Читать книгу The Girl in the Woods - Camilla Lackberg - Страница 16

She knew even before they reached her. The heavy footsteps. Their eyes fixed on the ground. They didn’t have to say a word.

‘Anders!’ she screamed, and her voice was so shrill.

He came rushing out of the house, but stopped abruptly when he saw the police officers.

He fell to his knees on the gravel. Linda rushed over to him, put her arms around him. Anders had always been so big and strong, but right now she was the one who had to keep them both going.

‘Pappa? Mamma?’

Sanna stood in the doorway. The light from the kitchen lit up her blond hair like a halo.

‘Did they find Stella, Mamma?’

Linda couldn’t meet her daughter’s eye. She turned towards one of the officers. He nodded.

‘We’ve found your daughter. I’m afraid she’s … she’s dead. We’re so sorry.’

He stared down at his shoes and swallowed hard to hold back the tears. He was as pale as a ghost, and Linda wondered whether he’d seen Stella. Seen the body.

‘But how can she be dead? That can’t be true. Mamma? Pappa?’

She heard Sanna’s voice behind her, rattling off questions. But Linda had no answers to give her. Nor any solace to offer. She knew she ought to let go of Anders and take her daughter in her arms. But only Anders understood the pain she now felt in every fibre of her body.

‘We want to see her,’ she said, finally making herself raise her head from Anders’s shoulder. ‘We have to see our daughter.’

The taller of the two officers cleared his throat.

‘And you will. But first we have to do our job. We have to find out who did this.’

‘What do you mean? It was an accident, surely?’

Anders pulled away from Linda and stood up.

The tall policeman quietly replied.

‘I’m afraid this was no accident. Your daughter was murdered.’

The ground suddenly rose up towards Linda. She didn’t even have time to be surprised before everything went black.