LITMIR.BIZ

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don’t use it here much, it’s so bloody addictive. But it looks as if your wife was incredibly lucky.”

      “What do you mean?” asks Erik.

      “She’s still alive.”

      Erik returns to Simone’s room to go through everything one more time but sees that she has fallen asleep. Her lips are cracked and sore after having her stomach pumped.

      His phone rings in his pocket, and he moves into the corridor before answering. “Yes?”

      “It’s Linnea at reception, Dr Bark. You’ve got a visitor.”

      It takes a few seconds for Erik to realise that the woman means reception here at the hospital, in the neurosurgical unit, and that she is the Linnea who has worked at the reception desk for four years.

      “Dr Bark?” she asks tentatively.

      “A visitor? Who is it?”

      “Joona Linna,” she replies.

      Erik stands in the corridor, waiting for Joona, his mind racing. He thinks about his voicemail messages; Roland Svensson called again and again to offer him police protection. Has somebody threatened me? Erik asks himself; a chill runs through him as he realises how unusual it is for a detective from the National CID to come and see him in person rather than contacting him by phone.

      He wanders into the cafeteria, where a platter of cold cuts and bread has been left for the taking. A feeling of nausea twists and turns inside his body. His hands shake as he pours water into a scratched glass.

      Joona has come to tell me they’ve found Benjamin’s body, he thinks. That’s why he’s here in person. He’s going to ask me to sit down; then he’s going to tell me Benjamin is dead.

      Terrifying images flash through his mind with increasing speed: Benjamin’s body in a ditch beside the motorway, or in a black rubbish bag in some forest, washed up on a muddy shore.

      “Coffee?”

      “What?”

      “Would you like some coffee?”

      A young woman with shining blonde hair is standing next to the coffee machine, holding up a steaming pot. She looks inquiringly at him, and he realises he holds an empty cup in his hand. As he shakes his head, Joona Linna walks into the room.

      “Let’s sit down,” says Joona. He wears a troubled expression.

      Erik nods, and they sit down at a table by the wall. Joona fidgets with the salt shaker and whispers something.

      “What?” asks Erik.

      “We’ve been trying to reach you.”

      “I didn’t answer my phone yesterday,” says Erik faintly.

      “Erik, I’m sorry to inform you that Josef Ek has run away from the hospital.”

       “What?”

      “You’re entitled to police protection.”

      Erik’s mouth begins to tremble, and his eyes fill with tears.

      “Was that what you came to tell me? That Josef has run away?”

      “Yes.”

      Erik is so relieved that he would like to lie down on the floor and simply sleep. He quickly wipes the tears from his eyes. “When did this happen?”

      “Last night. He killed a nurse, stole a car, and seriously injured its driver,” Joona says heavily.

      Erik nods several times as his thoughts rapidly make new connections. Absolute terror overwhelms the relief of a moment ago. “He came to our house in the middle of the night and took our son,” he says.

      “What are you saying?”

      “Josef has taken my son, Benjamin.”

      “You mean Benjamin was abducted? Did you see it happen?”

      “I didn’t, but Simone—”

      “What happened?”

      “Simone was injected with a powerful drug,” Erik says slowly. “I just got the results of her blood test; it’s an anaesthetic called alfentanil, used in major surgery.”

      “But she’s all right?”

      “She will be.”

      Joona nods and writes down the name of the drug. “And Simone said she saw Josef take Benjamin?”

      “She didn’t see the person’s face.”

      “OK.”

      “Are you going to find Josef?” asks Erik.

      “Trust me, we’ll find him. There’s a national alert out for him. He’s badly injured. He’s going nowhere.”

      “But you haven’t got any leads?”

      Joona gives him a hard stare. “I don’t think it will be long before we find him.”

      “Good.”

      “Where were you when he came to your apartment?”

      “I was sleeping in the spare room,” explains Erik. “I’d taken a pill, and I didn’t hear a thing.”

      “So when he came into the bedroom, he only found Simone.”

      “Yes.”

      “This doesn’t make sense,” says Joona.

      “It’s easy to miss the spare room. It looks more like a closet, hidden when the bathroom door is open. He probably thought I wasn’t home.”

      “I don’t mean that,” says Joona. “I mean this doesn’t sound like Josef. He doesn’t give people injections; his behaviour is far more aggressive.”

      “Perhaps it just looks aggressive to us,” says Erik.

      “What do you mean?”

      “Perhaps he knows what he’s doing all the time. I mean, you didn’t find any of his father’s blood on him back at home. That suggests he works systematically, coldly. What if he decided to get his revenge on me by taking Benjamin?”

      There is silence. From the corner of his eye, Erik can see the blonde woman by the coffee machine sipping from her cup as she gazes out over the hospital complex.

      Joona looks down at the table; then he meets Erik’s eyes and says gently, “I am really very sorry, Erik.”

       43

       saturday, december 12: morning

      After parting with Joona outside the cafeteria, Erik returns to his office. The notion that Benjamin has been kidnapped hasn’t yet sunk in. It’s simply too incredible to believe that a stranger could break into their apartment and drag his son away.

      And yet that’s what Simone saw.

      It can’t be Josef Ek who has taken his son. Yes, he just made the case for it, but it’s impossible.

      With a feeling that everything around him is becoming completely unmanageable, he sits down at his battered desk and calls the same people over and over and over again, as if he can tell from some nuance in their voices whether they might have overlooked some detail, whether they are lying or keeping information from him. He calls Aida three times in succession, asking first if she knows if Benjamin had any particular plans for the weekend, then if she has the phone numbers of his friends, the third time if she and Benjamin have had a fight. Her voice quavers on the other end of the phone when she answers, and Erik suddenly realises she’s just a kid, overwhelmed by the fierceness of his questioning and, in her own way, by Benjamin’s absence. Protectively, he gives her all the numbers where he can be reached and establishes that she hasn’t seen

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