The Rabbit Hunter

81

The Chicago FBI is headquartered in a shimmering glass complex in a drab part of the city.

Saga is sitting with a Commissioner Lowe, in a conference room with a wall to wall blue and yellow carpet.

Saga has apologised and explained that she didn’t see anyone waiting for her at the airport, and that she assumed they would be meeting up after her visit to the treatment centre.

Since her visit to the rehab centre Saga has called Joona more than ten times, but his phone has been switched off.

It’s evening now, and the office is almost empty. A detective from Washington comes into the conference room and puts her bag down on the table. The short woman with black eyes and plaited hair has a deep furrow across her brow.

‘Special Agent López,’ she says in English, without a trace of a smile.

‘Saga Bauer.’

They shake hands and López unbuttons her jacket.

‘Our acting Defence Secretary was murdered in Sweden because you and your colleagues did such a terrible job.’

‘I’m sorry about that,’ Saga says.

‘What can you tell me about the terrorists?’ López asks, leaning back in her chair.

‘Speaking personally, I don’t think we’re dealing with terrorists. But obviously we’re following all possible lines of inquiry.’

López raises her eyebrows sceptically.

‘Such as coming here?’

‘Yes.’

‘What did you find?’

‘It’s way above my pay-grade to determine the extent to which I can share information—’

‘I don’t give a damn about that,’ López interrupts.

‘I need to speak to my boss,’ Saga says.

‘Go ahead.’

Saga gets out her phone and tries Joona again, and this time the call goes through.

‘Joona.’

‘At last,’ she says in Swedish.

‘Have you been trying to call?’ he asks.

‘I’ve left messages.’

‘My phone got wet,’ Joona explains.

Saga looks at the whiteboard containing the erased remnants of red, green and blue writing as she explains that she, as a Security Police agent, absolutely can’t tell him that Grace was subjected to a brutal gang rape in the Rabbit Hole.

‘She remembers the names of the perpetrators... William, Teddy Johnson, Kent, Lawrence and Rex Müller.’

‘Rex Müller?’ Joona says. ‘She named him?’

‘Yes,’ Saga replies, and smiles at López, who stares back at her blankly.

‘Which means that Rex has been identified both as a rapist and the man who’s avenging the rape.’

‘What? What are you talking about?’ Saga asks.

‘I’ve arrested Oscar von Creutz... I want to question him again, but he told me what happened and it’s pretty clear that Rex wasn’t part of it,’ Joona says. ‘They locked him in the stable while they raped his girlfriend. Oscar’s convinced that Rex is the person who’s started taking revenge on them.’

‘So Rex didn’t participate in the rape?’ Saga says.

‘No.’

López digs around in her bag and takes out dark lipstick.

‘And you don’t think he’s the murderer?’ Saga says.

‘He’s got enough money to pay someone to do it for him, but...’

‘None of this feels right,’ Saga concludes.

‘The murders have to be about what happened in the Rabbit Hole,’ Joona says. ‘We’ve got a spree killer who’s murdering the rapists one by one.’

‘But why?’

‘He must have been there.’

‘A witness?’

‘Something else,’ he says. ‘Something else must have happened, something we don’t know about, some unknown factor, a third element.’

‘Who could it be?’ she asks.

‘We’ve got a victim and the perpetrators... but something’s missing.’

‘What?’

‘That’s what we need to find out.’

‘I’ll talk to Grace, and you talk to Rex and Oscar,’ Saga says.

‘There’s no time to lose.’

Saga ends the call, puts her phone in her pocket and turns back towards López with a smile.

‘My boss says he’ll contact you tomorrow,’ she explains.

‘I understand Swedish,’ López says coolly in English.

‘Then you already know that,’ Saga replies, and gets up from her chair.

The corner of López’s mouth twitches at her own bluff, then she nods.

‘Your boss is going to say that you should tell us everything you know.’

‘I hope so,’ Saga says.

‘I’ll pick you up from your hotel after breakfast.’

‘Thanks,’ Saga says, and walks out of the conference room.

On the ground floor she hands her visitor’s badge back in at reception, then gets into her yellow car and starts to drive back to the exclusive rehab centre.

The traffic in the suburbs has died down and the rainy Chicago sky looks like dark-grey clay by the time Saga parks the car on Timberline Drive.

Five hundred metres away she can see the lights in the security lodge and the closed gates glinting in the floodlights’ sharp glare.

Visiting hours are long over, and the patients are probably all in bed.

She walks quickly along the road, but before she reaches the lights she jumps over the ditch and heads through the trees.

The only sounds are the rain dripping through the leaves, and her own footsteps on the grass and dead leaves.

She heads away from the security lodge, towards the fence, and holds the branches back as she tries to see through the trees.

There isn’t time to wait until morning, she needs to get in and talk to Grace immediately. Because regardless of whether the killer has been hired or is acting on his own behalf, he clearly intends to kill everyone on the list as efficiently as possible. Both his motives and modus operandi are emotionally charged, and all the evidence suggests that he has a warped and chaotic personality.

She wades through a grove of wet ferns, hears a shuffling sound behind her back, and looks up into the dark treetops to see a large bird moving through the upper branches.

Saga hurries on into the dense darkness before she sees light up ahead.

There’s no time to lose because this perpetrator has all the hallmarks of a spree killer.

Each murder is merely a step along the way, a small part of a final solution.

Saga emerges into an area where the trees have been cleared, and stops in front of the tall, black steel fence.

Every few metres signs warn that trespassing is forbidden, and list the name of the security company patrolling the area.

Saga runs over and grabs one of the thinner poles that make up the fence, puts her foot on a yellow sign that says ‘Security cameras in operation’, and heaves herself up, then jumps down on the other side.

A network of illuminated paths criss-crosses the park.

Saga runs between the trees and follows one of them beyond the reach of the lights.

If Grace hasn’t taken her medication, it might be possible to talk to her about what happened in the Rabbit Hole.

Saga approaches the buildings and slows down.

The lampposts cast a desolate glow over damp paths and wet park benches. The buildings are dark, their windows blind reflections.

Leaves drip and rustle behind her.

Someone is approaching. Saga steps back and sinks down behind the bushes.

It’s a man from the security firm, checking that the doors of one of the buildings are locked. Saga hears him report back over his radio before he moves on, out of sight.