Part 47 (1/2)

'G.o.d, no, not Natalia!' she cries. 'She promised ...'

She grabs hold of the handle of the fridge, and the door swings open as she falls, dislodging a shelf full of ketchup and jam. Nelly hurries across to her and holds her slender shoulders.

'Nje maja ciastra,' she gasps. 'Nje maja ciastra ...'

She curls up in Nelly's lap and tries to hold her hand over her mouth as she cries, screaming into her palm and shaking uncontrollably.

After a while she calms down and sits up, but she's still breathing unevenly between sobs. She wipes her tears and clears her throat weakly, trying to control her breathing.

'Did someone hurt her?' she asks in a ragged voice. 'Did they hit her, did they hit Natalia?'

Her face contorts again as she tries to hold her tears back, but they run down her cheeks.

Joona takes some napkins from a pack on the worktop and hands them to her, then pulls a chair over and sits down in front of her.

'If you know anything at all, it's very important that you tell us,' he says sternly.

'What could I know?' she says, looking at them in confusion.

'We're just trying to find the person who did this,' Nelly says, brus.h.i.+ng the hair from Irina's face.

'You spoke to your sister on the phone,' Joona goes on. 'Did she tell you where she lived, or what her job was?'

'There are those men who trick girls from poor countries, who say they're going to get good jobs, but Natalia was smart, she said it wasn't anything like that, that it was real. She promised me, but I've been to the furniture factory ... no one there had heard of Natalia, durnaja dziautjynka ... They're not employing anyone, haven't done for years.'

Her eyes are red from crying, and tiny red spots have appeared on the fair skin of her forehead.

'What's the name of the factory?' Erik asks.

'Sofa Zone,' she says blankly. 'It's out in Hgdalen.'

Nelly remains seated on the floor with Irina, stroking her head and promising to stay with her for as long as she wants. Erik exchanges a quick glance with Nelly, then walks back out through the noisy kitchen with Joona.

80.

Margot Silverman is sitting in front of a computer in the investigation room, looking at Erik's recording of Rocky's hypnosis again.

His large head is drooping forward as he describes his visit to the Zone in a languid voice. He talks about the dealers and strippers, and the fact that he thought he could pick up some money there.

As Margot listens her eyes drift along the walls of the room. The victims' patterns of movement are marked in three different colours on the large map.

Every place, every street where they could have come into contact with the preacher is marked.

On the screen, Rocky shakes his head as he says that the preacher smells of fish-guts.

Margot sees the pin in the map marking Rebecka Hansson's home in Salem.

Serial killers usually stick to their home patch, but in this case the locations are spread out across the most densely populated metropolitan district in Scandinavia.

'The preacher snorts back some snot, then starts to speak in a really high voice,' Rocky says, breathing unevenly.

Margot shudders, and watches the big man squirm on his chair and howl with angst as he describes the way the preacher cuts the woman's arm off.

'It sounds like when you stick a spade into mud ...'

After the discovery out in Skogskyrkogrden, no one doubts that the preacher is the serial killer that they're all looking for.

She knows it was Joona who persuaded Nils hlen to order the body to be exhumed. It would have been much easier if she could work with Joona openly, but Benny Rubin and Petter Nslund are backing up Adam, resisting his involvement.

Margot doesn't have the authority to let Joona join the investigation, but she's sure as h.e.l.l not going to stop him from conducting his own inquiries.

Rocky shakes his head and his shadow moves across the glossy Playboy pinup on the wall behind him.

'The preacher chops her arm off at the shoulder,' Rocky gasps. 'Loosens the tourniquet and drinks ...'

'Listen to my voice now,' Erik says.

'And drinks the blood from her arm ... while Tina lies bleeding to death on the floor ... Dear G.o.d in heaven ... Dear G.o.d ...'

Inside Margot's womb the baby moves so violently that she has to lean back and close her eyes for a while.

The preliminary investigation is proceeding systematically according to established routines, but no one really believes that's going to produce results in time.

The police have knocked on doors and questioned many hundreds of neighbours, they've examined all the footage from surveillance and traffic cameras around the crime scenes.

Unless Rocky returns to Karsudden Hospital soon, so that Erik can question him properly, they'll have to make a public appeal for information about him.

Margot switches the video off, and has a strong feeling that she's being watched, so gets up and closes the curtains over the window looking out on to the park.

She opens her bag and takes out her powder compact, looks at herself in the little mirror, and puts some more powder on. Her nose has got s.h.i.+ny and the rings under her eyes look darker. She reapplies her lipstick, blots her lips on a letter from the National Police Board, adjusts her hair, then calls Jenny on Skype.

She can see herself on the screen, and as the call is connected she undoes one b.u.t.ton on her blouse and moves backwards slightly so that her cheeks are framed better.

Jenny answers almost immediately. She looks cross but attractive, with her messy black hair tumbling over her thin shoulders. She's wearing a washed-out vest and the little golden heart is s.h.i.+mmering against her neck.

'Hi, baby,' Margot says quietly.

'Have you caught the bad guy yet, then?'

'I thought I was the bad guy?' Margot says.

Jenny smiles and stifles a yawn.

'Did you call the bank about that ridiculous charge?'