Aron Alvik was stunned into silence. He avoided looking at her and stared down at the table.
A few minutes passed.
“I’ll tell you what I think happened,” continued Sanna without averting her gaze. “You gang raped a woman. This series of ritualistic murders are a way of demonstrating what you did to her, and now you’re next.”
Aron Alvik’s head was spinning. Words failed him. The same thought had occurred to him many times and Sanna’s pronouncement only reminded him of what they had done that day four years ago. He had a lot at stake. He could still visualize her lying there half conscious, pleading with him as he pinned her down while Oxen had his way, before passing her over to Jukka.
“I’ve run out of patience! What happened a few years ago?”
“I need police protection.”
Sanna locked eyes with him, but said nothing.
He fidgeted in his chair and did his best to avoid her gaze.
“Well?” said Sanna.
Aron Alvik said nothing and a few minutes later Sanna concluded the hearing.
CHAPTER 46
Fate
SHE SAT AT THE DESK with a pen in her hand and her eyes focused on a blank page. It was one of those rare moments of calm in a sea of despair. She was reminiscing about her life. She had always felt fortunate. She had grown up in a loving environment with caring and supportive parents. She was a police officer fighting crime, the job of her dreams. She had good friends and a vibrant social life.
Then, out of the blue her life had been turned upside down.
Kim got up from the desk. She had been meaning to write a plan, but she couldn’t think clearly.
She paced the room, her head spinning. So far, even though she had been forced to improvise a couple of times, everything had gone well. Her main dilemma right now was whether to continue as planned or abandon the whole project, forget about the man from Umeå and run away to another part of the world.
Kim sat down at the desk again. She thought for a moment and then began writing.
“Dear Mum!” The words on the page blurred as her eyes misted over.
There was no doubt that continuing with the plan was risky. It was important to be prepared and have everything set up before finally confronting the man from Umeå.
She had already contacted a florist and given them instructions; if they didn’t hear from her by a specific date they were to deliver the letter to her mother together with sixty red roses.
“MUMMY… SANNA!” SHE SCREAMED petulantly and burst into tears.
It was a glorious winter day. The sun was shining and Djurgården was glistening with snow. Sanna and Kalle strolled a few paces in front of the children who were running back and forth and making snowballs.
Sanna turned around and walked back to Lisa, slumped on the ground and almost buried in snow. Kalle followed.
“What’s the matter honey?” asked Sanna softly.
“Pontus pinched my nose!” she yelled.
Kalle made a move to comfort the little girl and gave Pontus a reproachful look.
“No! Not you!” she whined, stretching her hand out to Sanna.
“She’s not my mother,” sulked Pontus.
Sanna walked over to him. “You’re right Pontus,” she said. “I’m not your mother. You only have one mother… and her name is Mia. Nobody in the world can ever change that. And definitely not me.”
Lisa let go of Sanna’s hand abruptly.
“Then I don’t have a mother!” she pouted and walked away.
Three months had gone by since Mia’s death. The cancer had ravaged her body and from a medical point of view there was nothing more the doctors could do.
Those who were left behind mourned in different ways but it was the children who suffered most. Their lives were shattered. Crucial questions kept arising, questions that Kalle couldn’t answer. He was so devastated that it was impossible to offer words of comfort, either for himself or the kids.
Pontus had become withdrawn and reluctant to talk whereas Lisa reacted in a more unexpected way. She expressed hatred towards her mother for abandoning her. She couldn’t understand why her mother had left and articulated her loss through anger.
Nobody said anything for a while.
“I want to go home!” whined Pontus.
Kalle and Sanna exchanged glances and nodded.
“Lisa,” shouted Kalle. “Come on, we’re going home.”
Pontus walked off ahead of them.
Lisa pretended not to hear and continued in the opposite direction.
“What does the child psychologist say?” whispered Sanna.
“She says that children react in different ways and you have to give them time,” replied Kalle wearily.
He ran to Lisa and lifted her into his arms.
“LET GO OF ME! LET GO OF ME! I DON’T WANT TO!” she screamed, kicking hysterically.
CHAPTER 47
Impact
AT A GLANCE SHE COULD TELL he found her irresistible. He was staring at her and hadn’t let her out of his sight for five minutes.
She painted an encouraging smile on her lips and waited for him to make the first move. She straightened her blond hair and turned her back on him, sticking out her bum as an added enticement so he would notice her well-shaped thighs. When she turned around again he was standing next to her with a full-on smile.
She was momentarily speechless.
“What’s a beautiful woman like you doing here alone?” he asked in a husky voice with a thick northern accent.
She laughed, disclosing a row of gleaming white teeth.
“I’ve been stood up by a friend who had to stay home with her kids.”
“Yeah, you can’t trust your friends…I’ve also been stood up,” he said with a wry smile, moving closer to her. “So, what are we going to do about it? Us two abandoned people?”
She laughed out loud.
“I’m going to finish this,” she said, indicating the beer bottle. “Then I’m going home.”
“But the night is young,” he said with a regretful smile, glancing furtively at her breasts. Every now and then he would try to bewitch her with his eyes. He put his hand on hers and caressed it softly.
She let him.
His hand wandered up her arm.
She shuddered and pulled her arm away. That was more than she could bear.
“No, now I’m going home,” she said, glancing at her watch. “I don’t want to miss the train.”
He was captivated by her deep blue eyes, copper red eyelashes and thin feminine eyebrows.
She licked her red, sensual lips with the tip of her tongue.
“Have we met before?” he asked hesitatingly.
She looked at him with feigned bewilderment.
“I don’t think so,” she said and smiled sweetly.
“Hmm.”
She was definitely his type of woman. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, enraptured by her full breasts brimming over the nape of her tight black top.
She smiled to herself and prepared to leave, swinging her elegant leather backpack over her shoulder.
“Wait!” he said.
She eyed him seductively.
“Do you have far to go?” he asked. He didn’t want to come on too strong.
“Täby.”
“Oh that’s where I live! Stay a while and we can share a taxi later if you like…I’ll pay.”
She looked at him for a moment and pretended to consider his offer.
“Yeah…why not…” She walked over to him. She was so close that he could feel her body heat.
They passed a pleasant evening and in between drinks and small talk he told her that he shared a house in Täby with friends.
She already knew that.
It was somewhere she would rather forget – the place where they had raped her. But weakness was not an option. She must keep a clear head and complete the task she had been researching and planning for so many months. Besides, it was the
perfect location for her act of revenge.
For Oxen, the pleasant evening passed swiftly. He slouched over the bar, mumbling incoherently and barely able to support himself on legs that were gradually turning into spaghetti.
She looked at him intently, remembering how she had been so heavily drugged that she couldn’t even cry out for help. Her legs had betrayed her and her vision became blurred. She couldn’t even cry out for help.
She gripped his arm firmly. “I’ll get you home,” she said in a loud voice so that everyone nearby could hear. She took her phone out of her jacket pocket and called a taxi. Any minute now he would collapse and made her task more difficult.
A couple of bouncers approached and helped her get the man into the taxi. She thanked them politely.
“Damn it, I wish you wouldn’t drink so much!” she said.
He looked up at her quizzically.
“Wha-a-at do you mean?” he slurred trying to get out of his seat.
“Sit down, baby, we’re not there yet. Be patient.”
Thirty minutes later they arrived at a residential area close to Täby centrum.
She paid in cash and left a generous tip before asking the driver for help to get him into the house. Once inside, the two of them laid the man from Norrland onto his bed. Afterwards, the taxi driver hurried off.
He lay there like a lamb to the slaughter. She calmly removed his clothes and bound his hands and feet. She intended to wait until he was fully conscious before starting.
She had a knot in the pit of her stomach. This was the moment she had waited for. She must be disciplined and not waste any time. She went to the bathroom, removed her shoulder length blonde wig and pulled out a strand of hair. Next, she turned the wig inside out, placed it into a plastic bag and packed it into her rucksack.
In the bedroom, she could hear the man groaning. Her body stiffened. She hurriedly took off her slinky red stilettos and put on a pair of casual shoes. Glancing quickly in the mirror she noticed that she was still wearing her blue contact lenses. As she lifted her eyelid to extract one of the lenses, he groaned again. She grabbed an item from her bag and returned to the room. When he regained consciousness she wanted to be the first thing he saw.
The man mumbled incoherently. As soon as he realised he couldn’t move, he panicked. His face turned bright red as he struggled to free himself.
He was apoplectic.
She faltered, tormented by self-doubt. He was strong and she was afraid he would break free. Stay calm, stay calm, she repeated to herself like a mantra. Alert, like a hawk sizing up its prey, she gripped the pepper spray in one hand and the Taser in the other. She moved closer to double check the straps. All of a sudden, he lashed out at her with his feet. The kick was so powerful that she fell backwards onto the floor.
His blue eyes flashed threateningly and with a wild burst of superhuman strength he snapped the bindings as if they were made of straw.
She had no time to lose. She jumped up, aimed her Taser and fired. After discharging a couple of two-centimetre long dart-like electrodes, which were attached to the device by thin wires, the gun refused to respond.
Oxen screamed and writhed with pain. His body slumped to the floor. He was paralysed.
Hardly daring to breathe, she kept her eyes fixed on him, ready for anything. He appeared unconscious, but then he moved, trying to regain his footing. He stared at her.
“Now, we’re going to take it real easy, and you’re going to do exactly what I say,” she instructed, waving her Taser. “That is, unless you want me to give you another hundred thousand volts. Get up and go and lie down on the bed again.”
There was pure hatred in his eyes.
“Get a move on. I don’t have all bloody evening!”
His mouth twisted into a smirk. He got up and made his way slowly to the bed.
“Move it!” she growled, waving the Taser. “I’m warning you – I have a very short fuse!”
He lay down on the bed, panting.
She fired the Taser again.
He whimpered.
She quickly bound his wrists and ankles again, this time using a rope, one that she had brought with her in case the leather straps weren’t strong enough.
She waited for him to recover.
“Having fun?” she asked, laughing loudly as he gasped for air. “Not so funny now, is it? You worthless piece of shit! You like sex don’t you? I’m going to give you such a good time you’ll be begging me to stop!”
She looked at him coldly. There’s a reason they call him Oxen, she thought. Despite being bombarded with electric shocks, much of the time he was able to stay conscious. As she spoke, he opened his bloodshot eyes and frowned at her, as if trying to work out where they had met before.
“Don’t you recognise me?” she sneered.
The next three hours went precisely according to plan. However, even though the procedure was exactly the same as before, this time she had difficulty keeping her emotions in check.
The memory of how much she had suffered at his hands threatened to overwhelm her. Every time she put her hands on him, every time she wiped his genitals with the cotton swab, she remembered what he had done; how she had been tied up, drugged and forced into submission as he penetrated her. This time he was moaning from pain, not pleasure. But she didn’t care.
“Stop whining! God you’re difficult,” she said sarcastically. Kim grabbed Oxen’s penis and rammed a piece of paper into the opening.
Now they were even.
The incredible strength she was able to summon up was powered by her intense hatred and hunger for revenge.
She was exhausted. The process was taking far too long.
She grabbed a pillow and pressed it down hard over his face.
She gazed at his lifeless body. He’d got exactly what he deserved. She stepped backwards and slid down against the wall to the floor.
Thoughts of this day had obsessed her for years. And now even though it was finally over she felt empty and defeated.
What had she achieved, other than a few moments of mindless vengeance…?
THE SOUND OF BARKING DOGS grew louder and louder. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand – it was four thirty in the morning.
The bedroom was in disarray, but Kim barely had the energy to care. Her muscles had seized up and there was an uncomfortable pressure on her chest that made it difficult to breathe. Her nerves were on edge. She put one knee down and slowly hoisted herself up then walked over to the window. She peered out, taking care not to be seen. A couple of hundred metres from the house two women were out walking their dogs and throwing sticks for them to fetch.
Kim needed to leave before the rest of the neighbourhood woke up.
She scanned the room but found it hard to process what she was seeing.
Was everything in order?
She could hear vehicles outside. After checking to make sure there was nobody in the immediate vicinity, she grabbed her rucksack and hurriedly left the property.
A few hundred meters from the house she stopped and began to rummage frantically in her bag. Damn it! You fucking idiot – the Taser!
She hesitated.
She would have to return to the house and fetch it but other people were now out and about, driving to work or walking with their children to day care or school.
It was far too risky to go back to the house now.
She sighed in irritation and decided to go home. She would wait there until it was safe to return to the house.
HEAVY, DARK CLOUDS LOOMED OVERHEAD. Thunder crashed and flashes of lightning split open the sky illuminating the dark forest nearby. She stared obsessively at her watch; the wait seemed endless.
Kim glanced at the time again. It was eleven pm.
She parked a good distance away from the house and sat in the car until it was time to go, her adrenalin pulsating.
One by one the lights went out in the surrounding houses. Eventually, all she could hear was the sound of th
e pouring rain.
She adjusted her black woollen hat and pulled the hood of her sweater down, then climbed out of the car and walked towards the house.
As expected, the door was locked so she walked around the building looking for an open window. She was running out of options. She could smash a window and make it look like a break in – not what she had originally planned, but following the plan was less important than adapting to the circumstances.
The issue most concerning her was the fact that the Taser was registered in her name. That alone would provide enough evidence for the police to arrest her.
This was hardly the time for indecisiveness yet she continued to procrastinate. She could report an assault and claim that the attacker had stolen her Taser. All she would have to do was photograph the injuries on her back and thighs.
She shook the thought out of her head. It was eleven thirty at night and if she broke a window it might attract attention. She started to panic. Sweat was running down her back and her clothes were sticking to her body. Snap out of it. She wiped her face.
She began walking away. But then, almost as if someone had physically barricaded her path, she swung around and strode defiantly back to the property. She picked up a stone, wrapped it in a small towel that she carried in her pocket and smashed one of the windows at the rear of the house.
“Ouch!” she cried, scraping her thigh on a shard of glass as she crawled through the opening. The first sensation was an acute pain, like being stabbed by a sharp knife. As soon as she was inside the house she grabbed her leg so the blood didn’t drip onto the floor.
She looked around for a makeshift tourniquet. With the other hand she unzipped her jacket and unbuttoned her shirt, tearing at the garment with her teeth. She clawed at the hole in her trousers, enlarging it so that she could wrap the wound more efficiently. It helped momentarily, but soon the blood began to seep through the fabric. The situation was unsustainable but she had no choice…she must hurry.
She couldn’t remember where she had left the Taser. She searched the bathroom but in her agitated state she found it hard to focus. Whatever happened, she couldn’t leave without the Taser.
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