Hidden in Snow (The ?re Murders, #1)(98)

It’s watertight.

Until someone like Hanna shows up and starts asking the wrong questions.

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107

It is six thirty-five by the time Kristina Risberg comes out and starts up the dark-gray Golf. Hanna had almost given up hope and was about to go home and call Lydia as arranged.

Now the adrenaline is coursing through her veins.

If she’s lucky, maybe Risberg will lead her further into the tangled web, possibly even to the boss? She really wants to help Zuhra and put those bastards behind bars.

According to Ebba, there were two more girls from Uzbekistan who were in the same situation.

This has to stop.

She follows Risberg, keeping her distance so that the other woman won’t realize she’s being tailed. The Golf drives through the center of Bj?rnen and turns off for the Copperhill district.

Risberg stops outside a dark-brown house. The lights are on inside, and suddenly Zuhra appears at the huge panoramic window.

Even from this distance Hanna can see how tired she is.

Her back is bent; her movements are slow. If she started as early as she did yesterday, then she has worked since seven o’clock this morning—that’s almost twelve hours.

Hanna would really like to rush in and take Zuhra away, but she can’t do that, because it would mean losing the chance of finding out who’s in charge. She forces herself to stay where she is and picks up her phone to get ready to take photographs.

Zuhra carries out her cleaning equipment and gets in the car, which immediately sets off. Hanna follows. The Golf signals left as they approach the E14, and enters the highway.

Is Risberg on her way back home to Unders?ker? No, she continues past the exit and carries on toward J?rpen.

Hanna is grateful for the darkness, which makes it more difficult for Risberg to tell if the same car is behind her the whole time.

After twenty minutes they reach J?rpen—is that the final destination?

The Golf slows down and turns left onto Skansv?gen, then right onto Skogsv?gen. Hanna is finding it increasingly tricky to keep her distance.

The stress makes her sweat in her warm padded jacket.

They pass a row of small single-story wooden houses, and eventually the Golf turns into Hjortronstigen. It is a cul-de-sac; Hanna notices the sign at the last minute and manages to brake before the corner.

She quickly kills the engine so that the headlights won’t be seen, then wriggles across to the passenger seat to try and see what’s going on.

The Golf has stopped outside a four-story apartment building. It looks run down; there is graffiti on the walls, and the light over the door is broken. The curtains are drawn at several windows, as if no one lives there anymore.

Zuhra gets out of the car, this time without any cleaning equipment. Hanna glances at the clock: seven fifteen. Zuhra disappears into the building, and the door closes behind her.

The Golf reverses and passes Hanna’s car, just as it did earlier in the day. She hopes Risberg won’t notice her.

After a few minutes, when she is sure that Risberg has gone, she gets out of the car, scurries over to the apartment building, and tries the door.

It isn’t locked.

She finds herself in a gray-painted entrance hall that is just as shabby as the outside. Once again there is graffiti on the walls, and several cigarette stubs on the floor. She looks in vain for a board listing residents’ names.

There are two apartments on the ground floor, so it is reasonable to assume that the same applies to each story.

Zuhra could live in any one of them. How is she going to find her?

Hanna peers at the nameplates on the two doors.

Neither seems to belong to a person from Uzbekistan, but then whoever is behind the operation would hardly have allowed Zuhra to rent the apartment in her own name.

She presses her ear to the first door, listens for sounds that might provide a clue. The television is on; it sounds like the news. There is only silence behind the second door; maybe no one lives there.

Hanna tries the next floor. She hears a child crying behind one door and a loud argument in the other apartment.

She goes up the stairs and thinks she can hear a man’s voice speaking to someone who answers quietly in English.

She tiptoes forward, puts her ear to the door.

Is that a woman crying?

The man’s voice grows louder and comes closer.

Hanna backs away and moves up the next staircase.

Suddenly the door opens, and Hanna just manages to keep out of sight. She catches a glimpse of a middle-aged white man. He hurries down the stairs as the apartment door slams shut behind him.

The sobs from inside are clearly audible now.

Hanna is almost certain that she recognizes Zuhra’s voice. Should she attempt to make contact now, or follow the man who stormed out?

She knows where to find Zuhra.

The man’s footsteps are still echoing in the stairwell.

Hanna races after him.

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108

It was quite some time before Daniel was able to return to ?re. The discussion with the prosecutor took forever, without leading to a concrete decision. Tobias Ahlqvist is insisting on more convincing evidence before he is prepared to sanction a search of Fredrik Bergfors’s house.

The information from Hanna about Amanda and Ebba’s part-time work is interesting. It points in a new direction and must be followed up. Hanna did a good job in getting Ebba to confide in her.