Part 54 (1/2)

When the fourth video was received at National Crime, the system spun into action instantly, the way that it should.

One of the technicians was a good friend of Adam Youssef. He recognised Katryna on the film and issued immediate emergency information on the National Crime intranet, then called Adam.

To save time and maintain tactical efficiency, a so-called 'special event' was declared, and the various divisions within the police coordinated their efforts as rapidly as possible.

The alarm was sounded on police radio covering the Southern and Western Police Districts, as well as the City Centre, Nacka and Sdertrn.

The officer closest to Bultvgen 5 was a plain-clothes detective rather than a patrol car. He was on the scene just seven minutes after the video was received by the police.

93.

It feels like an eternity before Adam sees Margot again. She's walking slowly, holding the handrail, then stops with her hand round her stomach. Her nose is pale and her forehead is s.h.i.+ny with sweat as she walks towards him out in the street.

'Get those f.u.c.king handcuffs off,' she says with barely suppressed anger to the police officers.

They hurry to free Adam. He ma.s.sages his wrists and looks into her eyes, sees her dilated pupils and feels a wave of nausea rise in his stomach.

'What's going on?' he asks in a frightened voice.

She shakes her head, comes closer, glances quickly towards the house and then looks back at him again.

'Adam, I'm sorry, I can't tell you how sorry I am.'

'What for?' he asks stiffly, opening the car door.

'Sit down,' she says.

But he gets out of the car and stops in front of her, with a peculiar feeling of being completely weightless.

'Is it Katryna?' he asks. 'Just tell me. Is she hurt?'

'Katryna's dead.'

'I saw her in the doorway, I saw her ...'

'Adam,' she pleads.

'Are you sure? Have you spoken to the paramedics?'

She hugs him, but he pulls free, takes a step back, and sees some heavy blackberries swaying on a thin branch.

'I'm so terribly sorry,' she says again.

'You're sure she's dead? I mean, the ambulance ... what's the ambulance doing here if she's ...?'

'Katryna will stay here until the forensic examination of the scene is complete.'

'Is she in the hall? Can you tell me where she is?'

'In the boiler room, she must have hidden in the boiler room.'

Adam looks at her and the pain in his thigh is suddenly throbbing, all-encompa.s.sing. He watches all the police officers leave the house and gather for a debriefing over by the command vehicle.

A flash of insight pa.s.ses through his mind. His wife was almost safe, but he shot the police officer who was on his way out with her.

'I shot a colleague,' he says.

'Don't think about that now ... you're sleeping at mine tonight, I'll call the boss.'

She tries to take hold of his arm but he turns away.

'I need to be alone ... sorry, I ...'

The helicopter is hovering a short distance away, over the sports ground, it looks like.

'Did they get the preacher?' he asks.

'Adam, we're going to get him, he's in the area, we're deploying everything we've got, absolutely everything.'

He nods a few times, then turns away again.

'Just give me a moment,' he whispers, takes a few steps and picks at the branch of a bush.

'You have to stay here,' Margot says.

Adam looks at her for a few seconds, then begins to wander slowly out into the garden. He's holding his face, pretending to try to absorb what she's said, but he knows he needs to see Katryna, because he doesn't believe them, it can't be true, it isn't true, Katryna has nothing to do with this.

Adam starts walking round the house. The green hose is lying in the unmown gra.s.s. A swarm of gnats is visible in the s.h.i.+mmering blue light. It gets darker when he reaches the back of the house.

Adam sees himself as a black silhouette in the red dome of the round barbeque. He goes round the corner and sees that the cellar door is open. The rope has been cut. He goes inside. The lights are all on down there.

He can hear people walking about upstairs. A forensics officer is laying out walking plates.

Adam takes another step in, and that's when he sees Katryna in the cold neon light of the boiler room. She's sitting leaning against the boiler, and there's blood everywhere, on her sweatpants, her vest, the floor. Her hair is tucked behind one ear, but most of her face is gone, hacked off. Dark blood glints across the whole of her ribcage, and her left hand appears to be squeezing the fingers of her right hand.

Adam staggers backwards, hears the sound of his own breathing, knocks over a packet of was.h.i.+ng powder, stumbles over his own wellington boots, and emerges into the garden again.

He's gasping for breath, but can't get enough air into his lungs, and starts poking at his mouth.

Nothing is comprehensible any more.

The alarm was sounded half an hour ago, and now everything is irrevocable.