The Fire Witness

137

Saga is watching Vicky’s response to that last question. Her face is darkening and her expression hardening. The edges of her mouth turn down.

Saga explains, “There’s a note in the log about you cutting your arms.”

“Yes, but it wasn’t a big deal. We were watching TV and I was feeling a little bit sorry for myself, so I cut myself. I went to Elisabet and she patched me up. I like it when she takes care of me. She is calm and she knows I need a lot of bandages around my wrists… because it always turns my stomach later when I think about my veins being open.”

“Why were you feeling sorry for yourself?”

“It was my turn to talk to Elisabet, but she said she didn’t have time.”

“What did you want to talk to her about?”

“I don’t know. Nothing big. It was just my turn to have private time with her, but I couldn’t because Miranda and Tuula had a fight.”

“That doesn’t sound fair,” Saga says.

“So I was feeling sorry for myself. So I cut myself and then Elisabet patched me up.”

“You had your time with Elisabet after all, it seems.”

“Yeah.” Vicky smiles.

“Are you Elisabet’s favorite?”

“No.”

“Who is?”

All of a sudden, Vicky lashes her good hand at Saga’s face, but Saga rolls her head away in time. The rest of her body doesn’t move. Vicky doesn’t know how she missed and why Saga is now gently stroking her cheek.

“Are you tired?” asks Saga.

Vicky looks at her and reaches to stop Saga from taking her hand away. Then she turns her back to her.

“You usually take thirty milligrams of Eutrexa before you go to sleep,” Saga says after a moment has passed.

“That’s right.” The girl sounds irritated.

“What time?”

“Ten.”

“Were you able to sleep then?”

“No.”

“You couldn’t sleep all night, I understand.”

“I don’t want to talk anymore,” Vicky says, and she closes her eyes.

“That’s enough for today,” the lawyer says.

“We have twenty more minutes,” Susanne protests.

“My client needs to rest,” Signe Ridelman says as she walks up to Vicky’s bed. “You’re tired, aren’t you? Do you want something to eat?”

While Signe talks to her client softly, Susanne listens to her voice mail. She looks out the window, her face expressionless.

Saga is just about to turn off the recorder on her cell phone when she catches sight of Joona and stops.

He is looking at her with eyes the color of ice. Then he abruptly leaves the room. Saga asks Signe to wait a moment and then follows him. He walks past the officers on guard and waits for her at the door to the stairwell.

“Have I missed something?” she asks.

“Vicky slept that night. In her own bed. The clothes she was wearing were covered in blood,” Joona says quietly.

“What are you telling me?”

“It’s not in the report.”

“But you noticed it at the crime scene?”

“Yes.”

“So she fell asleep after the murders?”

“I don’t have access to the lab reports, but one thought I’ve had is that she may have overdosed on her medicine, since she was not feeling well. You’d think the medicine would help, but it doesn’t-you just get more and more restless, and finally you become enraged. I don’t know for sure, but it could be that she was angry at Miranda for robbing her of her private time with Elisabet, or maybe she was angry with Elisabet because she let Miranda do so, or perhaps it is something else entirely.”

“You think that it’s possible she murdered Elisabet, took the keys, went into the isolation room, killed Miranda-and then went to sleep?”

“Yes. The evidence in the isolation room shows two sides to the killer: uncontrolled violence and then tenderness.”

Joona is trying to read Saga’s eyes, but they give nothing away.

“Once Miranda is dead, her rage dissipates,” he says. “She lifts her body onto the bed and she places her hands over her face. After that, she returns to her own room as the medicine is starting to take effect-it’s strong-and she feels overwhelmingly tired.”