Joona Linna Crime Series Books 1-3: The Hypnotist, The Nightmare, The Fire Witness. Lars Kepler

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       saturday, december 12: morning

      Simone’s mouth feels as if it is full of glass fragments. It hurts to breathe. Her tongue, when she tries to move it, feels monstrously large and clumsy. She tries to open her eyes, but her eyelids resist her efforts. Slowly lights appear, sliding past her, metal and curtains, a hospital bed.

      Then Erik is sitting on a chair next to her, holding her hand. It’s impossible to tell how much time has passed. His eyes are sunken and exhausted; he stares dully into the middle distance. Simone tries to speak, but her throat feels completely raw.

      “Where’s Benjamin?”

      Erik gives a start. “Simone,” he says. “How do you feel?”

      “Benjamin,” she whispers. “Where’s Benjamin?”

      Erik closes his eyes, his lips pressed tightly together. He swallows and meets her gaze. “What have you done?” he asks quietly. “I found you on the floor, Sixan. You had almost no pulse, and if I hadn’t found you—” He runs his hand over his mouth, speaking through his fingers. “What have you done?”

      Breathing is hard work. She swallows several times. She understands that she has had her stomach pumped, but she doesn’t know what to say. She doesn’t have time to explain that she didn’t try to take her own life. It’s not important what he thinks. Not right now.

      “Where’s our son?” she whispers. “Is he missing?”

      “What do you mean?”

      Tears pour down her cheeks. “Is he missing?” she repeats.

      “You were lying in the hallway, darling. Benjamin had already left when I got up. Did you have an argument?”

      She tries to shake her head, but the movement makes nausea sweep through her. “Someone was in our apartment … and took him,” she says weakly.

      “What?”

      She is crying and whimpering at the same time.

      “Benjamin?” asks Erik. “What about Benjamin?”

      “Oh God,” she mumbles.

      “What’s happened?” Erik is almost screaming.

      “Someone’s taken him,” she replies. “I saw someone dragging Benjamin through the hall.”

      “Dragging? What do you mean, dragging?” A wild expression has taken over Erik’s face but he stops himself, runs a trembling hand over his mouth, and then kneels on the floor at her bedside. “Simone, what happened last night?”

      “I was woken during the night by a jab in my arm. I’d been injected. Somebody had given me—”

      “Where? Where were you injected?”

      She tries to push up the sleeve of her hospital gown; he helps her and finds a small red mark on her upper arm. When he feels the swelling around the dot with his fingertips, his face loses all its colour.

      “Somebody took Benjamin,” she says. “I couldn’t help him.”

      “We need to find out what you’ve been given,” he says, pressing the call button.

      “To hell with that, I don’t care. You have to find Benjamin.”

      “I will,” he says.

      A nurse comes in, is given brief instructions to run blood tests, then hurries out.

      Erik turns back to Simone. “Are you sure you saw someone dragging Benjamin down the hall?”

      “Yes,” she answers, in despair.

      “But you didn’t see who it was?”

      “He dragged Benjamin by the legs through the hall and out the door. I was lying on the floor … I couldn’t move.”

      The tears begin to flow once more. He wraps his arms around her, and she sobs against his chest, exhausted and desperate, her body shaking. When she has calmed down a little, she pushes him gently away.

      “Erik,” she says. “You have to find Benjamin.”

      “Yes,” he says, and stumbles from the room.

      A nurse takes his place. Simone closes her eyes so she doesn’t have to watch as four small containers fill with her blood.