The Fire Witness

138

When Saga returns to Vicky’s room, the prosecutor says that the remaining fifteen minutes they have are too few to get anything of value. Saga nods as if she agrees and walks over to the end of the bed. Signe looks at her in surprise. Saga waits with her hands on the rails until Vicky turns her battered face toward her.

“I thought you’d been awake the entire night,” Saga begins, very slowly. “However, Joona says that you slept in your bed before you ran away from Birgittagården.”

Vicky shakes her head and Signe tries to get between them.

“Any questioning is over for today and-”

Vicky whispers something and scratches next to one of the cuts on her cheek. Saga wants to get the girl to tell her something more, not much, just a few honest words about her flight through the forest and why she kidnapped the boy. She knows that the more the interrogator gets the suspect to say about the events leading up to the crime, the more probable it is that the suspect will tell them everything.

“Joona is never wrong,” Saga says, with a smile.

“It was dark and I was in bed while everyone was screaming and slamming doors.” Vicky’s voice is barely above a whisper.

“So you’re lying in bed and everyone is screaming,” Saga says. “What are you thinking? What do you do next?”

“I’m scared and I’m lying under the blanket and trying not to move,” Vicky says, not looking at anyone. “It’s totally dark. I’m soaking. I think I pissed on myself, or maybe my period was starting. Buster is barking and Nina is screaming about Miranda. I turn on the light and see that I’m covered in blood.”

Saga decides not to ask about the blood or the murders. She does not want to force a confession but to allow Vicky’s story to unfold as it will.

“Were you also screaming?” asks Saga.

“I don’t think so. I doubt it. I wasn’t able to think,” Vicky says. “I just wanted to get away… get out of there. I usually go to sleep in my clothes. I always sleep in my clothes. So I put on my shoes and grabbed my purse. I got out the window and ran into the forest. I’m scared and I walk as fast as I can. I walk for ages and it gets light and I just keep going. Then I see a car-it’s almost new-just left out there in the middle of nowhere with the keys in the ignition. Even the door is open. I know how to drive because I drove a lot last summer, so I just get into the car and start to drive. I want to go to Stockholm and get some money so I can go see my friend in Chile. Then there’s a bang and the car turns around. Bang! Just like that. And I wake up, my ear is bleeding, and I look up and see I’ve driven right into a fucking traffic light and I don’t know how I did that. All the windows are gone and it’s raining right into the car. The engine’s still running and I’m alive so I keep driving. Then I hear someone crying and I turn around and I see a little boy in a car seat-a little boy. It’s totally crazy. I don’t know where he came from. I yell at him to shut up. The rain’s just pouring down. I can hardly see but right when I turn to go over the bridge I see blue lights on the other side of the river. I reckon it’s the cops and I get a little panicked and I turn the wheel and we drive off the road. It goes fast, we go right down the side and into the water and I hit my face on the steering wheel. The water is over the hood and we’re just sliding into the river like crazy. We’re sinking, but I know enough to take deep breaths from the air right under the roof and I go back to the boy and get the car seat unbuckled, and hold him up so he can breathe but the seat’s too heavy with him still in it, so I get the seat belt off him but the car seat floats up too so I grab it and push it out the window and I hold on to it and I hold on to the boy and we go up. I’m pulling the car seat toward the shore. The other side of the river. But the river is too strong and I have to let go of the car seat and I swim as best I can. And we get to the shore. My shoes and purse are gone, but the boy is all right and in a bit we start to walk.”

Vicky stops for a moment and takes a deep breath.

Saga notices the prosecutor shift slightly but her eyes are fixed on Vicky.

“I ask Dante his name and tell him that we’re going to find his mother,” Vicky says, and her voice has started to shake. “I hold his hand and we walk and walk and we sing a song he learned in preschool-an old man who wore out his shoes-and we go down a big road with posts along the sides, and a car stops and we get in the backseat. This guy asks us if we want to go to his house and get some new clothes and some food…” Vicky falters and blinks hard, then carries on in a whisper.

“We might have gone with him except he said we’d get some money too, and when he stopped to fill up his tank we snuck out and kept walking. I don’t know how far we walked but there was a rest area by a lake. And there was a truck from IKEA parked there and we found a heap of sausage sandwiches in plastic bags and a thermos on one of the picnic tables, but before we can swipe the food, this man comes up to us and asks if we’re hungry. He says he’s from Poland and we can ride with him all the way to Uppsala. I borrow his phone and call my mom, and I keep thinking if he touches the boy I’ll kill him, but he lets us just sit there and we fall asleep. He doesn’t want anything from us. He just lets us off and we take the train the last bit in to Stockholm and we hide among the suitcases. I don’t have the key to the subway car, and I don’t know anyone, it’s been too long. I lived with a couple at Midsommarkransen for a while but I didn’t remember their names but I remembered Tobias, of course I remembered Tobias, and also he lives on Wollmar Yxkullsgatan, and you take the subway to Mariatorget and I’m such a fucking idiot I really don’t deserve to live.”

She falls silent and turns her face away.