Part 78 (2/2)

Jackie crouches down and hopes she's hidden behind something. She tries to breathe silently but her heart is pounding hard in her chest.

Nelly must have gone a different way, she thinks. Nelly knows the layout of the rooms, where the pa.s.sageways lead.

The knife-wound is hurting much more now, it feels oddly stiff and she's having trouble breathing. She can't help letting out a quiet cough, and feels warm blood trickle down her back.

Still crouching, she moves slowly forward, and hits something that sc.r.a.pes metallically. She lowers her hands and feels that it's a spade.

'Jackie,' Nelly calls.

She stands up cautiously and carries on along the wall, clicks her tongue and realises that there's an opening ahead on her left.

'Jackie?'

The echo of Nelly's voice hits the wall on the other side. Jackie stops to listen. All of a sudden she's sure: Nelly shouted in the wrong direction.

She can't see me, Jackie thinks.

It's so dark in here that she can't see me.

Nelly's blind.

Moving slowly now, Jackie bends over, picks up a small stone and throws it away from her. It hits a wall, bounces on to the floor and hits something.

She stands still and hears Nelly move towards the sound.

Jackie returns to the spade and carefully picks it up. The blade sc.r.a.pes the ground and Nelly stops, panting for breath.

'I can hear you!' Nelly says, with laughter in her voice.

Jackie moves closer and can smell her perfume. Step by step she puts her feet down on the floor and listens to the gentle crunch of the gravel.

Nelly moves backwards and walks into a bucket, which falls over with a clatter.

She can't see me, but I can see her, Jackie thinks as she gets closer, listening to Nelly's strained breathing and the smell of sweat through her perfume.

Jackie can clearly sense Nelly's billowing presence, hear the movement of the knife through the air, and sense the movement of her feet as she backs away another couple of steps.

She knows I'm here, but she can't see me, Jackie thinks again. She squeezes the handle of the spade, cautiously adjusts her grip, clicks with her tongue, and knows at once where the wall is, and where Nelly is standing.

Nelly is panting and stabbing quickly in different directions. The knife hits nothing but air and she stops.

She listens, her anxiety audible in her breathing.

Jackie approaches silently, feeling the heat radiating from Nelly's body. She follows the movements of the knife, then takes a step forward and strikes hard with the spade.

The heavy blade hits Nelly on the cheek with a short clang. Her head jerks sideways and she collapses onto her hip.

She roars with pain.

Jackie walks round her, listening to every movement, every breath.

Nelly is whimpering to herself and tries to stand up. Jackie strikes again, but the spade pa.s.ses close to Nelly's head, the metal merely pus.h.i.+ng through her hair.

Nelly gets to her feet and jabs with the knife. The point cuts into Jackie's lower arm. She backs away instinctively and walks into the bucket that Nelly hit earlier, then steps quickly to the side with her heart thudding. Her arm is stinging with pain from the cut, and blood is dripping down into her hand. Adrenalin is coursing through her, making the hairs on her arms stand up and she shakes the blood from her hand, wipes it on her skirt, and takes a fresh grip on the spade.

She approaches as silently as she can. She can hear Nelly crouching down and jabbing with the knife, and can feel the dampness of her exhaled breath. Without a sound, Jackie circles her, then changes direction and strikes with all the strength she can muster. The blow is ferocious. The spade hits the back of Nelly's head. Jackie hears her sigh and fall forward, without putting her hands out to break her fall.

She hits out again, and strikes Nelly across the head with a wet sound, and after that she doesn't hear anything.

Jackie backs away, panting. Her hands are shaking and she listens, but can't hear the sound of breathing. She approaches warily, pokes at Nelly with the spade, but her body is limp.

Jackie waits, hearing her own pulse thump in her ears. Then she jabs hard with the point of the spade, but there's no reaction.

Jackie is breathing fitfully, and anguish washes over her. Her stomach churns. She puts the spade down and moves closer to Nelly, her legs shaking beneath her. The steaming warmth of the body rises up towards her. Carefully she leans over until she can feel Nelly's back with her fingers. She's wearing a raincoat, the rough fabric squeaks beneath her fingers.

Erik said she had the key round her neck.

Jackie feels tentatively up her back to her neck, and feels that Nelly's hair is wet with warm blood.

Her fingers fumble clumsily inside Nelly's collar, feeling along her sticky neck until she finds a chain and tugs at it, but it won't come loose.

She needs to roll Nelly on to her back. She's heavy, and Jackie has to use both hands, and push with one leg.

The body rolls over and Jackie ends up sitting astride it. With her fingers shaking, she undoes the first b.u.t.ton at the neck of the raincoat, but stops when she hears a squelching sound, as if Nelly were moistening her mouth.

Jackie undoes another b.u.t.ton, and thinks she can hear little clicks, as though Nelly were blinking her dry eyelids.

Fear pulses through her head and she tears Nelly's dress open at the neck, grabs hold of the key on the chain, and starts to pull it over her b.l.o.o.d.y head.

136.

Joona has been following the signs to Rimbo, but he leaves road 280 at Vsby and is heading towards Finsta when Margot calls to tell him that Jackie and her daughter aren't in the flat at Lill-Jans plan. All the evidence suggests they've been abducted; there are traces of blood on the floor, all the way out into the stairwell. The door to the wardrobe has been smashed and on the wall inside the child had written 'the lady talks funny'.

Joona repeats several times that they have to find the house near Finsta, that's where she's taken Jackie and Madeleine. Erik is probably already there in his cage, or will be very shortly.

'Find the house that's the only thing that matters right now,' Joona says before they end the call.

He's pa.s.sed plenty of farms in the darkness along the way, and has seen agricultural premises and sawmills with chimneys of varying sizes.

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