The Fire Witness

45

A woman with a German accent is discussing fall recipes when Flora gets back to the kitchen. She cleans up the mess of glass and juice and stands for a while, staring at her cold white hands. Then she walks into the hallway to call the police.

Flora listens to the crackle on the line before the first signal.

“Police,” says a woman with a tired voice.

“Yes, hi, my name is Flora Hansen and I-”

“Just a second, I didn’t catch that.”

“All right.” Flora starts over. “My name is Flora Hansen. I want to leave a tip about the murdered girl in Sundsvall.”

There’s a moment of silence and then the same tired voice says, “What do you want to tell us?”

“Do you pay for tips?” asks Flora.

“No, sorry.”

“But I… I saw the dead girl.”

“Are you saying that you were present when the girl was killed?”

“I’m a psychic,” says Flora in her most mysterious voice. “I can contact the dead. I saw everything, but I need to get paid to remember things better.”

“You can contact the dead. Is that it?”

“The girl held her hands in front of her face.”

“The headlines say that already.” The policewoman sounds impatient.

Flora feels her heart shrink from shame. She feels sick. She hadn’t planned what to say, but she realizes she should have said something else. It was already front-page news in the tabloids stacked at the grocery store when she was buying food and cigarettes for Hans-Gunnar.

“I didn’t know,” she whispers. “I can only tell you what I see. I’ve seen other things that you might want to pay for.”

“As I said, we don’t pay.”

“I saw the murder weapon,” she says. “Maybe you think you’ve found the murder weapon, but you haven’t. It’s not the right one. I saw-”

“Do you know that it is against the law to call the police without cause?” the policewoman interrupts. “It’s actually a criminal offense. I don’t mean to sound angry, but you’ve been taking up my time when someone with real information could be trying to get through.”

Flora is about to tell the policewoman about the murder weapon when she hears a click. She looks at the phone for a moment; then she dials the number again.