The Ice Child Read online

  ‘How did I go wrong?’ she said, turning to look at him. ‘I had such high hopes for you.’

  The snowy conditions forced him to keep his eyes on the road, so he spoke without looking at her.

  ‘You didn’t do anything wrong.’

  His words should have pleased her, or at least made her feel calmer. But instead she felt even more concerned. What should she have done if she’d known?

  ‘There’s nothing you could have done,’ he said, as if reading her mind. ‘I’m not like you. I’m not like anyone else. I’m … special.’

  His tone of voice betrayed no emotion, and she shivered.

  ‘I loved you. I hope you realize that. And I still love you.’

  ‘I know,’ he said calmly as he leaned forward to peer through the windscreen at the whirling snow. The wipers were doing their best, but they couldn’t keep up with the amount of snow coming down. He was driving so slowly that it felt like the car was only inching forward.

  ‘Are you happy?’ She wondered where the question came from, but it was meant with all sincerity. Had he been happy?

  ‘Up until now my life has probably been better than most people’s,’ he said with a smile.

  His smile gave her goose bumps. But no doubt that was true. He’d certainly had a better life than she’d had, at any rate. She had spent her days cowering and in terror of the truth she didn’t want to see.

  ‘Maybe we’re the ones who are right, and you’re the one who’s wrong. Have you ever thought of that?’ he added.

  She didn’t really understand what he meant. She had to think about it for a moment, and when she realized what he was saying, she was filled with sorrow.

  ‘No, Jonas. I don’t think I’m the one who’s wrong.’

  ‘Why not? You’ve now demonstrated that we’re not so different.’

  She grimaced at the thought, resisting the truth that might lie behind his words.

  ‘The most basic instinct in the world is for a mother to protect her child. There’s nothing more natural than that. Everything else is … unnatural.’

  ‘Is it?’ For the first time he turned to look at her. ‘I don’t agree.’

  ‘Could you just tell me what we’re going to do once we arrive?’ Helga tried to see as far ahead as she could on the road. But the darkness and the heavy snowfall made it impossible.

  ‘You’ll see when we get there,’ he said. Outside the car the snow continued to fall.

  Erica was in a bad mood when she got home. Her joy at having aided the investigation by providing some new information had been replaced by dissatisfaction because she wasn’t allowed to accompany the police out to the farm. She’d tried every possible argument to persuade Patrik, but he had stubbornly refused, so there was nothing for her to do but drive home. Now she would probably lie awake all night, wondering what was going on.

  Anna came into the hall from the living room to greet her.

  ‘Hi,’ said Erica. ‘How’d it go with the kids?’ Then she stared at her sister in surprise. ‘You look so happy. Did something happen?’

  ‘Yes, Dan came over. Thank you so much for talking to him.’ She put on her jacket and stuck her feet into her boots. ‘I think everything’s going to be fine now, but I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.’ She kissed Erica on the cheek and then headed out into the snowstorm.

  ‘Drive carefully! It’s really slippery out there!’ Erica called after her and then closed the door before too much snow blew inside.

  She smiled to herself. What if things were finally going to settle down for her sister? Thinking about Dan and Anna, she went into the bedroom to get a cardigan. Then she looked in on the children. They were all sound asleep, so she went to her study. She stood in front of the map for a long time, just staring at it. She knew she ought to go to bed, but the blue Xs were still baffling her. She could swear that they were somehow connected to everything else, but she couldn’t work out what the link could be. Why had Laila saved those newspaper clippings about the missing girls? What was her connection to all of this? And how did it happen that Ingela Eriksson and Victoria had exactly the same injuries? There were so many loose ends, but she had a feeling the answer was right in front of her, if only she could see it.

  Frustrated, Erica turned on her computer and sat down at her desk. The only thing she could do right now was to go through all the material she’d collected. She knew she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, so she might as well do something useful.

  She read page after page of her notes. She was grateful that she was in the habit of typing them into the computer. Otherwise later on she’d never be able to decipher her own scribblings.

  Laila. At the centre of everything was Laila. She was like a sphinx, silent and inscrutable. She held the answers, but she merely sat in silence, staring at life and her surroundings. Could she be protecting someone? If so, who and why? And why did Laila refuse to speak about what happened on that fateful day?

  Erica began reading methodically through all the transcripts of her conversations with Laila. In the beginning she was even less willing to speak than she was now. Erica had only scanty notes from those first meetings, and she remembered how strange it had felt to sit there with someone who hardly said a word.

  It was only when she had asked Laila about her children that she started to talk. She had avoided saying much about her poor daughter, so the conversation was mostly about Peter. As Erica continued to read, she recalled the mood in the room and Laila’s face when she spoke of her son. Her expression was brighter than usual, but also full of longing and sorrow. Her love for him was unmistakable. She described his soft cheeks, his laughter, his quiet manner, the way he lisped when he began to talk, the blond lock of hair that kept falling into his eyes, the …

  Erica abruptly stopped reading and went back to the last passage. She read it again, then closed her eyes to think. And suddenly everything fell into place. She’d found one of the important puzzle pieces that had been missing. It was a long shot, but plausible enough for a likely scenario to emerge. She had an urge to phone Patrik, but she decided to wait. She wasn’t positive. And there was only way to find out if she was right. Only Laila could confirm what she suspected.

  Patrik could feel the tension in the air as he got out of the car in the yard in front of Jonas and Marta’s house. Were they really about to find answers to all their questions? For some reason that frightened him. If the truth was as gruesome as he thought, this wasn’t going to be easy, either for him and his colleagues or for the families of the missing girls. Yet during his years on the police force he had learned that knowing was always better than not knowing.

  ‘We’ll fetch Jonas first.’ He had to shout to be heard over the howling wind. ‘Gösta, you take him back to the station and interview him while Martin and I search the house.’

  With their shoulders hunched against the cold, they went up the steps to the front door and rang the bell, but no one came to open the door. The car was gone, and it was unlikely that Jonas had gone to bed, now that Marta and Molly were missing. So after ringing the bell again, Patrik cautiously pushed down on the handle. The door wasn’t locked.

  ‘We’re going in,’ he said, and the others followed.

  No lights were on inside, and there wasn’t a sound. They quickly concluded that no one was home.

  ‘I suggest we search all the farm buildings as fast as we can to make sure Molly and Marta aren’t anywhere else on the property. Then we’ll come back here and do a more thorough search of the house. Torbjörn is on standby in case we need his team.’

  ‘Okay.’ Gösta looked into the living room. ‘I wonder where Jonas is?’

  ‘Maybe he went out to search for his wife and daughter,’ said Patrik. ‘Or else he knows exactly where they are.’

  They went back outside, and Patrik held on to the railing so he wouldn’t slip on the stairs, which were covered with a thick layer of new-fallen snow. He paused to survey the grounds. After a moment he dec
ided to wait to go over to Helga and Einar’s house. They might get worried and confused, and it was better to search the other buildings first in peace and quiet.

  ‘We’ll start with the stable, then Jonas’s clinic,’ he said.

  ‘Look over there. It’s open,’ said Martin, heading towards the long stable building.

  The door was swinging back and forth in the wind. Cautiously they went inside the stable, which was eerily quiet. Martin walked along the centre aisle, looking into the horse stalls.

  ‘It’s totally empty.’

  Patrik felt a hard knot starting to form in his stomach. Something was very wrong. What if they’d had the perpetrator under their very noses? What if he’d been in their district the whole time, and now they’d discovered everything too late?

  ‘By the way, have you phoned Palle?’ asked Gösta.

  Patrik nodded. ‘Yes, he’s been informed. They’re ready to send reinforcements if we need them.’

  ‘Good,’ said Gösta, opening the door to the riding arena. ‘It’s empty in here too.’

  In the meantime Martin had checked the common room and feed room, and now he came back to the stable.

  ‘Okay, let’s go over to the clinic,’ said Patrik. He stepped outside into the cold, with Gösta and Martin close behind. The snow felt like tiny needles striking their cheeks as they dashed back to the house.

  Gösta tried the clinic door. ‘It’s locked.’

  He cast an enquiring glance at Patrik, who nodded. With ill-concealed glee, Gösta backed up a few steps, then launched himself forward to kick at the door. He repeated the manoeuvre several times, and finally the door flew open. Considering the type of substances stored in the clinic, the place was far from burglar proof, and Patrik couldn’t hold back a smile. It wasn’t every day that he got to see Gösta practising Kung-fu.

  It was a small place, and the search didn’t take long. Jonas wasn’t there. Everything was neat and tidy, except for the medicine cabinet, which stood open. Some of the shelves inside were bare.

  Gösta studied the contents. ‘He seems to have taken a lot with him.’

  ‘Damn it,’ said Patrik. It was extremely worrisome to think that Jonas had fled with ketamine and other substances that were now missing from the cabinet. ‘Do you think he might have drugged his wife and daughter and then kidnapped them?’

  ‘What a sick devil that guy is.’ Gösta shook his head. ‘How could he seem so normal? That’s almost the worst thing of all. The fact that he was so … pleasant.’

  ‘Psychopaths can fool anyone,’ said Patrik. He went back out into the night after casting one last look at the clinic.

  Martin was shivering as he followed. ‘Where should we look next? His parents’ house or the barn?’

  ‘The barn,’ said Patrik.

  They ran as fast as they dared across the slippery yard.

  ‘We should have brought torches with us,’ said Patrik when they went inside the barn. It was so dark they could hardly make out the cars that were parked inside.

  ‘Sure. Or we could just turn on a light,’ said Martin, pulling a string on the wall.

  A faint, ghostly light illuminated the big space. Here and there snow was coming in through gaps in the wall, yet it seemed slightly warmer in the barn because they were at least out of the biting wind.

  Martin shuddered. ‘It looks like some sort of car graveyard.’

  ‘No, not at all. These are amazing cars. With a little love and attention they’d be worth a lot of money,’ said Gösta, running his hand over the bonnet of a Buick.

  He began walking among the cars as he took a look around. Patrik and Martin did the same, and a few minutes later they concluded that there was nothing to find in here either. Patrik was feeling discouraged. Maybe they needed to put out an All Points Warning for Jonas. Clearly he wasn’t here, unless he happened to be hiding in his parents’ house. But Patrik didn’t think so. He assumed that only Helga and Einar were asleep over there.

  ‘We’re going to have to wake up his parents,’ said Patrik, pulling the string to turn off the light.

  ‘How much should we tell them?’ asked Martin.

  Patrik paused to consider. It was a relevant question. How should he tell the parents that their son was probably a psychopath who had kidnapped and tortured young girls? That wasn’t something they’d taught him to deal with at the police academy.

  ‘We’ll play it by ear,’ he said at last. ‘They know we’re looking for Marta and Molly, and now Jonas is missing too.’

  Once again they crossed the windswept yard. Patrik knocked loudly on the front door. When nothing happened, he tried again. A light switched on upstairs, possibly in the bedroom. But no one came to open the door.

  ‘Shall we go in?’ asked Martin.

  Patrik tried the door. It was open. Sometimes it made things easier for the police that people who lived out in the country seldom locked their doors. He stepped into the front hall.

  ‘Hello?’ he shouted.

  ‘Who the hell is that?’ an angry voice yelled from upstairs. They quickly assessed the situation. Einar must be home alone, and that was why no one had opened the door.

  ‘Police officers. We’re coming up.’ Patrik signalled for Gösta to follow him as he said in a low voice to Martin, ‘Take a look around while we talk to Einar.’

  ‘I wonder where Helga is,’ said Martin.

  Patrik shook his head. He was wondering the same thing. Where was Helga?

  ‘We’ll have to ask Einar,’ he said and hurried upstairs.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing, waking people up in the middle of the night like this!’ snarled Einar. He was partly sitting up in bed, wide awake. His hair was tousled, and he wore only a white undershirt and underpants.

  Patrik ignored his question. ‘Where’s Helga?’

  ‘She’s asleep over there.’ Einar pointed at a closed door across the hall.

  Gösta went to open the door and peered inside. Then he shook his head. ‘Nobody’s there, and the bed hasn’t been slept in.’

  ‘What? Where the hell is she? Helgaaa!’ bellowed Einar, his face turning red.

  Patrik stared at him. ‘So you don’t know where she is?’

  ‘No. If I did, I would have told you. Why is she out running around?’ A trickle of saliva ran out of his mouth and on to his chest.

  ‘Maybe she went out to look for Marta and Molly,’ Patrik suggested.

  Einar snorted. ‘I can’t believe what a fuss everybody’s making. I’m sure they’ll turn up on their own. It wouldn’t surprise me if Marta got upset about something Jonas did or didn’t do, and she decided to leave for a while and take Molly with her, just to punish him. That’s the sort of childish things women always do.’ His words dripped with scorn, and Patrik had to restrain himself from speaking his mind.

  ‘So you don’t know where Helga is?’ he repeated patiently. ‘Or where Molly and Marta are?’

  ‘No! I told you I don’t know!’ shouted Einar, punching the covers with his fist.

  ‘What about Jonas?’

  ‘Is he missing too? No, I don’t know where he is either.’ Einar rolled his eyes, but Patrik noticed that he cast a quick glance out of the window.

  A feeling of great calm came over him, as if he’d suddenly landed in the eye of the storm. He turned to Gösta.

  ‘I think we need to do another search of the barn.’

  A mouldy and clammy smell filled her nostrils. Molly felt as if she were going to suffocate in the stifling air, and she swallowed hard to rid her mouth of the musty taste. It wasn’t easy to stay calm the way Marta wanted.

  Once again Molly asked, ‘Why are we here?’ as she stared into the darkness.

  And again she got no answer.

  ‘Don’t waste your energy,’ Marta finally said.

  ‘But we’re being held prisoner! Somebody has locked us up in here, and it must be the same person who took Victoria. I heard what happened to her. I don’t understand why you’
re not scared.’

  She could hear how weak her voice sounded, and she began to sob as she rested her head on her knees. She felt the chain tighten, and she moved closer to the wall so the shackle wouldn’t cut into her ankle.

  ‘It wouldn’t do any good,’ said Marta. That was the same thing she’d repeated for the past few hours.

  ‘But what are we going to do?’ Molly yanked on the chain. ‘We’re going to starve to death and then rot in here!’

  ‘Don’t be so dramatic. We’ll get help.’

  ‘How can you know that? We’re still here and nobody has come to help us.’

  ‘I’m convinced that things will work out. And I’m not a spoiled brat who’s used to having everything served to her on a platter,’ snapped Marta.

  Molly started crying again. Even though she knew that Marta didn’t love her, it was hard to understand how she could be so unaffected in such a horrible situation.

  ‘Maybe that was a bit harsh,’ said Marta in a gentler tone of voice. ‘But there’s no point in screaming and crying. It’s better if we save our energy while we wait for someone to come and help us.’

  Molly fell silent, feeling placated. That was as close to an apology as Marta was capable of.

  For a while neither of them spoke, but then Molly gathered her courage. ‘Why have you never loved me?’ she asked quietly. She had wanted to ask that question for such a long time, but she’d never dared. Now, in the shelter of darkness, it suddenly didn’t seem as frightening to say the words.

  ‘I was never suited to be a mother.’

  ‘Then why did you have a child?’

  ‘Because that’s what your father wanted. He wanted to see himself in a child.’

  ‘So did he wish you’d had a boy instead?’ Molly was amazed at her own boldness. All these questions that she’d held inside like tiny, tightly wrapped packages were now being opened. And she spoke without feeling hurt, as if the answers had nothing to do with her. She just wanted to know.

  ‘I supposed he did before you arrived. But after you were born, he was just as happy to have a daughter.’

  ‘That’s great to hear,’ said Molly sarcastically, though she didn’t mean to complain.