Hidden in Snow (The ?re Murders, #1)(104)
When he turns into Hanna’s street, he can see that the house is in darkness. He pulls up on the drive; the Mitsubishi he saw last time isn’t there. Just to be on the safe side, he gets out of his car and knocks on the door.
The wind is even stronger up here. The halyards on the neighbors’ flagpoles are flapping noisily; it sounds as if they are on the point of being ripped off. The cold freezes the back of his neck, and his facial muscles contract involuntarily.
He knocks repeatedly on the front door, but there is no answer. Then he goes around the back and tries to look in through the bedroom windows. Has Hanna gone to bed?
He uses the flashlight on his phone; the rooms are empty.
He gets back in his car. Where can she be? If she is sitting in a bar with a friend, then surely she would have called her sister, or at least answered her phone?
When his phone rings Daniel picks up immediately, hoping it is Hanna. However, it is the regional communications center.
“Yes?”
“I’ve just heard that one of your colleagues has been involved in a car accident,” the unfamiliar voice informs him. “Her name is Hanna Ahlander—I believe she’s based in ?re?”
Daniel’s stomach turns over. “What’s happened?”
“Apparently she came off the E14 between J?rpen and ?re. Someone called it in, and when a patrol car got there, they found her in the snow a short distance from the road.”
Daniel wedges the phone between his chin and shoulder as he starts the engine; he doesn’t want to lose any time. He pushes thoughts of Ida and Alice out of his mind as best he can. “Is she seriously injured?”
“I can’t tell you that, but an ambulance is on its way.
She mumbled your name.”
“Where is she now?” Anxiety makes him sound brusque.
“I’m afraid I don’t know.”
When Daniel reaches the E14, he ignores the red-and-white stop sign; he puts his foot down and hits the main road at such a speed that his back wheels skid.
The snowflakes in the beam of his headlights are whirling as fast as his thoughts. Hanna is a trained police officer; she knows how to drive safely.
And what was she doing on the road between J?rpen and ?re so late in the evening?
The dark fir trees whizz by as he increases his speed. If it was a serious accident, she could be badly hurt.
His anxiety is growing with every passing minute.
Daniel grits his teeth and drives as fast as he can.
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116
Harald can’t see any lights inside the house when he reaches the fence surrounding the yard.
He puts down the gas can and looks up at the dark facade. The family must be sleeping.
His daughter’s murderer is in there, and the reason for his wife’s attempted suicide. Fredrik even had to take his bitterness out on their dog. Ludde’s dead body is still lying in the garage, wrapped in a sack.
How low can a person sink?
His hand closes around the lighter in his pocket.
Fredrik will never get the chance to harm Harald’s family again.
Everything is going to burn to the ground.
Harald looks around to make sure he is still alone, then carries the can around to the back of the house. Slowly and methodically he unscrews the cap and begins to splash the red-painted walls with gasoline. The smell is so strong that his eyes fill with tears. He blinks and blinks, and in the end he doesn’t know if he is crying because of the fumes or his grief.
When he has finished, a substantial part of the facade is sodden, including the four balcony posts.
He steps back, stares at the upper floor.
A little voice says that he ought to wake Mira and little Leah, give them a chance to get out before the fire takes hold.
But then he thinks about Amanda.
His daughter wasn’t given a chance. Her dead, half-naked body was dumped on a chairlift for all to see.
She was left to freeze to death, alone in the winter night.
And yet he stands there with the lighter in his pocket, unable to bring himself to take it out.
He’s not like that, he’s not a murderer.
Then he sees Fredrik in his mind’s eye, his daughter’s killer, and his grip tightens.
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117
There is no missing the spot where the accident happened.
Several police cars are parked on the E14, and a tow truck is also on the scene. The flashing blue lights do not bode well.
Daniel can see the tire tracks disappearing into the dark forest. The thought that Hanna might have crashed into a tree makes him feel sick.
He leaps out of the car and hurries over to a police officer he recognizes.
“I heard about the accident—what happened to the driver?”
“The ambulance has taken her to ?stersund.”
“How was she?”
His colleague shakes her head. “Hard to say. She was unconscious, very cold, and her face was covered in blood.”
“But she’s alive?”
“Well, she was.”
The streets of ?stersund are deserted when Daniel gets there an hour later. He speeds through the town, parks in a no-park zone outside the hospital, and races toward the emergency department entrance.
There is a line of people waiting at reception. He produces his police ID and pushes his way to the front, ignoring the curious looks.