The Sandman

171

It’s still a long time before dawn when Saga reaches the manor. The old house is nestled in the cold and the depths of the dark morning. There’s only one light visible, in a window on the ground floor.

Saga gets out of the car and walks across the drive, shivering. The snow is untouched and the darkness stretching off over the fields is ancient.

There aren’t even any stars twinkling in the night sky.

The only sound comes from an open stretch of water nearby.

She approaches the house and sees a man sitting at the kitchen table with his back to the window. There’s a book on the table next to him. He’s drinking slowly from a white cup.

Saga carries on across the snow-covered gravel, up the stone steps to the big front door, and rings the bell. A short while later the door is opened by the man who had been sitting in the kitchen.

It’s Reidar Frost.

He’s wearing striped pyjama trousers and a white T-shirt. He’s got white stubble, and the look on his face is exhausted and brittle.

‘Hello, my name’s Saga Bauer, I work for the Security Police.’

‘Come in,’ he says in a voice that’s close to breaking.

She takes a couple of steps into the dimly lit hall with its broad staircase leading to the upper floor. Reidar moves backwards. His chin has started to tremble and he puts one hand to his mouth.

‘No, not Felicia, not—’

‘We’ve found her,’ Saga says quickly. ‘She’s alive, she’s going to be all right...’

‘I... I have to...’

‘She’s seriously ill,’ Saga explains. ‘Your daughter has advanced Legionnaires’ disease, but she’s going to be OK.’

‘She’s going to be OK,’ Reidar whispers. ‘I have to go, I have to see her.’

‘She’s being moved from intensive care to the infectious diseases unit at seven o’clock.’

He looks at her with tears trickling down his cheeks.

‘Then I’ve got time to get dressed and wake Mikael and...’

Saga follows him through the rooms to the kitchen she saw through the window a few minutes before. The ceiling-light is casting a pleasant glow over the table with the coffee cup on it.

The radio is on, playing gentle piano music.

‘We’ve been trying to call,’ she says. ‘But your phone—’

‘That’s my fault,’ Reidar says, wiping the tears from his cheeks. ‘I’ve had to start switching the phone off at night, I don’t know, so many crazy people keep calling with tip-offs, people who...’

‘I understand.’

‘Felicia’s alive,’ Reidar says tentatively.

‘Yes,’ Saga says.

His face cracks into a broad grin, and he looks at her with bloodshot eyes. It appears he’s going to ask her again, but he just shakes his head and smiles. He picks up a large pot of coffee from the black stove and pours a cup for Saga.

‘Some warm milk?’

‘No thanks,’ she says, taking the cup.

‘I’m just going to wake Mikael...’

He starts to walk towards the hall, but stops and turns back to look at her.

‘I have to know... Have you caught the Sandman?’ he asks. ‘The man Mikael calls the—’

‘He and Jurek are both dead,’ Saga says. ‘They were twin brothers.’

‘Twin brothers?’

‘Yes, they were working togeth—’

Suddenly the light in the ceiling goes out and the music on the radio goes quiet. It’s pitch-black and silent.

‘Power cut,’ Reidar mutters, trying the switch a couple of times. ‘I’ve got candles in the cupboard.’

‘Felicia was locked up in an old bomb shelter,’ Saga explains.

After a while the glow of the snow outside starts to penetrate the darkness of the kitchen, and Saga can see Reidar feeling his way towards a large cupboard.

‘Where was the shelter?’ he asks.

Saga hears a rattling sound as Reidar searches a drawer.

‘In the old quarry out in Rotebro,’ she replies.

Saga sees him stop, take a step back and turn round.

‘That’s where I’m from,’ he says slowly. ‘And I remember the twins. I don’t know why, but it must have been Jurek Walter and his brother... I played with them for a few weeks when I was little... but why, why have...’

He falls silent and just stands there, staring into the darkness.

‘I’m not sure there are any answers,’ she says.

Reidar finds some matches and lights a candle.

‘I lived fairly close to the quarry as a child,’ he says. ‘The twins were a year or so older than me. They were just sitting in the grass behind me one day when I was fishing for roach... in the river that runs into Edssjön...’

Reidar takes an empty wine bottle from under the sink, pushes the lit candle into it and sets it on the table.

‘They were a bit odd... But we started to play, and I went back home with them. I remember it was spring, and I was given an apple...’

The light from the candle spreads through the room, making the windows black and impenetrable.

‘They took me to the quarry,’ Reidar goes on, evidently remembering as he speaks. ‘It was out of bounds, but they’d found a hole in the fence and we’d meet to play there every evening. It was exciting, we would clamber up the mounds and roll down in the sand...’

Reidar falls silent.

‘What were you about to say?’

‘I’ve never thought about it, but one evening I heard them whispering to each other, then they just vanished... I rolled down and was about to go looking for them when the foreman suddenly appeared. He grabbed me by the arm and began shouting... you know, saying he’d tell my parents and all that... And I was terrified, said I didn’t know it was out of bounds, that the boys had said we could play there... and he asked about the boys and I pointed to the house...’

Reidar lights another candle from the first. The light bounces off the walls and ceiling. A smell of wax spreads through the kitchen.

‘I never saw the twins again after that,’ he says, then leaves the kitchen to go and wake Mikael.