Free Stalker by Lars Kepler

anything later today?’
    ‘I think he’s going to realise what happened fairly quickly, but talking about it is another matter.’
    ‘So what happened? What did he say? He must have said something, surely?’
    ‘Yes, but—’
    ‘No fucking oath of confidentiality bollocks now,’ she interrupts. ‘I have to know, otherwise people will die.’
    Erik goes over to the window and leans on the sill. Far below a patient is standing smoking, thin and bent-backed in his hospital gown.
    ‘I took him back,’ Erik says slowly. ‘Into the house … it was rather complicated, because it was very recent, and full of fragments of terrible memories.’
    ‘But he saw everything … could he see everything?’
    ‘It was only to make him understand that he couldn’t have saved her.’
    ‘But he saw the murder scene, and his wife? Did he?’
    ‘Yes, he did,’ Erik replies.
    ‘So what did he say?’
    ‘Not much … he talked about blood … and the wounds to her face.’
    ‘Was she in a particular position? A posture with sexual implications?’
    ‘He didn’t say.’
    ‘Was she sitting up or lying down? How did her mouth look, where were her hands? Was she naked? Violated?’
    ‘He said very little,’ Erik replies. ‘It can take a long time to reach details of that sort …’
    ‘I swear, if he doesn’t start talking I’ll take him into custody,’ she says in a loud voice. ‘I’ll drag him off to headquarters and watch him like a hawk until—’
    ‘Margot,’ Erik interrupts in a friendly voice.
    She looks at him with a subdued expression, nods and breathes through her mouth, then pulls out a business card and puts it down on his desk.
    ‘We don’t know who his next victim’s going to be. It could be your wife. Think about that,’ she says, and leaves the room.
    Erik feels his face relax. He walks slowly back to his desk. The floor is starting to feel soft beneath his feet. As he sits down in front of his computer there’s a knock on the door.
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘That charming superintendent has left the building,’ Nelly says, peering round the door.
    ‘She’s only trying to do her job.’
    ‘I know, she doesn’t really seem too bad …’
    ‘Stop it,’ he says, but can’t help smiling.
    ‘No, but she was pretty funny,’ Nelly says and laughs.
    Erik rests his head on his hand and she turns serious and walks in, closes the door behind her and looks at him.
    ‘What is it?’ she asks. ‘What’s happened?’
    ‘Nothing,’ he replies.
    ‘Tell me,’ she insists, sitting down on the corner of his desk.
    Her red woollen dress crackles with static electricity against her nylon tights as she crosses her legs.
    ‘I don’t know,’ Erik sighs.
    ‘What’s up with you?’ she laughs.
    Erik stands up, takes a deep breath and looks at her.
    ‘Nelly,’ he says, and she can hear how empty his voice sounds. ‘I need to ask you about a patient … Before you started working here, Nina Blom put together a team for a complicated research project.’
    ‘Go on,’ she says, looking at him with obvious curiosity.
    ‘I know I outlined my cases to you, but this may not have been included, I mean …’
    ‘What’s the patient’s name?’ she asks calmly.
    ‘Rocky Kyrklund – do you remember him?’
    ‘Yes, hang on,’ she says tentatively.
    ‘He was a priest.’
    ‘Exactly, I remember, you talked about him quite a lot,’ she says as she thinks. ‘You had a file of pictures from the crime scene, and—’
    ‘You don’t remember where he ended up?’ he interrupts.
    ‘That was years ago,’ she replies.
    ‘He’s still inside, though, isn’t he?’
    ‘We’d better hope so,’ she replied. ‘He’d killed people, after all, hadn’t he?’
    ‘A woman.’ Erik nods.
    ‘That’s right, now I remember. Her whole face was destroyed.’

17
    Nelly stands behind Erik as he makes his way through the patient database on his computer. He types Rocky Kyrklund’s name, searches, and discovers that he was