

The door to the cupboard opens and Joona sees Oscar rush out with a glass bottle in his hand with a burning rag stuffed in the top of it.

Oscar throws the bottle at Joona, but it hits an old pulley hanging from the roof instead. The glass shatters with a crash, and burning petrol spatters the woman taped to the chair.

She catches fire instantly, and Joona rushes over and pushes her in the chest with his foot. She topples backwards, the chair hits the edge of the large opening in the floor, and she tumbles into the water.

Oscar screams something and tries to light another petrol bomb, but his lighter won’t produce a flame.

Joona counts the seconds as he runs across the narrow strip where the hinges of the left-hand trapdoor are attached.

The woman sinks into the black water, her hair billowing around her.

Joona’s jacket snags on something and he almost loses his balance as he pulls himself free. He throws one arm out and grabs the curtain.

‘Leave me the fuck alone!’ Oscar screams.

The lighter sparks again just as Joona reaches the other side and rams his lower arm into the side of Oscar’s neck, making his head jerk back and sending his glasses flying.

They both crash into the wall and Joona drives one knee up into Oscar’s ribs, yanks him sideways, twists his own body in the other direction and flips him over his hip.

Oscar crashes to the floor with a groan, opens his eyes and stares up at the roof in confusion.

The bottle rolls over the edge and down into the water.

Joona knows that time is running out as he drags the man away from the cupboard.

‘No, no, no,’ Oscar whimpers, trying to cling onto the floor.

A lamp topples over, scattering broken glass across the floor. Joona drags Oscar behind him, slaps one of his handcuffs around the man’s wrist, and the other around a column in the wall.

‘Don’t kill me,’ Oscar gasps. ‘Please, listen, I’ll pay you...’

Joona runs to the hole in the floor and jumps in. He plunges down into the cold water. His ears roar as bubbles surround him like the tail of a comet.

His feet hit one of the chairs and slow his descent.

He spins in the water, kicks his legs and swims down into the darkness.

He can’t see anything, but knows he has to get past the floating debris.

With one arm he tries to shove the heavy dining table away, then slides along one side of it and reaches the bottom.

His heavy clothing slows his movements as he searches for the woman among the rough rocks on the seabed.

He moves deeper down the slope, fumbling over the rotting remains of an old rowing boat.

Joona blinks in the dark water and feels the cold hit his eyes.

He swims further down.

His hands slip across colonies of barnacles on one of the boathouse pillars. Suddenly a swaying light spreads down into the water.

Jack is holding a lamp above the surface.

Through the debris and bubbles Joona catches sight of the woman. She’s slid down the sloping rock towards deeper water, and is lying on her side, still bound to the chair.

He kicks off and swims down towards her.

She stares into his eyes, her white lips tightly closed as she holds her breath.

He tugs at the chair, trying to push off from the rock with one foot to gain more momentum, but she is caught in the other chairs that have gathered around the base of the pillar.

He draws his knife and quickly cuts through the tape around her ankles and begins to pull it off. She starts to panic, kicking out with her legs, and can no longer resist the urge to breathe.

The pain as she inhales water into her lungs is instant. Her body jerks backwards as if she’s been hit hard, she tries to cough it up, but succeeds only in drawing more water into her lungs, and starts to cramp and convulse.

Joona cuts the tape from her wrists and waist, working fast as she begins to spasm, blood blossoming from her mouth and nose. Joona lets go of the knife, pulls her free from the chair, kicks off with his legs and swims upward.

Fending off the furniture that is drifting in the current, he kicks one last time and manages to get her face above the surface.

She coughs and vomits water, gets some air into her lungs and coughs again.

Jack is holding a burning oil-lamp above the hole in the floor.

‘The air ambulance is on its way,’ he calls down.

With one arm around the woman’s waist Joona climbs up the ladder and lifts her up onto the edge. She crawls forward on her knees, coughing and gasping for air, sobs and then coughs again, spitting blood as they hear the sound of the helicopter approaching.

‘Take her, you can have her,’ Oscar whimpers to himself. ‘We’re through. I’ll stay here. I won’t say anything, I promise. I haven’t seen either of you.’

Joona helps guide the young woman through the dark house and out onto the rocky hillside behind the house as the helicopter starts to descend. Jack follows them, holding his wounded arm with the other hand as his clothes flap around his body. His eyeliner is streaked across his face.

As soon as the helicopter has disappeared across the water, taking Jack and Caroline with it, Joona goes back into the house, grabs a towel from the bathroom and returns to the boathouse.

Oscar von Creutz is sitting with his back to the wall. When he sees Joona come back he stops biting his thumbnail and tries to shuffle away.

Joona walks over and looks at the trapdoors and the empty pulleys in the roof.

The ropes run through the pulleys, so you can gently remove the crossbar beneath the floor and lower the two trapdoors, allowing you to get to your boat.

‘Please, don’t do it, you don’t have to do it,’ the man pleads, trying in vain to pull his hand through the cuff.

‘My name is Joona Linna. I’m a detective with the Swedish National Operational Unit.’

‘Really?’ he mutters confusedly.

‘Yes.’

‘I don’t get it,’ he says, and bites his nail again. ‘This is sick. What the fuck do you want? What are you doing here?’

Joona walks around the edge of the hole, past the drop to the water, stops in front of the trembling man, and waits until their eyes meet.

‘You’re suspected of kidnapping, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm,’ he says calmly.