Hunter. Ларс Кеплер

Чтение книги онлайн.

       10

      Saga walks straight over to Sofia. She makes sure she’s still alive and then explains that she’s going to lower her to the ground.

      Saga starts to turn the winch. Sofia gradually sinks to the floor. One of her legs starts to buckle.

      ‘Put your heels on the floor and take the strain,’ Saga calls.

      The skin on Sofia’s ankles is torn, and Saga thinks of the bloody straps around the bedposts upstairs in the house.

      First she was there, and now she’s down here.

      Sofia is lying on her side on the plastic sheet. Her breathing is laboured. She looks even younger without makeup. She could be very young. Her eyelids are swollen and the bruising around her neck is more pronounced.

      When Saga loosens the straps on her arms she starts to tremble and her body tenses up.

      ‘Don’t hurt me,’ she gasps. ‘Please, I don’t know anything.’

      Saga winches the empty cable back up towards the ceiling, then pulls a chair over to Sofia.

      ‘My name is Saga Bauer. I’m an officer with the Security Police.’

      ‘No more,’ she whispers. ‘Please, I can’t bear it.’

      ‘Sofia, listen to me … I didn’t know they were treating you like this. I’m sorry about that, and I will be bringing it to my boss this afternoon,’ Saga says.

      Sofia lifts her head off the floor. Her cheeks are smeared with tears. All her jewellery has been removed, and her brown hair is plastered to her pale face with sweat.

      Saga has experienced waterboarding. It formed part of her advanced training, but she doesn’t consider it particularly effective.

      She looks over at a bucket of bloody water with a towel floating in it, and thinks to herself that the only thing torture reveals is the torturer’s own secrets.

      Saga gets a bottle of water and helps Sofia drink some, then gives her a piece of chocolate.

      ‘When can I go home?’ Sofia whispers.

      ‘I don’t know. We need answers to a few questions first,’ Saga says apologetically.

      ‘I already told you all I know. I haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t understand why I’m here,’ Sofia sobs.

      ‘I believe you, but I still need to know what you were doing in that house.’

      ‘I already told them everything,’ she whimpers.

      ‘Tell me,’ Saga says gently.

      Sofia slowly raises her stiff arms to wipe the tears from her eyes.

      ‘I work as an escort, and he contacted me,’ she replies in a thin voice.

      ‘How did he contact you?’

      ‘I advertise, and he wrote an email explaining what he was interested in.’

      The young woman sits up slowly, and accepts another piece of chocolate.

      ‘You had pepper spray with you. Do you usually have that?’

      ‘Yes, usually, although most people are pretty kind and considerate … I actually have more trouble with people falling in love with me than people getting violent.’

      ‘Is there anyone who knows where you’re going, who can come if you need help?’

      ‘I write the names and addresses in a book … and Tamara, she’s my best friend, she’d already had him as a client and didn’t have any trouble.’

      ‘What’s Tamara’s last name?’

      ‘Jensen.’

      ‘Where does she live?’

      ‘She moved to Gothenburg.’

      ‘Do you have a phone number?’

      ‘Yes, but I don’t know if it works.’

      ‘Do you have other friends working as escorts?’

      ‘No.’

      Saga takes a few steps back and looks at Sofia. She thinks she’s telling the truth about her work.

      There’s nothing that contradicts her story, even though there’s little that backs it up.

      ‘What do you know about your client?’

      ‘Nothing. He was just prepared to pay a lot of money to be tied up in bed,’ Sofia replies.

      ‘And did you tie him to the bed?’

      ‘Why do you all keep asking the same thing? I don’t get it. I’m СКАЧАТЬ