Stalker. Ларс Кеплер
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and ushers her into a little kitchen with copper saucepans on the walls.
An elk-hunting rifle with telescopic sights is hanging under the windowsill, and on the floor are at least thirty boxes of ammunition.
The sun is shining through the drawn curtains. On the table is a coffee pot and two cups.
‘Summa died last spring,’ he explains.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she says quietly.
He puts the wood-basket down on the floor and slowly straightens his back. There’s a faint smell of smoke in the kitchen, and she can hear the pine logs crackling behind the closed hatch of the iron stove.
‘So you found the body?’ he says, looking at her.
‘I wouldn’t have come otherwise,’ she replies seriously. ‘Call Åhlén if you want confirmation.’
‘I believe you,’ he says.
‘Call him anyway.’
He shakes his head but doesn’t say anything, then, leaning on the draining board, he makes his way to the other door, nudges it open and says something quietly into the gloom in Finnish.
‘This is my daughter, Lumi,’ Joona says as a girl comes into the kitchen.
‘Hello,’ Saga says.
Lumi has straight brown hair, a friendly, curious smile, but her eyes are as grey as ice. She’s tall and thin, dressed in a simple blue cotton shirt and a pair of faded jeans.
‘Are you hungry?’ Joona asks.
‘Yes,’ Saga replies.
‘Sit yourself down.’
She sits down on a chair and Joona gets out bread, butter and cheese, then starts chopping tomatoes, olives and peppers. Lumi heats some water and grinds coffee beans in a manually operated mill. Saga looks at the dimly lit room behind them, and sees a sofa and a stack of books on a table. Hanging from a drip-stand is a night-vision sight and a mount allowing it to be attached to a rifle for nocturnal hunting.
‘Where was he?’ Joona asks.
‘He drifted ashore on Högmarsö,’ Saga replies.
‘Who?’ Lumi asks, glancing at the control panel for some twenty motion detectors that’s attached to the wall beneath the spice-rack.
‘Jurek Walter,’ Joona says, cracking twelve eggs into the frying pan.
‘I’ve found his body,’ Saga says.
‘So he’s dead?’ she asks lightly.
‘Lumi, can you take over for a minute?’ Joona says, then leaves the kitchen.
His heavy steps echo through the hall, then the front door closes. Lumi gets some dried basil and rubs it between her palms.
‘Dad says he had to leave me and Mum,’ Lumi says, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘He says Jurek Walter would have killed us if we’d had any contact with him at all.’
‘He did the right thing, he saved your lives, there was no other way,’ Saga says.
Lumi nods and turns towards the stove. A few tears drip on to the black metal range in front of her.
Lumi wipes her face, lowers the heat, and then carefully turns the omelette with a spatula.
Through the closed curtains Saga can see Joona standing out on the road with a phone pressed to his ear. She knows he’s talking to Nils Åhlén. He’s frowning, and his jaw muscles are tense.
Lumi turns the stove off and lays the table as she looks at Saga curiously.
‘I know you’re not going out with Dad,’ the girl says after a while. ‘He’s told me about Disa.’
‘We used to work together.’ Saga smiles.
‘You don’t look like a police officer,’ the girl says.
‘Security Police,’ Saga says curtly.
‘You don’t look like one of them either,’ she laughs, sitting down opposite Saga. ‘But if you say you’re from the Security Police, then you must be Saga Bauer.’
‘Yes.’
‘Dig in,’ Lumi says. ‘It’ll get cold.’
Saga thanks her, helps herself to some omelette, bread and cheese, and pours coffee for the two of them.
‘How is Joona?’ she asks.
‘Yesterday I’d probably have said not good,’ Lumi says. ‘He’s freezing most of the time and hardly sleeps, he keeps watch over me, makes himself stay awake … I don’t know how he manages it.’
‘He’s very stubborn,’ Saga says.
‘Is he?’
They laugh.
‘You know, I didn’t have my dad for so many years,’ the girl says, and her eyes grow moist. ‘I barely remembered him. I mean, nothing can make up for that, but … we’ve spent more than a year sitting and talking … every day, for hours … I’ve told him about me and Mum, what we did and how we were … and he’s talked about himself … There can’t be many people who’ve talked so much with their dad.’
‘Not me, that’s for certain,’ Saga says.
Lumi stands up when a motion sensor reacts to Joona’s approach. She switches the alarm off and then they hear the front door open, followed by footsteps in the hall.
Joona comes into the kitchen, puts his stick down, leans against the table, then sinks on to a chair.
‘Åhlén is certain,’ he says, helping himself to some food.
‘We’re quits now,’ Saga says, looking him in the eye. ‘I don’t care what you think, but we’re quits … I killed him, and I found the body.’
‘You’ve never owed me anything.’
Joona is leaning forward slightly, with his arms wrapped round his body, taking small mouthfuls of food. Lumi puts a thick blanket round his shoulders, then sits back down.
‘Lumi’s going to study in Paris,’ Joona says, smiling at his daughter.
‘We don’t know that,’ she says quickly.
A smile flits across her pale face. Saga sees Joona’s hands shake as he picks up his cup and drinks some coffee.
‘I’m cooking venison fillet tonight,’ he says.
‘My train back leaves in two hours,’ Saga says.
‘With chanterelles and cream,’ he adds.
She smiles. ‘I have to go.’
Erik is early for his piano lesson, and stands on the pavement opposite the door to Lill-Jans plan 4. The curtains on the ground floor are open, and he can see straight into Jackie Federer’s flat. She’s in the kitchen, she runs her hand along the wall-mounted cupboards, takes out a glass, then holds her finger under the tap. He can see that she’s wearing a black skirt and an unbuttoned blouse. He walks across the street to see better, gets closer to the window and can now see that her wet hair has dripped down the back of her silk blouse. She drinks the water, wipes her mouth with her hand, then turns round.
Erik stretches and catches a glimpse of her stomach and navel through the opening of her unbuttoned shirt. A woman with a pushchair stops on the pavement and stares at him, and he suddenly realises how he must look. He hurries to reach the pavement and goes in through the entrance. Once again he stands in the darkness outside the door of her flat and moves his finger towards the bell.