The Sandman

158

Joona rings his own doorbell and smiles to himself as he hears footsteps on the floor. The lock rattles and the door swings open. He walks into the dimly lit hall and takes his shoes off.

‘You look completely wiped out,’ Disa says.

‘It’s nothing.’

‘Do you want something to eat? There’s some left... I can warm it up...’

Joona shakes his head and gives her a hug. He’s thinking that he’s too tired to talk now, but later he’ll ask her to cancel her trip to Brazil. There’s no need for her to go now.

She helps him get his clothes off and a load of sand falls on the floor.

‘Have you been playing in a sandpit?’ she laughs.

‘Only for a little while,’ he replies.

He goes into the bathroom and gets in the shower. His body feels sore as the hot water courses over him. He leans against the tiles as his muscles slowly start to relax.

The hand that was holding the gun as he pulled the trigger and shot an unarmed man is burning.

If I can get used to the thought of what I’m guilty of having done, I can be happy again, he thinks.

Even though Joona knows the Sandman is dead, even though he saw the bullets go straight through his body, even though he saw him tumble into the quarry like a corpse into a mass grave, he still went down after it. He slid down the steep slope, trying to stop himself going too fast, and made his way to the body. Keeping his pistol aimed at the back of the man’s head, he felt his neck with the other hand. The Sandman was dead. His eyes hadn’t deceived him. The three bullets had all passed straight through his heart.

The thought that he no longer has to fear Jurek’s accomplice is so warm and comforting that he can’t help letting out a groan.

Joona dries himself and brushes his teeth, then suddenly stops and listens. It sounds like Disa’s talking on the phone.

When he walks into the bedroom he sees that Disa’s getting dressed.

‘What are you doing?’ he asks, lying down on the fresh sheets.

‘My boss called,’ she says with a weary smile. ‘Apparently they’re filling in a pit out at Loudden. The ground is being cleared, but it sounds as if they’ve found a backgammon set. I’ve got to get out there and stop them at once, because if it really is—’

‘Don’t go,’ Joona begs, feeling his eyes prick with tiredness.

Disa hums to herself as she takes a folded sweater from the top drawer of the chest.

‘Have you started using my drawers?’ he mutters, closing his eyes.

Disa walks back and forth in the room. He hears her brushing her hair, then lifting her coat off the hanger.

He rolls onto his side and feels memory and dreams start to join up, like snowflakes.

The Sandman’s body tumbles down the steep slope and stops when it hits an old cooker.

Samuel Mendel scratches his head and says: ‘There’s nothing at all to suggest that Jurek Walter has an accomplice. But you have to stick a finger in the air and say.’