The Sandman

53

Joona turns gently into the Q-Park garage, takes a ticket, then drives down the ramp and parks. He remains seated in the car as a man from the carpet warehouse above gathers up shopping trolleys.

When he can’t see anyone else in the car park, Joona gets out of the car and goes over to a shiny black van with tinted windows, opens the side door and climbs in.

The door closes silently behind him and Joona says a muted hello to Carlos Eliasson, chief of the National Police, and the head of the Security Police, Verner Zandén.

‘Felicia Kohler-Frost is being held in a dark room,’ Carlos begins. ‘She’s been there more than ten years, together with her older brother. Now she’s entirely alone. Are we going to abandon her? Say she’s dead and leave her there? If she’s not ill, she could live another twenty years or so.’

‘Carlos,’ Verner says in a soothing voice.

‘I know, I’ve lost all detachment.’ He smiles, raising his hands apologetically. ‘But I really do want us to do absolutely everything we can this time.’

‘I need a large team,’ Joona says. ‘If I can have fifty people we can try to pick up all the old threads, every missing-person case. It might not lead to anything, but it’s our only chance. Mikael never saw the accomplice, and he was drugged before he was moved. He can’t tell us where the capsule is. Obviously we’re going to carry on talking to him, but I simply don’t believe he knows where he’s been kept for the past thirteen years.’

‘But if Felicia is alive, then she’s probably still in the capsule,’ Verner says in his deep voice.

‘Yes,’ Joona agrees.

‘How the hell are we going to find her? It’s impossible,’ Carlos says. ‘No one knows where the capsule is.’

‘No one apart from Jurek Walter,’ Joona says.

‘Who can’t be questioned,’ Verner says.

‘No,’ Joona replies.

‘He’s utterly psychotic, and—’

‘No, he was never that,’ Joona interrupts.

‘All I know is what it says in the forensic medical report,’ Verner says. ‘They wrote that he was schizophrenic, psychotic, prone to chaotic thinking and extremely violent.’

‘Only because that’s what Jurek wanted it to say,’ Joona replies calmly.

‘So you think he’s healthy? Is that what you mean, that there’s nothing wrong with him?’ Verner asks. ‘What the hell is this? Why wasn’t he interrogated, then?’

‘He was sentenced to solitary confinement,’ Carlos says. ‘In the verdict of the Supreme Court—’

‘It must be possible to get round the terms of the sentence,’ Verner sighs, stretching out his long legs.

‘Maybe,’ Carlos says.

‘And I’ve got some very skilled people who’ve interrogated people suspected of terrorist—’

‘Joona’s the best,’ Carlos interrupts.

‘No, I’m not,’ Joona responds.

‘It was you who tracked down and apprehended Jurek, and you’re actually the only person he spoke to before his trial.’

Joona shakes his head and looks out at the deserted garage through the tinted window.

‘I’ve tried,’ he says slowly. ‘But it’s impossible to fool Jurek. He isn’t like other people, he isn’t unhappy, he doesn’t need sympathy, he won’t say anything.’

‘Do you want to try?’ Verner asks.

‘No, I can’t,’ says Joona.

‘Why not?’

‘Because I’m frightened,’ he replies simply.

Carlos looks at him uncertainly.

‘I know you’re only joking,’ he says nervously.

Joona turns to face him. His eyes are hard, and as grey as wet slate.

‘Surely we’ve no reason to be scared of an old man who’s already locked up,’ Verner says, scratching his head slightly nervously. ‘He ought to be scared of us. For God’s sake, we could rush in, pin him down on the floor and scare the shit out of him. I mean, seriously fucking tough.’

‘It won’t work,’ Joona says.

‘There are methods that always work,’ Verner goes on. ‘I’ve got a secret group who were involved in Guantanamo.’

‘Obviously, this meeting has never taken place,’ Carlos says hurriedly.

‘I very rarely have meetings that have,’ Verner says in his deep voice, then leans forward. ‘My group knows all about waterboarding and electric shocks.’

Joona shakes his head. ‘Jurek isn’t scared of pain.’

‘So we just give up?’

‘No,’ Joona says, leaning back and making his seat creak.

‘So what do you think we should do?’ Verner asks.

‘If we go in and talk to Jurek, the only thing we can be sure of is that he’ll be lying. He’ll steer the conversation and once he’s found out what we want with him, he’ll get us to start bargaining, and we’ll end up giving him something we’ll only regret.’

Carlos looks down and scratches his knee irritably.

‘So what does that leave us with?’ Verner asks quietly.

‘I don’t know if it’s even possible,’ Joona says. ‘But if you could place an agent as a patient in the same secure psychiatric unit as—’

‘I don’t want to hear any more,’ Carlos interrupts.

‘It would have to be someone so convincing that Jurek would want to talk to them,’ Joona goes on.

‘Bloody hell,’ Verner mutters.

‘A patient,’ Carlos whispers.

‘Because it would be enough to have someone who might be useful to him, someone he could exploit,’ Joona says.

‘What are you saying?’

‘We need to find an agent who’s so exceptional that they can make Jurek Walter curious.’