The Fire Witness

118

The traffic is light in the Söder Tunnel and Joona is able to drive extremely fast. There’s a crackle on Joona’s radio as he requests backup from the police as well as an ambulance. He says he’s heading for the slaughterhouse area in Johanneshov, but explains he does not yet have a specific address.

Beside him, Vicky gnaws on her nails.

“I’ll get back to you,” he says as his car thumps over the remains of a truck tire.

The long tunnel ends in a curve between concrete walls, forcing Joona to slow down. The sun has now set and the yellow light from lamps strung overhead across the street flash like a strobe over Vicky’s pale face. The car speeds up.

“Drive faster,” she says, although she’s bracing herself against the glove compartment as if it would protect her in a crash. “I said I’d pay double if he’d get money and a passport for me. He promised he’d return Dante to his mother, and I believed him. Can you believe it? After all he’s done to me.”

She starts hitting her head with her fists.

“How can anyone be as stupid as me?” she says. “All he wanted was Dante. He whacked me with a pipe and locked me up. I was so stupid. I shouldn’t even be alive.”

On the other side of Hammarbyleden’s water, they pass beneath the viaduct of Nynäsvägen and around the Globen Arena. The arena looks like a dirty white celestial body next to the soccer stadium.

They drive toward a large enclosed area with industrial buildings and parked trailers. Neon signs hang over both lanes of traffic. White letters on a red background tell them they’re in the slaughterhouse area. The booms are up, so they drive straight in, tires squealing.

“Where to now?” asks Joona as they pass a gray warehouse.

Vicky is biting her lip as she looks around.

“I don’t know.”