The Fire Witness

164

Elin is driving carefully down the steep gravel road toward Åre to pick up Vicky’s nurse from the bus station. Her window is rolled down and fresh, cool air has flooded the Jeep. The mountains here are close together like giant Viking burial mounds, rounded and overgrown.

She remembers Vicky taking her hand and squeezing it. Everything is going to be better from now on.

The narrow road is passing beneath a cliff when she hears her cell phone buzz in her purse. She drives slowly until she finds a place to stop. She has a bad feeling as she takes out the phone. It’s still ringing in her hand and she can see it’s Joona Linna calling. She doesn’t want to hear what he has to say, but she answers anyway.

“Hello?”

“Where’s Vicky?”

“She’s here with me,” she says. “I have a house in Duved which-”

“I mean, can you see her right now?”

“No, I-”

“Get Vicky at once, get in your car, and drive to Stockholm right now. Just you and Vicky. Don’t stop to bring anything with you-”

“I’m already in the car!” Elin shrieks. She feels alarmed. “Vicky is with Daniel at the house.”

“That’s not good,” Joona says in a tone that fills Elin with dread.

“What’s happened?”

“Listen to me. Daniel was the one who killed Miranda and Elisabet.”

“That can’t be true,” she whispers. “He’s keeping an eye on Vicky while I pick up the nurse from the bus station.”

“Then she may no longer be alive, and you are in danger,” Joona says. “Get away from there right now. That is my advice as a police officer.”

Elin stares at the sky. In the last few minutes, low clouds have gathered. They push over the mountaintops, threatening rain.

“I can’t leave her,” Elin hears herself say.

“The police are on the way, but it could take a while.”

“I’m turning around right now.”

“I understand,” Joona says. “Be very careful. Daniel Grim is an extremely dangerous man and you’ll be on your own until the police get there.”

Elin’s mind is blank. She turns the Jeep around and speeds up the steep road, the gravel clattering against the underside of the vehicle.