Part 80 (2/2)

Joona carries on and sees that Nelly has arranged her trophies from the victims in front of a mirror on a dressing-table.

It doesn't amount to much, just some bottles of nail-varnish, a lipstick from H&M and a red bra. On a pink plate lies the metal tongue-stud in the shape of Saturn, a hairclip and Susanna Kern's earrings, some false fingernails and a pearl necklace that's blackened with blood.

The torch goes out and Joona puts it down carefully on the floor.

He approaches the door to a bedroom with a sloping roof, moves slightly to one side and suddenly catches sight of Madeleine in the murky light.

She's lying on the floor next to a bed, in the middle of the room. Her mouth is covered with tape, and there's a pool of blood under her head.

Joona thinks that the little girl is the trophy Nelly took from Jackie.

She's breathing, but seems to be unconscious.

He can't see any sign of Nelly, but the door beside the bed is sticky with blood around its handle.

The room is rapidly filling with pale smoke, and Joona is aware that time is running out.

He glances quickly at the little girl, then aims his gun to the right and hurries forward.

The heavy axe comes towards him from the left. Joona has misread the room and sees the movement too late. He just manages to pull his head back, and the blade swings past his face and embeds itself deep in the wall.

The air fills with dust and plaster.

Nelly tries to yank the axe free, but Joona hits her from below across the face with the b.u.t.t of his pistol.

Her head flies back and saliva sprays from her mouth. She lands crookedly on her back and the floor seems to rock beneath her as black smoke billows from the gaps between the floorboards.

Joona stumbles backwards from the force of his own blow, and knocks over a chair holding some plastic hangers.

Nelly sits up and is suddenly beside Madeleine. Joona can't understand how it happened in less than a second.

The bed has moved.

Then he realises that he's been looking at a large mirror. The reflection made him think that Maddy was in the middle of the room, at a safe distance.

The fire crackles and hisses as it absorbs oxygen.

Holding his pistol by his side, Joona tries to get a grip on the room again. Large fragments of mirrored gla.s.s are leaning against the walls and furniture, throwing the perspective and making the room look very different.

Nelly's nose is bleeding, she's pulled the girl towards her and is clutching her tight. Smoke is swirling around them and Joona can't see if she's armed.

'Let the girl go,' Joona calls, moving cautiously closer.

Above the closed door to his left oily black smoke is filtering into the room. Pictures of Erik on the floor are curling up in the heat from below.

'Will you let the girl go?' Joona repeats.

'Yes,' she replies softly, but carries on holding her in her arms.

Madeleine opens her tired eyes and Nelly kisses her on the head.

'Nelly, we have to get out ... all of us. Do you understand?'

She nods weakly and looks into his eyes.

The door ahead of Joona flares up in a bright blue glow, and is suddenly surrounded by billowing flames that lap at the ceiling, leaving black marks behind them. The room beneath them is roaring and the entire house is creaking, as if great rocks were rubbing against each other.

'Can you help me?' she asks, without taking her eyes off him.

'Yes, I can,' he replies, trying to see what she's hiding by her hip.

She smiles at him oddly, almost devotedly, as if she were suddenly full of rea.s.suring certainty.

Sparks and sooty s.m.u.ts are drifting upwards on the hot-air currents and the cooler air is being sucked down towards the floor, closer to the fire. The dirty curtains in front of the window flare up as the flames coil around the fabric.

'What does the fire say?' she mutters, getting to her feet.

With unthinking harshness she pulls Madeleine up from the floor by her hair. The girl is frightened, there are tears running down her cheeks.

'Nelly,' Joona says again. 'We have to get out. I'll help you, but I-'

With a crash a large panel of the wall to the next room collapses on to the floor between them, plasterboard, torn wallpaper and wooden laths, all enveloped in black smoke. Tiny glowing sparks flicker in the grey fog above their heads.

'But I won't let you hurt the girl,' he finishes his sentence.

In one of the mirrors Joona sees that Nelly has pulled out a knife. She's holding Madeleine by the hair with her other hand, pulling it so hard that the girl is having to stand on tiptoe.

The floor is vibrating beneath their feet.

Heat is flooding in from the side now, and the collapsed door frame catches fire. Black smoke fills the room and the flames climb greedily towards the ceiling.

'Drop the knife you don't have to do this,' Joona cries, aiming his pistol towards the shape behind the flames.

He tries to move sideways, but can only just make out the yellow oilskin through the smoke and fire.

'It's never enough,' a very high child's voice says.

Joona's thoughts switch in a fraction of a second. At first he thinks it's Madeleine speaking, then the realisation that her mouth is taped shut makes him squeeze the trigger of his pistol instead.

He fires through the flames three times.

The bullets. .h.i.t Nelly in the middle of her chest, and in the mirror off to one side behind her Joona sees blood spurt out between her shoulder blades. The large mirror collapses beneath her and shatters on the floor.

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