was hard to resist.
‘Don’t touch,’ growled a voice in English behind them, making them jump.
Laila turned around. She had never seen such a big man. Tall and muscular, he towered over them. The sun was at his back, so the sisters had to shade their eyes to see anything, and when Laila met his glance, it felt like an electric current surged through her body. She had never experienced such a sensation before. She felt confused and dizzy; her whole face burned. She told herself that it must be the heat.
‘No … We … no touch.’ Laila searched for the right words. Even though she had studied English in school and had learned a good deal from watching American films, she had never needed to actually speak the foreign language.
‘My name is Vladek.’ The man held out a calloused fist, and after a few seconds of hesitation, she responded, watching her own hand disappear in his grasp.
‘Laila. My name is Laila.’ Sweat was now coursing down her back.
He shook her hand as he repeated her name, though he made it sound so different and strange. When her name issued from his lips it sounded almost exotic and not like an ordinary, boring name.
‘This …’ She frantically searched her memory and then ventured: ‘This is my sister.’
She pointed at Agneta, and the big man greeted her as well. Laila was a bit ashamed of her stammered English, but her curiosity won out over her embarrassment.
‘What … what do you do? Here. In the circus.’
His face lit up. ‘Come, I show you!’ He motioned for them to follow and then set off without waiting for them to reply. They had to trot to keep up with him, and Laila felt her blood racing. He strode past the wagons and the circus tent that was still being raised, heading for a wagon that stood apart from the others. It was more like a cage, with iron bars instead of walls. Inside two lions were pacing back and forth.
‘This is what I do. This is my babies, my lions. I am … I am a lion tamer!’
Laila stared at the wild beasts. Inside of her something entirely new began to stir, something frightening but wondrous. And without thinking about what she was doing, she reached for Vladek’s hand.
It was early morning at the station. The yellow-painted walls of the kitchen looked grey in the winter haze that hovered over Tanumshede. No one said a word. None of them had slept much, and weariness covered their faces like a mask. The doctors had fought heroically to save Victoria’s life, but without success. At 11.14 yesterday morning, she had been pronounced dead.
Martin had filled everyone’s coffee cup, and Patrik now cast a glance at his colleague. Since his wife’s death, he rarely smiled, and all their attempts to bring back the old Martin had failed. Pia had clearly taken part of Martin with her when she died. The doctors had thought she would live one more year, but things had progressed much faster than anyone anticipated. Only three months after her diagnosis, she was gone, and Martin was left alone with their young daughter. Fucking cancer, thought Patrik as he stood up to begin the briefing.
‘As you know, Victoria Hallberg has died from the injuries she sustained when she was struck by a car. The driver of the vehicle has not been charged with any crime.’
‘That’s right,’ Martin interjected. ‘I spoke with him yesterday. David Jansson. According to him, Victoria suddenly appeared in the road, and he had no time to brake. He tried to veer around her, but the road was slippery and he lost control of the car.’
Patrik nodded. ‘There’s a witness to the accident: Marta Persson. She was out riding when she saw someone come out of the woods and then get hit by a car. She was also the one who called the police and ambulance. And she recognized Victoria. From what I understand, she was suffering from shock yesterday, so we’ll need to talk to her today. Can you handle that, Martin?’
‘Sure. I’ll take care of it.’
‘In addition, we urgently need to make some progress in our investigation of Victoria’s disappearance. That means finding the individual or individuals who kidnapped her and subjected her to such horrific treatment.’
Patrik rubbed his face. The images of Victoria as she lay on the gurney had been etched into his mind. He had driven straight from the hospital to the police station and then spent several hours going through the material they had collected so far. He had studied the interviews they’d conducted with family members, as well as the girl’s classmates and friends at the stable. He was trying to map out Victoria’s inner circle of family and friends and determine what she had been doing in the hours before she disappeared on her way home from the Persson riding school. He had also reviewed the information they had about the other girls who had disappeared over the past two years. Of course the police couldn’t be sure, but it seemed unlikely to be a coincidence that five girls, all about the same age and similar in appearance, had disappeared from a relatively small area. Yesterday Patrik had also sent out new information to the other police districts and asked them to respond in kind if they had anything more to add. It was always possible that something had been overlooked.
‘We’re going to continue to cooperate with the other districts involved and combine efforts as best we can while investigating this case. Victoria is the first of the girls to be found, and maybe this tragic event can at least lead us to the others. And then we can put a stop to the kidnappings. Someone who is capable of the kind of sadistic treatment Victoria was subjected to … well, someone like that can’t be allowed to go free.’
‘Sick bastard,’ muttered Mellberg, causing his dog Ernst to raise his head uneasily. As usual, he’d been sleeping under the table with his head resting on his master’s feet, and he was sensitive to the slightest change in Mellberg’s tone of voice.
‘What can we glean from her injuries?’ Martin leaned forward. ‘Why would the perpetrator do something like that?’
‘If only we knew. I’ve been wondering whether we should bring in a profiler to assist us. So far we don’t have a lot to go on, but maybe there’s a pattern that might prove interesting, a connection that we haven’t seen.’
‘A profiler? You mean one of those psychology guys? A so-called expert who has never had contact with any real criminals? You want someone like that to tell us how to do our job?’ Mellberg shook his head so hard that his comb-over tumbled down over one ear. With a practised hand he pushed it back in place.
‘It’s worth a try,’ said Patrik. He was all too familiar with Mellberg’s resistance to any form of innovation or modern methods when it came to police work. In theory, Bertil Mellberg was chief of the Tanumshede police station, but everyone knew that Patrik was the one who did all the work, and it was thanks to him that any crime ever got solved in their district.
‘Well, it’ll be on your head if the top brass start whining about unnecessary expenses. I wash my hands of the whole business.’ Mellberg leaned back and clasped his hands over his stomach.
‘I’ll find out who’s available,’ said Annika. ‘And maybe we should check with the other districts in case they’ve already gone down this route and forgotten to tell us. We don’t need to duplicate their efforts. That would be a waste of time and resources.’
‘Good idea. Thanks.’ Patrik turned to the whiteboard where he’d already taped up a photograph of Victoria and jotted down the basic facts about her.
From the corridor they could hear the sound of a radio playing pop music. The upbeat melody and lyrics were a sharp contrast