Читать книгу The Fire Witness - Ларс Кеплер - Страница 36

Joona stops the car at the roadblock on Highway 330, says hello to one of the police officers stationed there, shows his ID, then carries on along the road beside the river.

He’s been told that the girls from the Birgitta Home are being temporarily housed in the Hotel Ibis. The counsellor, Daniel Grim, has been admitted to the acute psychiatric ward of the district hospital, the housekeeper, Margot Lundin, is at home in Timrå, and Faduumo Axmed, who works part-time as a care assistant, is off duty according to the rota, and down with her parents in Vänersborg.

When Police Constable Mirja Zlatnek said that Pia Abrahamsson kept coming back to the idea that it was a thin girl with bandages around her wrists, everyone realised that it was Vicky Bennet who had taken the car containing the little boy.

‘It’s a mystery that she hasn’t been caught in the roadblocks,’ Bosse Norling had said.

A helicopter was deployed, but there’s no trace of the car, not in the small town, and not along any of the logging tracks.

It isn’t really a mystery, Joona thinks. The most plausible explanation is that she managed to find somewhere to hide before she reached any of the roadblocks.

But where?

She must know someone who lives in Indal, someone who has a garage.

Joona has asked to speak to the girls in the company of a youth psychologist and a legally responsible adult from Victim Support, and is trying to remember the details of his first encounter with them in the small cottage at the home, when Gunnarsson came back with the two who had run off into the forest. The red-haired little girl had been watching television and banging her head against the wall. The girl called Indie had associated hands covering a face with Vicky, and then they had all started shouting and yelling at each other when they realised that she was missing. One of the girls claimed she was asleep, having taken Stesolid. Almira spat on the floor, and Indie rubbed her face and ended up with blue eyeshadow on her hand.

Joona can’t help thinking that there’s something about Tuula, the red-haired girl with white eyelashes and bright pink jogging bottoms. At first she yelled at them all to be quiet, but she had also said something when everyone was talking at the same time.

Tuula had said that Vicky had sneaked off to see her fuck-buddy.