The Boy in the Headlights
Page 31
No …
She couldn’t take any more.
Leave.
Why not?
A world of evil.
Her sister running through the field.
This image that would never leave her.
Come, Mia, come.
Death.
To Nangiyala.
‘Or would you rather have it down?’
Fuck it all.
She was done with it.
‘You do what you like,’ Mia said.
And slowly closed her eyes in front of the mirror.
Chapter 76
They had barely got back out on the street again before their mobiles started to ring. Munch answered his and saw Anette do the same.
‘Where have you been, Holger?’
It was Gabriel Mørk.
‘Listen, I’m a bit busy right now, Gabriel,’ Munch said. ‘We have a situation here, I’ll have to call you back.’
‘Haven’t you heard?’ Gabriel panted.
‘Heard what?’
‘It’s not him.’
‘Who?’
‘Horowitz. It’s not him. We’ve found him. It’s her neighbour. His name is Alexander Sørli.’
‘How …?’
‘We went through the files,’ the young hacker continued eagerly. ‘Ylva and I. We found something. He was one of Ritter’s patients. He’s obsessed with Mia. He lost his brother in a fire. I’m guessing he met her through Ritter. The first victim. Vivian Berg.’
‘Easy now,’ Munch said, completely forgetting to light his cigarette. ‘What are you saying? What files?’
‘Mia’s neighbour.’ Gabriel was practically shouting now. ‘We’ve sent people to the flat already. Where have you been?’
‘You have …?’
Anette had finished her call and was waving to him, signalling for him to ring off.
‘Ludvig organized it. There are people over there. So are you coming?’ Gabriel continued.
‘Organized what?’
‘A search of the flat belonging to the guy who lives next to Mia. Alexander Sørli. He’s the killer. We’ve found photos on the walls. Pictures of different disguises. False teeth. Wigs. Glasses. He has pictures of her everywhere, even by his bed. Are you coming?’
‘Pictures of … who?’ Munch asked as Anette gestured urgently to him again.
‘Mia. It’s all about Mia …’
Anette came up to him, nodding eagerly.
‘They’ve found the young woman.’
‘Who?’ Munch said, putting his hand over the microphone.
‘The young woman with the green baseball cap. Her daughter phoned us. Saw her mother on TV. She’s being interviewed down at police headquarters right now. We were sent on a wild-goose chase, Holger. His name is Sørli. Alexander Sørli.’
Shit.
Munch resumed his conversation with Gabriel.
‘You’ve been there?’
‘We’re here now. You need to see his flat, it’s completely … And Mia’s front door is open …’
‘Stay where you are, Gabriel, I’m on my way,’ Munch said, and threw his cigarette down on the tarmac.
Chapter 77
Hair up. A big white wedding dress. A gold ring on her finger. Nothing on her feet, but Mia didn’t notice; she felt nothing as he led her out of the cabin and through the forest. Pistols pressed into her back. Two of them.
Glocks.
You like them, Mia.
They’re just like the ones you have, aren’t they?
The wind whispered softly in her face as he lifted a branch and steered her further down towards the water.
It was all the same to her now.
She had been good, hadn’t she?
No alcohol.
No pills.
A good girl.
So positive.
She could let go now.
The pills on the table.
On the Trøndelag coast.
In Hitra.
The house she had bought purely so she could disappear.
He had disturbed her.
Munch.
Turned up with a file.
A dead girl.
Six years old.
Hanging from a tree with a sign around her neck.
I’m travelling alone.
A cold case. And she had put it off. She had put death off.
Let them use her as they always did.
Damn them all to hell.
The young man nudged her onwards through the forest, right down to the water’s edge.
This darkness.
Evil everywhere.
She couldn’t take it any more.
She wanted to leave this world behind.
Come, Mia, come.
She wanted to join Sigrid.
The young man led the way into the water, still holding the pistols.
‘This was the place, Mia.’
She could barely hear his voice now.
‘It was this lake. Except there was ice on it back then, of course.’
A smile spread across his young face.
‘I sat here. With antlers on my head. Waiting for Bambi, only he never came, did he?’
Mia opened her eyes again as the young man pointed the pistols at her.
‘Time to go?’
The wind through the trees.
A gentle breeze.
‘Together? To Nangiyala?
The birds.
Wing strokes across the water.
Come, Mia, come.
Mia Krüger opened her eyes and suddenly felt wide awake. The smiling face at the water’s edge. He was a stalker. He was nothing but a pathetic stalker who had got it into his head that she was an angel. Who had killed in her name. She had seen so many of them before. Those quiet children no one ever noticed. Evil hiding behind masks of innocence. Was she really going to die like this?
Not bloody likely.
Not like this.
‘No.’
‘What?’ the young man said. He sounded surprised and cocked his head slightly. ‘You don’t want to?’
‘No,’ Mia said gravely.
‘Are you sure?’ The young man took a step further out into the water.
‘Yes.’
‘You don’t want to come with me?’
‘No.’
The wind in the trees.
‘You want to live?’
She nodded slowly to the figure in the water.
‘OK.’ The young man smiled and stuck out his hand towards her.
The Glock.
One of them.
‘I’m happy to hear that, Mia.’ His disgusting mouth smiled as he took a few more steps out into the cold water. ‘But will you do me a favour?’
‘What is it?’
‘Shoot me.’
He smiled again.
‘You’ll do that for me, won’t you?’
She wasn’t ready for the bang that followed.
The birds taking off from the trees.
‘Shoot me.’ The young man curled his finger around the trigger a second time.
It hurt this time.
The bullet brushed her thigh before hitting the stones behind her.
And then.
Another.
This time the bullet went right through the wedding dress near her hip. She could see blood on the white fabric.
‘Shoot me, Mia.’
The boy took another step out into the water and pressed the trigger again.
The bullet grazed her leg.
Mia pointed the Glock at his smiling face.
‘Alexander,’ she warned him.
‘You or me?’
A ripple now in the dark water.
‘I love you, Mia.’ The young man raised his gun again, this time aiming straight at her face, his finger on the trigger.
Mia quickly made up her mind.
SEVEN
JUNE 2013
Chapter 78
The sun was high in the sky, a welcome warmth M
unch hadn’t felt for a long time as he stood with a cigarette in his mouth under the green trees in the garden in Røa and saw Marianne’s big smile as she came towards him.
‘Isn’t it time you gave up?’
‘What do you mean?’
His ex-wife walked right up to him and gave him a big hug.
‘Give up smoking, Holger.’
‘Yes, I’m giving up today.’ Munch smiled and chucked away the cigarette stub as another smartly dressed couple entered through the gate.
‘Hi.’ The young woman smiled and shook his hand. ‘I’m Kathy. We’re friends of Ziggy.’
‘Welcome.’ Munch smiled. ‘Drinks are through there. The ceremony will begin in a few minutes.’
The couple nodded in the sunshine and walked up the steps and into the house.
‘It’s our daughter’s wedding day,’ Marianne said, taking his hand.
‘Yes, indeed it is.’
‘Are you happy? Are you OK, Holger?’
Munch squeezed her hand and smiled.
‘Yes, Marianne. I’m very well.’
‘Good,’ his ex-wife said as yet another couple came up the gravel path.
‘In there. Drinks on the table.’ Munch smiled at the new arrivals as Mia entered through the gate.
‘Congratulations.’ His blue-eyed colleague smiled too and hugged Marianne. ‘Where can I leave my present?’
‘They didn’t want any presents,’ Munch said.
‘Yes, isn’t that what they always say? Is she in there?’
‘They’re in the living room.’
‘OK, I had better go and say hello. I’ll see you later.’
Mia gave Marianne another quick hug before disappearing into the house.
‘Grandad!’
Little feet across the gravel and Marion, dressed up to the nines, threw her arms around him.
‘Hello, sweetheart, how are you doing? Can you remember everything you have to do?’
‘Oh, Grandad,’ the little girl said, putting on a serious face. ‘I’m not five years old any more. How hard do you think it is? I have a basket of flowers. I look lovely and I throw the flowers on the ground as they walk. Hello? Grandad, you asked me the exact same question yesterday.’
‘Good, Marion. I just wanted to check.’
Marianne smiled and squeezed his hand again.
‘But listen, Grandad?’ Marion said, and looked at him.
‘Yes?’
‘Barbie isn’t very happy with her horse.’
‘Isn’t she?’
The little girl lifted her pink dress and scratched her leg.
‘No, or that’s to say, yes, but it’s so very lonely …’
‘The horse is lonely?’
‘Yes, Grandad. It’s all on its own. Poor horse. It eats hay and jumps over hurdles, but still it’s all alone.’
Marianne looked at him and shook her head.
‘So what you’re telling me is that it needs a friend?’
‘Yes! Grandad, it needs a friend. Please could we look for another horse? A black one this time, and we can name it Arrow, and it can run so quickly that the other horse will be really happy?’
‘We’ll see about that, Marion.’
‘Brilliant, Grandad. Today?’
‘No, Marion, your mum is getting married today.’
‘Tomorrow?’
‘Soon.’ Munch smiled as the gate opened again.
‘Hello,’ Curry mumbled. He looked uncomfortable in the suit he was wearing. ‘This is Luna.’
‘Welcome, Luna.’ Munch nodded and shook her outstretched hand. ‘Drinks in there. The ceremony will be taking place in the back garden in – well, it’ll be very soon now.’
‘Thank you for inviting us,’ Curry said politely, and ushered his girlfriend up the steps.
Munch was easing a cigarette packet out of his pocket as his mobile pinged.
A text message from Lillian.
Congratulations on your daughter’s wedding, Holger! And thank you so much for last Saturday’s date. How about another one? I have tickets for the concert hall on Thursday. We could have dinner first?
Munch quickly texted her back.
Absolutely, Lillian. I look forward to it. I really do.
A slightly fraught face appeared on the steps, one of Miriam’s friends who was acting as the wedding planner.
‘We’re starting now. The band is playing. The bride is about to walk down the aisle. It’s all happening. Are you coming?’
‘Of course we are.’
‘We’re coming.’ Marianne smiled and squeezed his hand again before running in front of him up the steps and into the white house.
Chapter 79
Mia Krüger got out of the car and carried the flowers up through the beautiful cemetery. She knelt down and removed the withered ones in front of the grave. She placed the new bouquet in the vase and caressed the letters on the stone.
Sigrid Krüger
Sister, friend and daughter
Born 11 November 1979. Died 18 April 2002.
Much loved. Deeply missed.
Her twin sister in a field of yellow wheat.
Beckoning her.
Come, Mia, come.
‘No, Sigrid.’
Mia stuck her hand into her jacket pocket. She cradled the silver bracelet in the palm of her hand for a moment then took off the one she wore around her wrist.
M for Mia.
S for Sigrid.
A hole in the brown earth and both bracelets were gone. Her sister’s pleading voice somewhere deep inside her.
‘No, Sigrid,’ Mia said. ‘I have to try now. Be myself. Live. Because I want to. Do you understand?’
She stood up to the answer of nothing in front of the white stone.
‘OK?’
Not a sound.
Just the wind.
‘I’ve left my job. I’m going away.’
Mia lingered in front of the grave.
Her sister in a field of yellow wheat.
A blurred face turning towards her for a brief moment.
And then she was gone.
Mia tightened her jacket around her and walked down the gravel path. She glanced up at the white stone one last time then got into the jade-green Jaguar.
And pulled out on to the narrow road.
About the Author
Samuel Bjork is the pen name of Norwegian novelist, playwright and singer/songwriter Frode Sander Øien. The Boy in the Headlights is the third in his Munch and Krüger series, I’m Travelling Alone and The Owl Always Hunts At Night were the first two. All three have been bestsellers across Scandinavia and the rest of Europe.
Also by Samuel Bjork
I’m Travelling Alone
The Owl Always Hunts at Night
TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS
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First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Doubleday an imprint of Transworld Publishers
Published by agreement with Ahlander Agency
Copyright © Samuel Bjork 2013
English translation copyright © Charlotte Barslund 2019
Cover photographs © Shutterstock
Samuel Bjork has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions with reference to copyright material, both illustrative and quoted. We apologize for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgements in any future edition.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781473508651
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