The Preacher (46 page)

But he had laughed the Devil right in the face. To his great surprise the police had told him that the tests exonerated him. That was the final proof he needed to be convinced that he was on the right path and that nobody could stop him. He was special. He was protected. He was blessed.

Slowly he stroked the girl’s hair once more. He would have to find a new one.

It took only ten minutes before Annika called back.

‘It was like you said. Jacob has cancer again. But this time it isn’t leukaemia, but a big tumour in his brain. He’s been informed that there’s nothing they can do, it’s too far advanced.’

‘When did he get the news?’

Annika looked at the notes she had jotted down. ‘The same day that Tanja went missing.’

Patrik sank down on the sofa in the living room. He knew it, yet had a hard time believing it was true. The house breathed such peace, such calm. There was not a trace of the evil for which he held the proof in his hands. Only deceptive normality. Flowers in a vase, children’s toys spread across the floor, a half-read book on the coffee table. No skulls, no blood-spattered clothes, no black candles burning.

Over the mantelpiece there was even a painting of Jesus, on his way up to Heaven after the resurrection, with a halo round his head and people praying on the ground before him, looking up.

How could anyone justify the most evil of actions with the thought that he had carte blanche from God? Although perhaps it wasn’t so strange after all. Down through the ages millions of people had been murdered in God’s name. There was something tempting about that power, something that intoxicated human beings and misled them.

Patrik wrenched himself out of his theological musings and found that the team was now standing around looking at him, waiting for more instructions. He had shown them what he’d found, and every one of them was now struggling not to think of the horrors that Jenny might be going through at that very moment.

The problem was that they had no idea where she could be. During the time Patrik was waiting for Annika to call back, they had continued an even more feverish search through the house. At the same time he had rung the manor and asked Marita, Gabriel and Laine whether there was anywhere they thought Jacob might go. He brusquely brushed off their counter-questions. There was no time for that right now.

He ruffled his hair, which was already standing on end. ‘Where the hell can he be? We can’t keep searching the whole county, centimetre by centimetre. He could be hiding her near the farm in Bullaren instead, or somewhere in between. What the hell are we going to do?’ he said in frustration.

Martin felt the same impotence but said nothing. Patrik hadn’t meant it as a question. Then an idea occurred to him.

‘It must be here around Västergården somewhere. Think of the trail of the fertilizer. My guess is that Jacob is using the same place that Johannes used. And what would be more logical than somewhere around here?’

‘You’re right, but both Marita and her in-laws say that there aren’t any other buildings on the property. Of course it could be a cave or something like that, but do you know how large the Hult family property is? It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.’

‘Yes, but what about Solveig and her boys? Have you asked them? They lived here before. They might know something about the place that Marita doesn’t know.’

‘That’s a hell of a good idea. Isn’t there a list of numbers in the kitchen by the telephone? Linda has her mobile with her, so maybe I can reach them on that.’

Martin went and checked. He came back with a list on which Linda’s name was neatly written. Impatiently Patrik let it ring. After what seemed like an eternity Linda answered.

‘Linda, this is Patrik Hedström. I need to talk to Solveig or Robert.’

‘They’re in with Stefan. He woke up!’ Linda said, sounding elated. With a heavy heart Patrik realized that the joy would soon disappear from her voice.

‘Get one of them now, this is important!’

‘Okay, which would you prefer?’

He thought a moment. Who would know the area around the house where he lived better than a child? The choice was easy. ‘Robert.’

He heard her put down the phone and go to fetch him. She probably couldn’t take the mobile into the hospital room because it might disturb the equipment. Patrik just managed to think of that before he heard Robert’s sombre voice on the line.

‘Yes, this is Robert.’

‘Hello, it’s Patrik Hedström. I wonder whether you could help us with something. It’s extremely important,’ he hastened to add.

‘Yes, okay, what is it?’ said Robert hesitantly.

‘I wonder if you know of any buildings on the grounds around Västergården besides the ones located near the house. It doesn’t even have to be a building, actually. More a good place to hide, if you know what I mean. But it has to be fairly big. There has to be room for more than one person.’

Patrik could clearly sense the question marks piling up in Robert’s brain, but to his relief Robert didn’t challenge the reason for his questions. Instead, after thinking for a moment, he said, ‘Well, the only thing I can come up with is the old bomb shelter. It’s located a good bit up in the woods. We used to play there when we were little, Stefan and I.’

‘And Jacob,’ said Patrik, ‘did he know about it?’

‘Yes, we made the mistake of showing it to him once. But then he ran straight to Pappa. They came back and told us never to play there again. It was dangerous, Pappa said. So that was the end of our fun. Jacob has always been a little too proper for his own good,’ Robert said sourly as he remembered his childhood disappointment. Patrik thought that proper was perhaps not the word that would come to be associated with Jacob in future.

He thanked him hastily after getting directions and hung up.

‘I think I know where they are, Martin. Gather everybody out in the yard.’

Five minutes later, eight solemn officers were standing in the blazing sunshine outside. Four from Tanumshede, four from Uddevalla.

‘We have reason to believe that Jacob Hult is hiding nearby in the woods, in an old bomb shelter. He probably has Jenny Möller there, and we don’t know whether she’s dead or alive. So we have to act as though she’s alive and use the utmost caution in handling the situation. We’ll move forward carefully until we find the shelter, then we’ll surround it. In silence,’ Patrik said sharply, letting his gaze wander over them all but resting a bit longer on Ernst. ‘We’ll have weapons drawn, but nobody does anything without an express order from me. Is that clear?’

Everyone nodded, their faces solemn.

‘An ambulance is on its way from Uddevalla, but they won’t be arriving with blue lights on. They’ll stop just outside the drive into Västergården. Sound travels far in the woods, and we don’t want him to hear that something is going down. As soon as we have the situation under control we’ll call in the EMTs.’

‘Shouldn’t we have some medics with us up front?’ asked one of the officers from Uddevalla. ‘It might be urgent by the time we find her.’

Patrik nodded. ‘You’re right in principle, but we don’t have time to wait for them. Right now it’s more important to locate her quickly, and hopefully the EMTs will have arrived in the meantime. Okay, let’s move out.’

Robert had described where they should go in the woods behind the house. A hundred metres farther away they would come to the path leading to the bomb shelter. The path was almost invisible if you didn’t know it was there, and Patrik almost missed it at first. They advanced slowly towards the goal and after about a kilometre he thought he could see something glinting through the foliage. Without a word he turned round and directed the men behind him to move forward. They spread out as quietly as possible and encircled the shelter, but it wasn’t possible to avoid a bit of rustling. Patrik grimaced at every sound and hoped the thick concrete walls would filter out any noise Jacob might overhear.

He drew his weapon and out of the corner of his eye saw Martin do the same. They crept forward and cautiously tried the door. It was locked. Damn, what were they going to do now? They had no equipment with them to get it open and the only alternative was to urge Jacob to come out voluntarily. In trepidation Patrik knocked on the door and moved quickly to the side.

‘Jacob. We know you’re in there. We want you to come out!’

No answer. He tried again.

‘Jacob, I know that you didn’t mean to hurt those girls. You were just doing what Johannes did. Come out and let’s talk about it.’

He could hear how lame his words sounded. Maybe he should have taken a course in hostage negotiation, or at least brought along a psychologist. Lacking that, he would have to rely on his own instincts about how to talk a psychopath out of a bomb shelter.

To his great surprise he heard the lock click a moment later. The door opened slowly. Martin and Patrik, standing on either side of the door, exchanged a glance. Both of them were holding their weapons in front of their faces and tensed their bodies to be ready. Jacob stepped out through the door. In his arms he was carrying Jenny. There was no doubt that she was dead, and Patrik could almost feel the disappointment and sorrow sweeping through the hearts of the policemen, who now stood fully visible with their weapons aimed at Jacob.

He ignored them. Instead he was looking up and speaking into the air.

‘I don’t understand. I was chosen. You were supposed to protect me.’ He looked as confused as if the world were suddenly turned upside down. ‘Why did You save me yesterday if I’m not in Your grace today?’

Patrik and Martin looked at each other. Jacob seemed completely out of it. But that made him all the more dangerous. There was no way to tell what he was going to do next. They kept their weapons steadily aimed at him.

‘Put down the girl,’ said Patrik.

Jacob kept his eyes on Heaven, talking to his invisible God.

‘I know that You would have let me have the gift, but I need more time. Why do You turn away from me now?’

‘Put down the girl and get your hands in the air!’ said Patrik with more sharpness in his voice. Still no reaction from Jacob. He was holding the girl in his arms and didn’t seem to have any weapon on him. Patrik wondered whether he should tackle him to break the stand-off. There was no reason to worry about injuring the girl. It was too late for that.

He had scarcely finished his thought when a tall figure came flying forward from the left. Patrik was so startled that his finger shook on the trigger, and he almost put a bullet into either Jacob or Martin. He watched with horror as Ernst’s lanky body flew through the air straight at Jacob, who dropped to the ground with a thud. Jenny fell out of his arms and landed right in front of him with a nasty hollow sound, like a sack of flour flung to the ground.

With a triumphant expression Ernst twisted Jacob’s hands behind his back. He didn’t try to resist, but he still had the same astonished look on his face.

‘That’s how it’s done,’ said Ernst and looked up to receive the cheers of the crowd. They all stood as if frozen, and when Ernst saw the dark look on Patrik’s face he realized that once again he had acted without thinking.

Patrik was still shaking after coming so close to shooting Martin. He had to control himself to keep from putting his hands round Ernst’s skinny neck and slowly throttling him. But they would deal with that later. Now the most important thing was to take Jacob into custody.

Gösta got out a pair of handcuffs and went over to Jacob and fastened them round his wrists. Together with Martin he brusquely helped Jacob to his feet and then shot a questioning look at Patrik, who turned to two of the officers from Uddevalla.

‘Take him back to Västergården. I’ll be there right away. See to it that the ambulance crew come out here too and tell them to bring a stretcher.’

They started to leave with Jacob, but Patrik stopped them. ‘Wait a minute, I just want to look him in the eyes. I want to see what somebody who can do this really looks like.’ He motioned towards Jenny’s lifeless body.

Jacob met his gaze without remorse, but still with the same bewildered expression. He looked at Patrik and said, ‘Isn’t it strange? Last night to save me, God performed a miracle, and then today He lets me get caught?’

Patrik tried to see in the man’s eyes whether he was serious, or whether all this was a game to try and save himself from the consequences of his own actions. The look that met him was as blank as a mirror; he was looking into the face of madness.

Wearily he said, ‘It wasn’t God. It was Ephraim. You passed the blood test because Ephraim donated his bone marrow to you when you were sick. That meant that you received his blood and his DNA in your blood. That’s why your blood sample didn’t match the DNA test we took on the … evidence … you left on Tanja. We didn’t understand it until the experts at the lab mapped the relationships of your family. According to your blood test you were supposedly the father of Johannes and Gabriel.’

Jacob simply nodded. Then he said gently, ‘But isn’t that a miracle?’ Then he was led off through the woods.

Martin, Gösta and Patrik remained standing by Jenny’s body. Ernst had hastily slunk away with the police from Uddevalla, and he would probably do his best to keep a low profile for a while.

All three of them wished they had a jacket to cover her with. Her nakedness was so vulnerable, so degrading. They saw the wounds on her body. Wounds that were identical to those Tanja had suffered. And probably the same as Siv and Mona had when they died.

Despite his impulsive temperament Johannes had been a methodical man. His notebook showed how he had precisely recorded the wounds he inflicted on his victims, and then how he had tried to heal them. He kept records of it all like a scientist. The same wounds on both, in the same order. Perhaps to convince himself that it had some semblance of being a scientific experiment. An experiment in which they were unfortunate but necessary sacrifices. Necessary so that God would give him back the gift of healing that he’d had as a boy. The gift he had longed for his whole adult life and which became so acutely necessary to resurrect when Jacob, his first-born son, fell ill.