Lars Kepler: The Fire Witness

He could tell that Summa was working hard to keep her emotions in check.

“If you leave us at the station, you’ve lost us for good. Do you realize this? There’s no way back.” She stared at him with defiant and sorrowful eyes.

“Tell Lumi that I had to go work abroad,” he continued, keeping his voice low. Summa had started to weep.

“Joona,” she said. “No, don’t do this.”

He kept staring straight ahead. He swallowed hard and kept his eyes on the road.

“And in a few years,” he went on, “tell her that I’m dead. You must never ever contact me again. Never try to see me. Do you understand?”

Summa was now crying out loud.

“I don’t want to! I don’t want to!”

“Neither do I.”

“You shouldn’t do this to us!”

“Mamma?” Lumi had woken up and sounded frightened. Summa quickly dried the tears from her cheeks.

“Don’t worry,” Joona says to his daughter. “Mamma is sad because we’re not going to the hotel by the river.”

“Tell her,” Summa said.

“Tell me what?” asked Lumi.

“You and Mamma will be taking the train,” Joona said.

“What about you?”

“I have to work,” he replies.

“You told me we were going to play monkey and vet.”

“He doesn’t want to play,” Summa said harshly.

They were near the outskirts of Mora. They passed scattered houses and a few industrial buildings. Then they passed shopping malls and car repair shops. The dense forest fell back, and the fences to keep the wildlife off the highway disappeared.

Joona slowed down as they drove up to the train station. He parked and opened the trunk and lifted out the huge suitcase on wheels.

“Did you remove your things last night?” Summa asked.

“I did.”

“Did you put other stuff inside?”

He nodded and looked away toward the station: four parallel lines of tracks, embankments of rust-colored gravel, weeds, and dark crossties.

“Your daughter needs you in her life.”

“I have no choice.” He looked inside his car’s rear window to where Lumi was pushing her big, soft doll into her backpack.

“You have many choices,” Summa continued. “Instead of fighting, you’re giving up. You have no idea if this threat is real. I just don’t understand all this.”

“I can’t find Lollo!” Lumi complained.

“The train leaves in twenty minutes,” Joona said.

“I don’t want to live without you,” Summa said, and took his hand. “I want things to go on as they were.”

“I know.”

“If you do this to us, you will be all alone.”

He didn’t answer. Lumi climbed out of the car and dropped her backpack on the ground. A red barrette was hanging loosely in her hair.

“Are you ready to live the rest of your life alone?”

“I am,” he said.

Joona could not look at her. He gazed across the tracks. Between the trees on the other side of the tracks, the northern bay of Lake Siljan was glittering.

“Say goodbye to Pappa, now,” Summa said. She pushed her daughter toward her father.

Lumi stood still and didn’t look up.

“Hurry up,” Summa says.

Lumi looks up and says, “Bye-bye, Monkey.”

“Properly. Say goodbye properly.” Summa showed her irritation.

“I don’t want to,” Lumi said.

She clung to her mother’s leg.

“Do it anyway,” Summa said.

Joona squatted down before his tiny daughter.

“Can I have a hug?”

She shakes her head.

“Well, here comes the monkey with his long, long arms!” he joked.

Joona lifted her up. He felt her little body resist — she knew something was seriously wrong. She wriggled to get down, but Joona held her close, just for a while, just to inhale the scent of her neck.

“You silly!” she shouted.

“Lumi,” Joona whispered against her cheek. “Never forget that I love you more than anything else.”

“Time to go,” Summa said.

Joona set his daughter down. He wanted to pet her on the cheek but couldn’t bring himself to do so. He felt as if he was shattering into pieces. Summa was staring at him in fear. Her neck was stiff. She grabbed Lumi’s hand and pulled her away.

They waited for the train in silence. There was nothing more to say.

Downy dandelion seeds blew over the tracks.

There was a burned smell from the brakes as the train rolled away from the platform. He stood and stared at his daughter’s pale face through the train window. Her little hand was waving slowly. Summa was a black shadow sitting rigidly next to her. She did not look at him. Before the train reached the bend toward the harbor, Joona turned and walked back to his car.

Joona drove the 145 kilometers to Ludvika without thinking. His head was roaring but empty — frighteningly so.

He drove without thinking and finally arrived.

His headlights lit up massive metal structures. He turned into the industrial area and drove down to the empty harbor near the power station. A large gray car was already parked between two huge piles of sawdust. Joona pulled up next to it. He was remarkably calm; so calm that he knew he was in some form of shock.

He got out of his car and looked around. The Needle was waiting for him, standing next to a door. He was wearing white overalls and his face looked worn and serious.

“So? They’ve left?” he asked in the sharp tone he used whenever something bothered him.

“They’re gone,” Joona said.

The Needle nodded a few times. The white frames of his glasses shone coldly in the weak light.

“You didn’t give me a choice in this matter,” The Needle said glumly.

“True enough,” Joona said. “You had no choice.”

“We’re both going to get fired if this comes out.”

“Then we’ll be fired.”

“Two at the same time. I moved as fast as I could when they arrived.”

“Good.”

“Two of them,” The Needle repeated, almost to himself.

Joona thought back to just a few days ago, when he woke up next to his wife and daughter. His cell phone was ringing in his jacket in the hall.

Someone had sent a text message. The minute he saw it was from The Needle, he knew what it was about.

They had agreed. Once The Needle found two bodies that were approximately right, Joona would leave town with Summa and Lumi on the pretext of going on the vacation they’d been talking about for such a long time.

Joona had waited to hear from The Needle for more than three weeks. Time was running out. He was keeping watch over his family as best he could, but he recognized that this was not going to work in the long run. Jurek Walter was a man who could wait.

Joona knew right away that The Needle’s message meant he was about to lose his family. He could ensure that Summa and Lumi would be protected, but only if he never saw them again.

The Needle opened the hatchback of his gray car.

On two stretchers, covered in a cloth, were two body bags, one large and one small.

“A woman and a girl. They died in a car crash three days ago,” The Needle explained. He began to pull out the larger body.

“I’ve worked on them a little. There’s not a trace left that could identify them. Not a single identifying mark.”

He groaned as he removed the body from his car. The undercarriage of the stretcher fell into place. The small wheels clattered as they hit the gravel.

Without saying a word, The Needle zipped open the body bag.

Joona clenched his jaw and forced himself to look.

A young woman lay there. Her eyes were closed and her face was calm. Her chest was crushed. Her arms appeared to have been broken in many places and her pelvis had been wrenched awry.