The Man Who Watched Women

by Michael Hjorth

  She didn’t respond.

  ‘Nod if you understand.’

  She didn’t move a millimetre. She just stared at him.

  He gave her a loving smile.

  This was going to be a good battle.

  He liked her more and more.

  Sebastian could see the police officers moving through the forest ahead of him in a crouching position. The special operations unit had split into three teams. One was approaching from the forest to the east, with Sebastian and Torkel creeping along behind them. One would come from the lake to the north, and their main task was to cut off the escape route and act as backup. The team approaching from the west would actually enter the house. They would have to crawl through the tall grass to their starting point so that no one would spot them from the house, but the setting sun would be behind them, which meant they would be quite difficult to see in any case. The critical point would be the last twenty metres, when they would be most visible from the house; they would have to run towards the target in full view, but given the critical nature of the situation, there was no better option. The leader of the unit was with the western group, and was in radio contact with the others. He had agreed that Torkel and Sebastian would follow the eastern team as far as the ramshackle barn at the edge of the meadow and wait there. It would give them a good overview of the main building. The eastern team would then continue to the ditch in front of the barn, and would move in only when the first group had entered, armed with stun grenades which they would toss into the various rooms in order to throw Hinde off balance. The grenades themselves were actually harmless, but exploded with a blinding flash and a loud bang, which would shock and temporarily deafen anyone in the room. The hope was that this would buy them enough time to prevent Hinde from harming Vanja.

  They were perhaps twenty metres away from the barn when Sebastian reached the top of a slope and saw the house at last. He stopped and crouched down. It looked worse than it had done the last time he was here. The garden was overgrown and the windows gaped emptily, the glass long gone. Part of the facade had disappeared, and it looked utterly desolate. He remembered that the local council had tried to sell it by auction, but obviously no one had been interested. It seemed that the house of a serial killer wasn’t exactly a sought-after property.

  Sebastian could see the northern group moving into position. He looked over to where the leading group ought to be, but couldn’t see them. That was good. If he couldn’t see them, then perhaps Hinde couldn’t either. A part of him had wanted to be with them, but Torkel had been very clear. Sebastian would remain with him in the role of an observer. Nothing else. This was a job for professionals, not amateurs.

  Vanja waited until Hinde had removed the cable ties from her wrists. She tried to surprise him with a sweeping blow, but he skilfully avoided her by quickly stepping backwards. She tried. He had expected nothing else. She struck out a few more times, but then Hinde stepped forward and hit her hard across the temple several times with the handle of the knife. She collapsed onto the bed again, the whole of the left-hand side of her head throbbing with pain. It felt hot, almost as if she was bleeding. She raised her arms to her face to protect herself against the pain.

  ‘I can be gentle, I can be harsh,’ Hinde said. ‘It’s your decision.’

  No, it’s your decision, she thought. She knew that Hinde would have no hesitation in killing her. But his eyes, full of excitement and anticipation, told her that he was enjoying himself. He wanted to go through every part of the ritual with her. The fact that he had asked to touch her hair at Lövhaga had been a part of what was happening now, she realised. Sebastian had been right all along. There had been a reason why Hinde had asked to see her alone. He had wanted to get close. Touch her. And she had let him do it. At the time she had thought it was a small price to pay for Ralph’s name. She no longer thought so.

  Finding herself at a future crime scene as the intended victim was a horrendous feeling. Knowing the significance of the details was terrible. Nothing escaped her attention. The nylon stockings by her feet. The nightdress draped over the end of the bed. The knife he was holding in his hand.

  The other women had had the advantage of not knowing everything that was going to happen.

  But she did.

  She knew every step of the ritual.

  At the same time, that gave her a small amount of hope. Time was on her side, in a way. The longer she could stay alive, the longer those who were looking for her would have. Because they were looking. She knew that. They would be searching everywhere for Edward Hinde. He was no longer an unknown killer. He wasn’t someone who could escape from Lövhaga without being a wanted man.

  They were looking. They were looking.

  That’s what she had to tell herself, at least.

  Hinde suddenly hauled her into a sitting position and tore off her vest top and sports bra. The attack had come from nowhere. He wanted to get started. She was wearing only her panties now. She hated the fact that her first instinct was to shield her breasts. That just made her weak. So she lowered her arms and allowed him to gaze at her. It was only her body, after all. It was her life she was fighting for. He threw the nightdress at her. It landed on her knee.

  ‘Put this on.’

  She looked down at it. So that was how it happened. The others had put the nightdress on voluntarily.

  ‘Would you like to know something that everyone, including Sebastian, has missed? I have always wondered how that was possible. But I suppose it’s because it is the most underrated of the five senses.’

  She stared at him, her face expressionless.

  ‘I didn’t tell Ralph either. But soon you will know, Vanja. Soon we will have no secrets from one another.’

  He walked across the room and took something out of a box in the middle of the floor. He came back holding a small, angular bottle in his hand. Smiled at her and squirted it several times over her naked body. She felt the mist of the perfume reach her throat.

  ‘Mother’s favourite.’

  It was a strong smell.

  She recognised it.

  Chanel No. 5.

  Radio traffic had increased over the last few minutes. First of all the northern team had confirmed that they were in position. After a while the team ahead of Torkel and Sebastian passed on the same message. The two men were standing by one of the shorter walls of the barn, from where they had the best view of the house; it looked every bit as desolate as before. The silence was almost deafening. Not even the flies were buzzing now. Sebastian’s nerves were at breaking point. His entire body felt hot and sweaty. He was used to crime scenes, interrogating suspects, giving lectures. Not this.

  He felt completely powerless. His whole life was at stake, but he was watching events from the gallery.

  ‘They’re going in,’ Torkel said as Sebastian saw six black-clad figures appear out of the long grass a short distance away from the house. Only those critical twenty metres to go now. They ran as fast as they could without losing control. Their equipment was taped down so that the only sound to be heard from the group was the faint swish of the grass being flattened by their black boots.

  Sebastian kept his eyes fixed on the house, feverishly searching each gaping window for any sign of movement. Nothing so far. He didn’t know whether he found that reassuring or not.

  The first members of the team reached the house and quickly pressed themselves against the wall by the front door. The others joined them. One by the big window on the ground floor. Two others took out their grenades and crept towards the door. Sebastian saw a helmet bobbing up and down in the ditch in front of them; the eastern team seemed equally restless and eager.

  Once all those around the house had reached their designated locations, everything proceeded like a well-oiled machine. Sebastian watched as the first two pulled open the door and each lobbed a grenade inside. Those by the windows did the same thing. There was a brief silence, followed by four almost simultaneous explosions. The win
dows were lit up by the flashes and the team rushed in. At the same time the men in the ditch leapt up and began to run, moving even faster if that were possible. Sebastian stepped out of the barn. He could hear more explosions from the house, and white smoke was pouring out through several of the broken windows. He realised that this was all going wrong.

  He was the one who ought to be inside the house.

  He was the one Hinde was waiting for.

  He suddenly began to run as fast as he could. He could hear Torkel yelling after him: ‘Sebastian, what the hell are you doing?’

  He simply ran.

  His legs sped across the grass. He stumbled at the ditch, but immediately regained his balance. Increased his speed even more, running as he had never run before. One of the officers from the second team saw him and gestured to him to stop.

  Sebastian ignored him. He needed to find his daughter.

  He reached the front door and dashed into the darkness of the house. There was a thick pall of smoke, and the smell of magnesium and other metals lay heavy in the air. He was so puffed he had difficulty breathing. He made himself move across to the storeroom under the stairs. It was the first place he thought of, but he stopped when he saw one of the police officers emerging from it.

  ‘Was there anything in there?’

  The man shook his head. ‘No, it’s empty. You’re not supposed to be in here.’

  ‘Was there any food in there?’

  ‘What?’

  He heard more explosions from the upper floor, and raced upstairs. The bedroom occupied by Hinde’s mother was up there, and that was probably where they would be.

  It was darker up here, and there was even more smoke. He found it difficult to get his bearings, and soon had absolutely no idea where he was. He began to cough because of the smoke, but tried to move in the direction where he thought the bedroom should be. There was rubbish on the floor, and he tripped over some loose planks. He grazed his hands, but quickly got back on his feet. He was losing time.

  He was losing Vanja.

  As he ran into the bedroom he bumped into a figure in the doorway. He jumped backwards, but it was the leader of the special operations unit.

  ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

  ‘Where is she?’

  The other man shook his head. ‘The place is empty. There’s no one here.’

  Sebastian stared at him. ‘What?’

  ‘There’s no one here. No one at all.’

  They were holding a short debrief outside the house. Torkel was standing with the special ops unit leader in front of the other officers. They had double- and triple-checked the house. Nothing. Sebastian had looked in the storeroom under the stairs himself. He had gone back there with some trepidation, and had borrowed a torch from one of the police officers so that he would at least have some light. It smelled the same as before. Worse, maybe. But it was empty apart from a few discarded beer cans on the floor. There was no food in the place where the young Edward Hinde used to arrange his secret supplies long ago. That was all the proof Sebastian needed. Hinde would never omit that particular detail. The hidden cache of food was the only security he knew. In many ways that was what gave him the courage to carry out his crimes. Sebastian was convinced that wherever Vanja might be, there would be food neatly arranged in a small, lockable room. It would remain there until the day they found her.

  Probably dead.

  Given the speed at which the search was proceeding at the moment.

  Ralph had lied. This time Sebastian would forget the subtle games and make sure he got the right answer.

  He looked over at Torkel and the other officers with growing frustration. He couldn’t understand what was taking so long. They needed to get out of here.

  At last they seemed to have finished. Torkel walked towards him, his mobile pressed to his ear. ‘Billy,’ he mouthed to Sebastian. After a few moments he looked up at Sebastian and shook his head. ‘He didn’t find anything.’

  ‘Can I have a word with him?’

  Torkel passed him the phone. Billy sounded stressed and exhausted. ‘Like I said. There’s a family living in the house in Midsommarkransen. They were having a big family get-together, grannies and granddads and the whole shebang. There’s no way he could be there.’

  ‘So what now?’

  ‘I’m just on my way back to the office. I’m going to make a start on checking Ralph’s computer. That’s my strong point, after all.’

  Billy ended the call without saying goodbye. Sebastian gave the phone back to Torkel and headed towards the car he had arrived in, but the special ops unit leader stopped him just as he was about to get in. After his behaviour during the operation, he could travel with the others. Sebastian didn’t have the strength to argue; he merely shook his head wearily at their ridiculous idea of punishment and went to the car behind. These people seemed to get their priorities wrong all the time. He hated them. He got in the back seat. Nobody came to sit beside him. He didn’t care. He didn’t want to speak to anybody anyway.

  After they had been driving for a few minutes and had reached the main road, his mobile suddenly vibrated; he still had it on silent from the operation. He took it out and discovered he had received a multimedia message. He had never had one of those before. The sender was a number he didn’t recognise. He took a deep breath. Fear made his stomach contract, and his throat was suddenly dry. The message would be painful. He took another deep breath and opened it.

  It was a picture accompanied by a brief message. The picture made any remaining colour drain from his face. A naked Vanja was sitting with a nightdress tossed on her knee. She was looking into the camera with a pleading expression on her face. He recognised the style from the photo wall in Ralph’s apartment. Looking down on the subject, the naked skin, the fear. He looked out of the window to maintain his composure. Tried to wipe the image from his brain. When he felt he was back in control, he read the short message below the photograph.

  ‘The first picture of my thirty-six. Where are you?’

  He quickly clicked away from the picture and looked out of the window again. He felt sick, but managed not to let it show.

  It was up to him now. Not those in uniform sitting all around him.

  That was the way Hinde wanted it.

  That was the way it was going to be.

  Ralph was lying motionless on the bunk in his dark cell staring up at the ceiling when he heard rapid footsteps out in the corridor. They stopped at his door and the security hatch flew open as a key was inserted in the lock.

  ‘Are you trying to trick me?’ Sebastian yelled. Straight to the point. No time for polite phrases. ‘I thought you knew Edward, but I guess it was just talk.’

  Ralph sat up quickly, brightening at the sight of Sebastian’s face in the narrow opening. ‘Wasn’t he there?’

  The door swung open and Sebastian pushed past the guard and into the cell. The look on his face was enough of an answer.

  ‘Where did you go?’ Ralph asked.

  ‘Märsta.’

  Ralph broke into a smile, shaking his head. ‘That’s not where it started.’

  ‘Edward is like a mad dog. He might have decided it “started” anywhere he fucking likes.’

  ‘But he didn’t. I know exactly where he is.’

  Just what Sebastian wanted to hear. He had hoped that admitting his failure would pay off, that it would give Ralph the chance to shine, but this had happened in record time. Now all he had to do was seal the deal.

  ‘Where? Where is he?’

  ‘I can show you.’

  Sebastian frowned. There was something in Ralph’s voice that made him realise Ralph wasn’t talking about a map here.

  ‘What do you mean, show me?’

  ‘I’ll come with you.’

  ‘No.’

  Harsh, perhaps. He saw Ralph’s enthusiasm wane slightly, but there was no point in charging straight for a dead end. The idea of taking Ralph anywhere was out of the question.
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  ‘You said I was like Edward,’ Ralph said, getting up. His voice had acquired a hard edge that hadn’t been there before. ‘Better, in fact. He would never help you without getting something in return. I want to be there.’

  ‘When we arrest him?’

  Ralph pointed a slender finger at Sebastian. ‘You can arrest him.’ He pointed the finger at himself. ‘I will get my fifth woman. I will be greater than Edward. The greatest.’

  There was something dreamlike in his voice this time, and his gaze was fixed on some distant point. Sebastian could hardly believe his ears. This was beyond insanity. Did Ralph seriously believe he would be allowed to go with Sebastian and commit a murder?

  Ralph fixed his eyes on Sebastian again. ‘You’re not the only one who will win.’

  Evidently. It was as Sebastian had feared. Both he and Hinde were opponents now. Everyone was Ralph’s opponent.

  Sebastian’s mobile pinged.

  Another multimedia message.

  The second picture.

  Sebastian stared straight ahead. Deep breaths. Thought about the situation. Discovered surprisingly quickly that there wasn’t all that much to think about, and called the custody officer who was waiting out in the corridor.

  ‘He’s coming with me.’ Sebastian nodded in the direction of Ralph, who was now wearing an expectant smile, certain of victory. The officer entered the cell and Ralph turned around obediently, hands behind his back. He was handcuffed and led into the corridor, then the officer handed both Ralph and the keys over to Sebastian. Together they set off down the corridor.

  Ralph was wrong.

  Sebastian was the only one who was going to win.

  At any price.

  They went down in the lift. Neither of them spoke. Ralph was still looking smug as Sebastian bundled him out of the lift and opened a metal door. A long culvert opened out in front of them. Pipes running along the ceiling, with green and yellow labels on them. Bare walls, apart from lights in the form of white hemispheres approximately every five metres on both sides. Sebastian pushed Ralph into the corridor. Their footsteps echoed on the bare concrete floor.