Lars Kepler - The Fire Witness

“Right now?”

“It’s a fun game.”

“But I—”

“Just do it,” he orders.

She shuts her eyes and puts her hands in front of her face. Her heart is pounding. He’s doing something. It feels as if he’s pulling the sheet off her bed beneath her.

“I have to pee,” she says.

“You’ll have a chance soon,” he says.

She sits with her hands over her face and flinches when she hears the scrape of the chair being moved. But she keeps her hands over her face.

Elin is driving recklessly fast up the steep hill. Last spring the runoff corrugated the road, and the key ring is rattling violently in the spare-change cup by the gearshift. Tree branches slap the sides of her Jeep and the gravel beats against its underside. She brakes during a steep curve and almost skids. The tires slide over the gravel, but she shifts into neutral, comes around, and hits the gas again.

Elin is driving too quickly when she reaches the turnoff to her house. She slows down just a little, but she swings wide and scrapes the side of the Jeep against one of the gateposts, knocking off a side mirror. She hits the gas and it seems like she’s about to launch into the air as she reaches the top. The case of mineral water in the back falls over with a crash.

She brakes hard at the house and leaps from the car, leaving the engine running. She runs straight inside. The metal shutters are closed. It’s dark and she stumbles over boots in the hall as she hurries into the large living room.

“Vicky!” she yells.

Elin turns on the lights and runs up the stairs. She slips and bangs her knee, jumps back up, and rushes toward Vicky’s room. She pushes down the handle. It’s locked. Elin bangs on the door and can hear the hysteria in her voice as she screams, “Open up!”

She can’t hear anything inside. She looks through the keyhole. A chair has been overturned and shadows are jerking across the walls.

“Vicky?”

She moves back and then kicks the door. There’s a thud, but nothing happens. She kicks again. Then she runs to the room next door, but there’s no key in the lock. She runs to the next room, and there’s a key to that bedroom still in the keyhole. She grabs it and runs back, knocking over a glass sculpture, which thuds to the floor. Her hands are shaking, but she manages to get the key into the lock and throw the door open.

“Oh God!” she whispers.

Vicky is hanging from the whitewashed beam by a bed sheet made into a noose. Her mouth is open and her face has lost color, but she’s kicking her feet. She’s still alive. She’s holding on to the noose, trying to relieve the pressure on her throat.

Elin doesn’t stop to think. She runs to Vicky and lifts her as high as she can.

“Try to get loose!” she exclaims, crying, as she holds her up by her thin legs.

The girl fights with the cloth. Her body is cramping and she has to get oxygen. She’s panicking and tearing at the cloth to get the noose off.

Elin hears Vicky draw in a lungful of air. She coughs and takes another deep breath. She starts to pant and her body goes tense.

“I can’t get it off.” Vicky coughs.

Elin stands on her toes and struggles to lift Vicky higher.

“Try to climb!”

“I can’t!”

The noose tightens again and Vicky can’t get enough air. She’s jerking in panic-induced convulsions. Elin’s arms are shaking from the effort of holding her.

She won’t give up.

She tries to reach the fallen chair with her foot so she can climb on it. She can’t reach it. Vicky is covered in sweat and her body spasms. Elin tries to change her grip, but it’s too hard. Still, she lowers one of her hands just a bit so she can lift higher. Vicky uses the last of her strength to fight the noose and manages to slip it over her chin and then off her head. Coughing, she falls to the floor in a tangled heap with Elin.

Vicky’s neck has a red bruise and she’s taking quick, shallow breaths, but she is breathing. She’s alive. Elin kisses her cheek and wipes her damp hair from her face. She whispers to Vicky to keep quiet.

“It was Daniel.”

“I know,” Elin says. “The police are on the way. Stay here. I’m going to lock the door, and you must keep completely quiet.”

Elin locks the door with Vicky inside. She’s shaking and her arms and legs are numb from the effort she’s just made. Her cell phone rings and she sees that she’s gotten a text message from Vicky’s cell phone.

Sorry. I can’t tell more lies. Don’t be sad. Hugs, V

Elin feels nauseated and her heart is hammering. Her thoughts are tumbling too quickly in her head. It takes her a moment to understand what’s going on. Daniel must have just sent her this message from Vicky’s cell phone. She heads downstairs to the large living room. The metal shutters are still closed throughout the house.

She catches sight of someone: Daniel. He’s at the head of the basement stairs and must have just come up from the garage. She knows that she’ll have to keep him occupied until the police arrive.

“She went through with it,” Elin says. “Vicky locked the door. I couldn’t get it open in time. I don’t understand.”

“What are you saying?” Daniel says slowly, looking at her with shining eyes.

“She’s dead. I’ve got to call someone about this.”

“That’s right,” he says.

“Daniel, I don’t get it.”

“You don’t?”

“No, I’m—”

“After killing you, Vicky went to her room and hanged herself.”

“What?”

“You shouldn’t have come back so soon,” Daniel says.

Elin catches a glimpse of the ax Daniel is holding behind his back. She makes a run for the front door, but he’s right behind her. She twists to the right and pulls a chair over behind her. He trips over the chair so now she has a slight head start. She runs through the kitchen and into the hall. He’s right behind her. There is nowhere to hide. She runs into Jack’s old bedroom and locks the door behind her. She hits the button to open the metal shutters.

I’m not going to get out , she thinks. It takes too long for the shutters to open.

The motor whirs and then there’s the creaking sound as the aluminum panels start to part. Light starts to stream through the tiny holes.

Elin screams when the first ax blow hits the door. The blade goes through the wood by the lock, is turned to the side and drawn back out.

The shutters slowly rattle upward. She can see a few inches of window when the ax falls a second time.

She can’t wait in Jack’s bedroom. She stumbles into the bathroom as she hears Daniel break open the door. She can hear the wood splinter and the door being pushed aside.

She catches a glimpse of herself in the large mirror as she runs through the bathroom past the tub, the shower, the sauna, out the other door, and into Jack’s office. It’s so dark, she runs into Jack’s pedestal desk. Folders and files crash to the floor. She opens a desk drawer, dumps out pens and pencils, and gropes through them. She grabs the letter opener.

She can tell by the silence that the shutters have finished opening in the bedroom. She hears something fall into the large bathtub. Daniel is still coming after her. Elin kicks off her shoes and sneaks out the door to the hall, closing it silently behind her.

She thinks perhaps she could follow Daniel and get in the bedroom through the broken door and try to open the window.

She takes a few steps and then changes her mind and runs down the hall.

“Elin!” Daniel calls behind her.

The door to the large guest room is locked. She turns the key, but the lock sticks. She looks back and sees Daniel striding down the hall. She pulls at the door handle but it won’t budge. A shadow crosses the door and she leaps to the side.