Hidden in Snow (The ?re Murders, #1)(109)

Amanda regrets her hasty decision almost as soon as she leaves Ebba’s house. It is freezing cold; she starts shivering right away as she walks toward the E14.

Fucking Viktor. Why did he have to get so drunk? She’d really been looking forward to this evening, and he ruined everything.

She reaches the main road and heads east. Walking along the E14 is not particularly smart, but there isn’t much traffic at this time of night. She hopes someone will stop and offer her a ride—it’s so fucking cold.

A dark SUV approaches, and Amanda sticks up her thumb to let the driver know she wants a ride. It slows down, pulls into the rest stop up ahead. Amanda breaks into a run. The window opens.

“Going my way?”

Amanda smiles gratefully and opens the door to climb in. She immediately recognizes the man behind the wheel: his name is Bosse. Her dad knows him.

He looks at her, seems surprised. “Amanda Halvorssen?”

She nods. “Thanks for stopping—it’s super cold out there!” After a brief pause, she adds, “I live on Pilgrimsv?gen.”

She realizes she has dropped her scarf but doesn’t want to ask Bosse to turn around. She will retrace her steps in the morning, see if she can find it.

“Have you been to a party?” Bosse asks.

Amanda nods. “At my friend Ebba’s.”

She’s starting to feel sleepy. It’s warm in the car, and she’s had too much to drink.

Bosse keeps driving, doesn’t turn off for Amanda’s road.

“Sorry,” she says, pointing. “I live over there.”

“I know. But I need to talk to you about something.”

Amanda blinks. Like what?

“It’s almost as if fate has arranged this, so that you and I can have a little chat,” Bosse adds.

Amanda still doesn’t understand. “If you just drop me off, I can walk from here,” she ventures.

Bosse leaves the E14 and takes a narrow forest track.

Amanda tells herself not to be scared. “I need to get home,” she says, trying to sound calm.

Bosse doesn’t seem to hear. He doesn’t stop the car until they have traveled some distance into the forest. The click as he unfastens his seatbelt makes Amanda uncomfortable.

He turns to face her. The friendly expression has gone, replaced by something much darker.

“Apparently you’ve been talking to one of my girls,” he says.

At first Amanda doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Then she gets it, and her chest tightens. “Do you mean Zuhra?”

“She talks a whole lot of crap, you don’t want to listen to all the stuff she makes up.”

The truth becomes clear to Amanda.

She had thought that the man who was exploiting Zuhra was a real pig, a gangster—she could never have imagined that he was someone like Bosse. He’s an ordinary guy, a little bit older than her dad, with the same beer gut and sad clothes. She has seen him many times in the grocery store.

She remembers how terrified Zuhra was when she finally confided in Amanda about her life. She had big bruises on her arms, and tears poured down her cheeks.

Amanda promised to help her. She’s spent all week trying to work out what she should do.

She stares at Bosse in shock.

“Was it you who hit her?”

Bosse’s lips are compressed into a thin line. “She wouldn’t keep her fucking mouth shut.”

When Amanda looks into Bosse’s cold eyes, she understands why Zuhra is so terrified. She glances at the car door, but Bosse is one step ahead of her.

“I’ve locked it. Now listen to me, and listen carefully. You don’t say a word about Zuhra—not to anybody.

Understand?”

Amanda tries to swallow her fear. She nods.

“If you so much as mention her existence to a single person, I will punish her. Do you hear me? You won’t be the one to pay the price for your big mouth—it will be her, and it will be a lot worse than anything she’s experienced so far.”

Amanda nods again.

Tears spring to her eyes, but she dare not raise her hand to wipe them away. She hates the fact that he is making her feel so frightened.

She doesn’t want to give in.

She doesn’t want to become a victim like Zuhra.

Bosse looks calmer now.

“There you go, then,” he says with a smile that makes the hairs on Amanda’s arms stand on end. “It’s good that we’ve had this chat. I’m glad I saw you walking along the road.”

He turns to refasten his seatbelt, clearly pleased with himself.

Amanda hates him for that almost as much as she hates what he is doing to Zuhra.

How can Bosse use his physical strength against someone so vulnerable? Zuhra is an illegal immigrant in a foreign country where she can barely speak the language.

She is eighteen years old; she should be in school like Amanda, rather than being forced to clean for twelve hours a day.

Amanda feels a sudden surge of rage that makes her forget everything else.

The alcohol she has consumed gives her extra courage.

Bosse is an asshole.

He can’t tell her what to do. She has no intention of letting him have his own way. She is going to get out of this car, and he can’t stop her. She starts tugging at the door handle, yelling at the top of her voice, “Let me out, you fucking idiot!” When the door doesn’t open, she punches him on the shoulder as hard as she can. “I’m going to tell my dad! I’m going to tell him everything!”