Part 63 (1/2)

Rocky extends the baton again and walks backwards behind Joona towards the airlock.

The officer who was sitting in the security command centre hurries over. His task now is to slow things down and delay the escape for as long as possible.

'I can't let you out,' he says. 'But if you give yourselves up, then-'

'Look at your colleague,' Joona interrupts.

Arne whimpers as Joona pulls the ends of the metal outwards. The noose tightens around his neck and blood starts to trickle down his dark sweater. He tries to hold the metal back with his hands, but stands no chance.

'Stop!' the security officer yells. 'For G.o.d's sake, stop!'

Arne stumbles sideways, into a display of information for visitors, sending brochures falling to the ground around him.

'I'll let him go when we get outside,' Joona says.

'OK, everyone move back,' the security officer says. 'Let them through, let them go.'

They pa.s.s through the bleeping metal detector. Prison officers and other staff get out of the way. One officer is recording everything on his mobile phone.

'Forward,' Joona says.

Arne whimpers quietly as they approach the exit.

'Oh, G.o.d,' he whispers, holding his left arm.

A dog is barking frantically on the other side of the security airlock, as guards rush outside the gla.s.s doors to get into formation.

'Let them through!' the security officer calls, following them out through the airlock. 'I'll come with you, make sure you get out.'

He pulls out his card, taps in the code and opens the door.

'Who the h.e.l.l are you, really?' he gasps, looking at Joona Linna.

Outside the prison the sun is s.h.i.+ning, the sky is a radiant blue above them as they walk across the paved entrance area towards Joona's grey Porsche.

Joona walks round the vehicle and pushes Arne to the ground, and apologises as he fastens the other handcuff to the metal fence behind the car. The security officer stands and watches them as the prison guards mill about inside the gla.s.s doors only a dozen metres away from them.

Joona gets in quickly and starts the car.

Before Rocky has time to close the door he drives over the kerb, down the gra.s.s slope, past the cement blocks and out on to the road, where he accelerates hard towards the forest where the old Volvo is waiting.

109.

Nestor was taken to the Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge, where a team operated on him and managed to stop the bleeding. Nestor was lucky, his condition is already stable, and he's been moved from the Intensive Care Unit.

Margot has put two uniformed officers outside the post-operative care unit.

Nestor is conscious again, but in a state of severe shock. He's being given extra oxygen through a tube in his nose, and the saturation of his blood is under constant monitoring. A pleural drain has been inserted above his diaphragm, and bubbly blood is running out through the tube.

Nelly has spoken to Nestor's consultant and has suggested a low-level sedative out of consideration for his medical history.

Nestor cries the whole time Margot tries to explain the chain of events from the police's point of view, up to the storming of his flat.

'But Erik wasn't there so where was he?' she asks.

'I d-don't know,' Nestor sobs.

'Why did you call and say that ...'

'Nestor, you have to understand that none of what happened is your fault, it was just an accident,' Nelly says, holding his hand.

'Has Erik been in touch with you at all?' Margot asks.

'I d-don't know,' he repeats, staring past her.

'Of course you know.'

'I d-don't want to talk to you,' he says quietly, and turns his face away.

'What line of work are you in?' Margot asks, taking a ham sandwich out of her large bag.

'I'm retired ... but I d-do a bit of gardening work ...'

'Where?'

'For the council ... d-different places,' he says.

'Do you have a lot of trouble with weeds?' Margot asks.

'Not really,' he says, looking curious.

'Stinging nettles?'

'No,' he says, picking at a tube.

'Nestor,' Nelly says gently. 'You've probably worked out that Erik and I are good friends ... and like you I think it would be best for him to hand himself in to the police.'

Tears well up in Nestor's eyes again, and Margot goes over to the window so she doesn't have to watch him cry.

'I'm riddled with b-bullets,' he says in a loud voice, and puts his hand on top of the bandage covering the wound in his chest.

'It was a terrible accident,' Nelly says.