The Chosen

CONCLUSION: FRAGMENT IV

The snow is falling heavily, desperate to bury all evil beneath its blanket of white. The inspector leaves the apartment with the woman who has lost the love of her life and one of her children.

‘I was never meant to have it all,’ she says when they are standing on the pavement.

He has no idea what to say. He knows nothing about her past and her personal life apart from what he has heard from others.

He does know that her story contains elements of darkness that she does not wish to share with anyone else. Soon she will have to be interviewed about what has happened, fill in the gaps for the investigators. Because somewhere in Stockholm, there is a killer on the loose.

‘I thought we’d got him,’ the inspector says eventually.

The snow chills his face, and he feels like crying out there in the street.

Because he doesn’t understand what went wrong.

When she doesn’t respond, he says:

‘I can’t make any sense of this. When you feel up to telling us what you know…’

He breaks off as she turns her back on him and walks away.

‘Hang on a minute!’

He hurries to catch up with her, places a hand on her shoulder and almost slips in the snow.

‘Let go of me.’

Her voice is calm, but there is no misunderstanding the steel in her tone. He has the feeling that if he doesn’t let go, he will die.

‘Listen to me,’ he says.

Begs.

Pleads.

Because in a world where all is chaos, only pleading remains.

‘You must realise that I can’t simply let you walk away.’

He glances back at his colleagues, waiting by the door. Like him, they are in shock at what they have seen and experienced. If necessary, he will not hesitate to ask for their help.

Because the woman who has lost almost everything cannot be left alone.

The risk that she will declare war on her opponent is too great. She will not rest until she has her revenge.

‘Who has done this?’ the inspector says, his voice betraying a higher level of frustration than he would wish. ‘Who was it?’

‘Me,’ she says, beginning to weep. ‘I did this.’