Joona Linna Crime Series Books 1 and 2: The Hypnotist, The Nightmare. Lars Kepler

and placed the barrel in her mouth, but she changed her mind; she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

      When he’d spied her on the edge of the trees, she was on her way back to the cottage, on her way back to the alternative from which she had wanted to escape.

      Erik picks up the phone and calls Joona.

      “Erik? I was going to call you, but there’s been so much—”

      “It doesn’t matter,” says Erik. “Listen, I’ve got—”

      “I just want to say how sorry I am about all this business with the media. I promise to track down the leak when things calm down.”

      “It doesn’t matter.”

      “I feel guilty, because I was the one who persuaded you to do it.”

      “I made my own decision. I don’t blame anyone else.”

      “Personally, even though we’re not allowed to say so at the moment, I still think hypnotising Josef was the right thing to do. It could well have saved Evelyn’s life.”

      “That’s what I’m calling about,” says Erik. “A thought occurred to me. Have you got a minute?”

      Erik can hear the sound of a chair scraping against the floor and then an exhalation as Joona sits. “OK,” he says. “Go on.”

      “When we were out at Värmdö and I spotted Evelyn from the car, I saw her walking among the trees, heading for the cabin, dragging her shotgun in the bushes.”

      “Yes?”

      “Is that the way to carry a gun if you’re afraid someone might surprise you, might be coming to kill you?”

      “No,” replies Joona.

      “I think she’d gone out into the forest to kill herself,” says Erik. “The knees of her jeans were wet. She’d probably been kneeling on the damp moss with the gun pointing at her forehead or her chest, but then she changed her mind and couldn’t go through with it. That’s what I think.”

      Erik stops speaking. He can hear Joona breathing heavily at the other end of the line. A car alarm starts screeching down on the street.

      “Thank you,” says Joona. “I’ll go and have a chat with her.”

       32

       friday, december 11: afternoon

      The interview with Evelyn is to be conducted in one of the offices in the custody suite. In order to make the dreary room slightly more inviting, someone has placed a red tin of Christmas gingerbread biscuits on the table, and electric holiday candles from IKEA glow in the windows. Evelyn and her solicitor are already seated when Joona begins the recording.

      “I know these questions may be difficult for you, Evelyn,” he says quietly, “but I would be grateful if you would answer them anyway, as best you can.”

      Evelyn does not reply but looks down at her knees.

      “Because I don’t think it’s in your best interests to remain silent,” he adds gently.

      She does not react but keeps her eyes firmly fixed on her knees. The solicitor, a middle-aged man with shadows of stubble on his face, gazes expressionlessly at Joona.

      “Are you ready to begin, Evelyn?” Joona asks.

      She shakes her head. He waits. After a while she raises her chin and meets his eyes.

      “You went out into the forest with the gun to kill yourself, didn’t you?”

      “Yes,” she whispers.

      “I’m glad you didn’t go through with it.”

      “I’m not.”

      “Is this the first time you’ve tried to commit suicide?”

      “No.”

      “Before this occasion?”

      She nods.

      “But not before Josef turned up with the cake?”

      “No.”

      “What did he say to you, when he came?”

      “I don’t want to think about it.”

      “About what? About what he said?”

      Evelyn straightens up in the chair, and her mouth narrows. “I don’t remember,” she says, almost inaudibly. “I’m sure it wasn’t anything special.”

      “You were going to shoot yourself, Evelyn,” Joona reminds her.

      She stands up, goes over to the window, switches the electric candles off and on absently, walks back to her chair, and sits down with her arms folded over her stomach.

      “Can’t you just leave me in peace?”

      “Is that what you really want?”

      She nods without looking at him.

      “Do you need a break?” asks her solicitor.

      “I don’t know what’s the matter with Josef,” Evelyn says quietly. “There’s something wrong inside his head. When he used to fight, when he was little, he would hit too hard. He wasn’t just angry, like little boys get. He was trying to hurt you. He was dangerous. He destroyed all my things. I couldn’t keep anything.”

      Her mouth trembles.

      “When he was eight … When he was eight, he came on to me. He wanted us to kiss each other. Maybe that doesn’t sound so bad, but I didn’t want to, and he kept insisting. I was scared of him. He did weird things. He would sneak into my room at night when I was sleeping and bite me and make me bleed. I started to hit back. I was still stronger than he was.”

      She wipes away the tears rolling down her cheeks.

      “It got worse. He wanted to see my breasts. He tried to get in the bath with me. He said he’d—if I didn’t do what he said—he said he’d hurt Buster.” She pauses for a moment to wipe away more tears. “He killed my dog and threw it off an overpass!” She leaps to her feet and moves to the window again. “He must have been about twelve when he—”

      Her voice breaks and she whimpers quietly to herself before continuing.

      “When he asked if he could put his cock in my mouth. I said he was disgusting. So he went into my little sister’s room and began to hit her. She was only two years old.”

      Evelyn weeps and then composes herself.

      “He made me watch while he jerked off, several times every day. If I said no, he hit my sister, told me he’d kill her. Maybe a few months later, he started demanding sex from me. Every day. He threatened me. But I came up with an answer. I don’t know why it worked, but I told him he was below the age of consent and it was against the law. I wouldn’t do something illegal.”

      She wipes the tears away again.

      “He seemed to buy it; I don’t know why. I thought his demands would go away. I thought—if you can believe it—that he’d outgrow them, like it was a phase. So I moved out. A year passed, but then he started calling me, reminding me he would be fifteen soon. That’s when I hid. I … I don’t know how he found out I was at the cottage.” She is sobbing with her mouth open now. “Oh God!”

      “So he threatened you,” says Joona. “He threatened to kill the whole family if you didn’t—”

      “He didn’t say that!” she screams. “He said he would start with Dad. It’s all my fault. I just want to die …”

      She sinks down on the floor and cowers against the wall.