The door was swinging back and forth in the wind. Cautiously they went inside the stable, which was eerily quiet. Martin walked along the centre aisle, looking into the horse stalls.
‘It’s totally empty.’
Patrik felt a hard knot starting to form in his stomach. Something was very wrong. What if they’d had the perpetrator under their very noses? What if he’d been in their district the whole time, and now they’d discovered everything too late?
‘By the way, have you phoned Palle?’ asked Gösta.
Patrik nodded. ‘Yes, he’s been informed. They’re ready to send reinforcements if we need them.’
‘Good,’ said Gösta, opening the door to the riding arena. ‘It’s empty in here too.’
In the meantime Martin had checked the common room and feed room, and now he came back to the stable.
‘Okay, let’s go over to the clinic,’ said Patrik. He stepped outside into the cold, with Gösta and Martin close behind. The snow felt like tiny needles striking their cheeks as they dashed back to the house.
Gösta tried the clinic door. ‘It’s locked.’
He cast an enquiring glance at Patrik, who nodded. With ill-concealed glee, Gösta backed up a few steps, then launched himself forward to kick at the door. He repeated the manoeuvre several times, and finally the door flew open. Considering the type of substances stored in the clinic, the place was far from burglar proof, and Patrik couldn’t hold back a smile. It wasn’t every day that he got to see Gösta practising Kung-fu.
It was a small place, and the search didn’t take long. Jonas wasn’t there. Everything was neat and tidy, except for the medicine cabinet, which stood open. Some of the shelves inside were bare.
Gösta studied the contents. ‘He seems to have taken a lot with him.’
‘Damn it,’ said Patrik. It was extremely worrisome to think that Jonas had fled with ketamine and other substances that were now missing from the cabinet. ‘Do you think he might have drugged his wife and daughter and then kidnapped them?’
‘What a sick devil that guy is.’ Gösta shook his head. ‘How could he seem so normal? That’s almost the worst thing of all. The fact that he was so… pleasant.’
‘Psychopaths can fool anyone,’ said Patrik. He went back out into the night after casting one last look at the clinic.
Martin was shivering as he followed. ‘Where should we look next? His parents’ house or the barn?’
‘The barn,’ said Patrik.
They ran as fast as they dared across the slippery yard.
‘We should have brought torches with us,’ said Patrik when they went inside the barn. It was so dark they could hardly make out the cars that were parked inside.
‘Sure. Or we could just turn on a light,’ said Martin, pulling a string on the wall.
A faint, ghostly light illuminated the big space. Here and there snow was coming in through gaps in the wall, yet it seemed slightly warmer in the barn because they were at least out of the biting wind.
Martin shuddered. ‘It looks like some sort of car graveyard.’
‘No, not at all. These are amazing cars. With a little love and attention they’d be worth a lot of money,’ said Gösta, running his hand over the bonnet of a Buick.
He began walking among the cars as he took a look around. Patrik and Martin did the same, and a few minutes later they concluded that there was nothing to find in here either. Patrik was feeling discouraged. Maybe they needed to put out an All Points Warning for Jonas. Clearly he wasn’t here, unless he happened to be hiding in his parents’ house. But Patrik didn’t think so. He assumed that only Helga and Einar were asleep over there.
‘We’re going to have to wake up his parents,’ said Patrik, pulling the string to turn off the light.
‘How much should we tell them?’ asked Martin.
Patrik paused to consider. It was a relevant question. How should he tell the parents that their son was probably a psychopath who had kidnapped and tortured young girls? That wasn’t something they’d taught him to deal with at the police academy.
‘We’ll play it by ear,’ he said at last. ‘They know we’re looking for Marta and Molly, and now Jonas is missing too.’
Once again they crossed the windswept yard. Patrik knocked loudly on the front door. When nothing happened, he tried again. A light switched on upstairs, possibly in the bedroom. But no one came to open the door.
‘Shall we go in?’ asked Martin.
Patrik tried the door. It was open. Sometimes it made things easier for the police that people who lived out in the country seldom locked their doors. He stepped into the front hall.
‘Hello?’ he shouted.
‘Who the hell is that?’ an angry voice yelled from upstairs. They quickly assessed the situation. Einar must be home alone, and that was why no one had opened the door.
‘Police officers. We’re coming up.’ Patrik signalled for Gösta to follow him as he said in a low voice to Martin, ‘Take a look around while we talk to Einar.’
‘I wonder where Helga is,’ said Martin.
Patrik shook his head. He was wondering the same thing. Where was Helga?
‘We’ll have to ask Einar,’ he said and hurried upstairs.
‘What do you think you’re doing, waking people up in the middle of the night like this!’ snarled Einar. He was partly sitting up in bed, wide awake. His hair was tousled, and he wore only a white undershirt and underpants.
Patrik ignored his question. ‘Where’s Helga?’
‘She’s asleep over there.’ Einar pointed at a closed door across the hall.
Gösta went to open the door and peered inside. Then he shook his head. ‘Nobody’s there, and the bed hasn’t been slept in.’
‘What? Where the hell is she? Helgaaa!’ bellowed Einar, his face turning red.
Patrik stared at him. ‘So you don’t know where she is?’
‘No. If I did, I would have told you. Why is she out running around?’ A trickle of saliva ran out of his mouth and on to his chest.
‘Maybe she went out to look for Marta and Molly,’ Patrik suggested.
Einar snorted. ‘I can’t believe what a fuss everybody’s making. I’m sure they’ll turn up on their own. It wouldn’t surprise me if Marta got upset about something Jonas did or didn’t do, and she decided to leave for a while and take Molly with her, just to punish him. That’s the sort of childish things women always do.’ His words dripped with scorn, and Patrik had to restrain himself from speaking his mind.
‘So you don’t know where Helga is?’ he repeated patiently. ‘Or where Molly and Marta are?’
‘No! I told you I don’t know!’ shouted Einar, punching the covers with his fist.
‘What about Jonas?’
‘Is he missing too? No, I don’t know where he is either.’ Einar rolled his eyes, but Patrik noticed that he cast a quick glance out of the window.
A feeling of great calm came over him, as if he’d suddenly landed in the eye of the storm. He turned to Gösta.
‘I think we need to do another search of the barn.’
A mouldy and clammy smell filled her nostrils. Molly felt as if she were going to suffocate in the stifling air, and she swallowed hard to rid her mouth of the musty taste. It wasn’t easy to stay calm the way Marta wanted.
Once again Molly asked, ‘Why are we here?’ as she stared into the darkness.
And again she got no answer.
‘Don’t waste your energy,’ Marta finally said.
‘But we’re being held prisoner! Somebody has locked us up in here, and it must be the same person who took Victoria. I heard what happened to her. I don’t understand why you’re not scared.’
She could hear how weak her voice sounded, and she began to sob as she rested her head on her knees. She felt the chain tighten, and she moved closer to the wall so the shackle wouldn’t cut into her ankle.
‘It wouldn’t do any good,’ said Marta. That was the same thing she’d repeated for the past few hours.