The Hypnotist

Chapter 77

Back at the wheel, Joona pulls to the side of the road and takes a piece of paper out of his pocket. A flatbed truck carrying a load of dusty crushed stone passes by.

“There are five more people named Blau in the Stockholm area, three in Västerås, two in Eskilstuna, and one in Umeå.” He folds up the paper and smiles encouragingly at Erik.

“Charlotte,” Erik says quietly.

“There was no Charlotte on the list,” replies Joona, wiping a mark off the rearview mirror.

“Charlotte Ceder. She was kind to Eva. I think Eva had a room at her place in those days.”

“Where do you think we might find Charlotte?”

“She lived in Stocksund ten years ago.”

Joona dials Anja.

“I need a phone number and address for one Charlotte Ceder. I mean like right now. She lives in Stocksund, or at least she used to.” He abruptly pulls the phone from his ear and stares at it, a wry expression on his face. Erik can hear a woman’s agitated voice on the other end. “Same to you. Yes. Yes, please.” There’s a pause. “Sure, hang on,” he says, taking out a pen and making a note. “Thanks a lot.”

He flicks on the left-turn signal and pulls out into the traffic.

“Is she still living there?” asks Erik.

“No, but we’re in luck. She lives near Rimbo.”

Erik feels a stab of anxiety in his stomach. He doesn’t know why he finds it frightening that Charlotte has moved from Stocksund; perhaps he ought to interpret it as a positive development.

“The Husby estate,” says Joona, inserting a disk into the CD player. Turning up the volume, he turns to Erik and says apologetically, “This is my mother’s music. Saija Varjus.” He shakes his head sadly and joins in. “Dam dam da da di dum.”

The mournful music fills the whole car.

When the song is over they sit in silence for a short while. Then Joona says in a voice that sounds almost surprised, “I don’t like Finnish music any more.” He clears his throat a couple of times.

“I thought it was lovely,” says Erik.

Joona smiles, giving him a quick sideways glance. “My mother was there when she became the tango queen of Seinäjoki.”

Heavy sleet is falling when they turn off onto the 77 at Sätuna. The sky to the east is growing dark, and the farms they pass are difficult to make out in the gathering dusk.

Joona taps on the dashboard. The heat comes pouring out of the vents with a low hum. Erik can feel his feet getting damp from the peculiar warmth in the car.

“All right, let’s see what we’ve got here,” says Joona to himself as he drives through the small community and turns onto a straight but narrow road between dark fields. In the distance they can see a large white house behind a high fence. They park outside the open gates and walk the last few yards to the house. A young woman in a leather jacket is raking the gravel path. She looks scared as they approach. A golden retriever is jumping around her legs.

“Charlotte,” the woman calls out. “Charlotte!”

A woman appears around the side of the enormous house, dragging a big black rubbish bag behind her. She is wearing a pink down vest, a thick grey sweater, scruffy jeans, and wellingtons.

Charlotte, thinks Erik. It really is Charlotte.

Gone is the slender, cool woman with her elegant clothes and her well-cared-for short bob. The person coming toward them looks completely different. Her hair is long and grey, woven into a thick braid. Her face is full of laughter lines, and she isn’t wearing a scrap of make-up. She’s more beautiful than ever, thinks Erik. When she catches sight of him a deep flush spreads over her face. At first she looks totally amazed; then she begins to smile broadly.

“Erik!” she says, and her voice is just the same: deep, articulate, and warm. She lets go of the rubbish bag and grabs his hands. “Is it really you? It’s wonderful to see you again.”

She says hello to Joona and then stands for a little while, just looking at them. A powerfully built woman opens the front door. She has a tattoo on her neck and is wearing a black hooded jacket.

“Need any help?” she calls.

“Friends of mine,” Charlotte shouts back, waving her away.

Charlotte smiles as the big woman closes the door. “I’ve… I’ve turned this place into a women’s shelter. There’s plenty of room, so I take in women who need to get away, or however you want to put it. I let them live here- we cook together, look after the stables- until they feel ready to go back, ready to do things on their own terms. The whole thing is very straightforward.”

“Charlotte, it all sounds wonderful!” Erik says.

She nods and gestures toward the door, inviting them in.

“Charlotte, we need to get hold of Eva Blau,” says Erik. “Do you remember her?”

“Of course I remember her. She was my first guest here. I had the rooms in the wing and- ”

She breaks off but begins again. “It’s strange that you should mention Eva. She called me only a week or so ago.”

“What did she want?”

“She was angry.”

“Yes,” says Erik, with a sigh.

“Why was she angry?” asks Joona.

Charlotte takes a deep breath. Erik can hear the wind in the bare branches of the trees. Someone has tried to build a snowman with the small amount of snow that has fallen, a forlorn and crumpled-looking figure.

“She was angry with Erik.”

He feels his flesh crawl as he thinks of Eva Blau’s sharp face, her aggressive voice, her flashing eyes, and her nose with its cruelly severed tip.

“I think it upset a lot of people when it came out that you’d been practising hypnosis again, Erik.”

“It was a special case.”

She takes his hand in hers. “I never thought, never believed- ” She stops. “You helped me,” she whispers. “That time when I saw… do you remember?”

“I do remember,” Erik says quietly.

Charlotte smiles at him. “It was enough. I went inside the haunted house. I looked up and saw the person who had hurt me.”

“I know.”

“It would never have happened without you, Erik.”

“Yes, but- ”

“Something inside me became whole again,” she says, gesturing toward her heart.

“Where is Eva now?” asks Joona.

Charlotte frowns. “When she was discharged she moved into a apartment in the centre of Åkersberga and became a Jehovah’s Witness. At first we kept in contact- I helped her out financially- but then we lost touch. She thought she was being persecuted. She kept talking about finding protection, saying that evil was after her.”

Charlotte looks at Erik. “You look sad,” she says.

“My son is missing. Eva is our only clue.”

Charlotte’s expression is troubled. “I’m sorry, Erik. I hope you find him.”

“Do you know what her name is?” asks Joona.

“Her real name, you mean? She doesn’t tell anyone that; perhaps she doesn’t even know it herself.”

“OK.”

“But she called herself Veronica when she rang me.”

“Veronica?”

“It comes from the story of the veil of Veronica.”

They hug each other briefly, then Erik and Joona hurry back to the car. As they drive south, heading for Stockholm, Joona calls Anja to ask her to look for someone called Veronica in the centre of Åkersberga, and he requests an address for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, either their office or the Kingdom Hall. Erik half listens, his mind thick with exhaustion. He feels his eyes slowly begin to close.

“Yes, Anja, I’m writing it down,” he hears Joona say. “Västra Banvägen… hang on, Stationsvägen 5, all right, thanks.”