The ground was rising again. Stones loosened underneath their feet and tumbled down the slope.
There must be people nearby. There must be a house. Hysteria swept through Penelope and she felt the need to just stop and scream as loud as she could. Silently, she ran on.
Bjorn coughed behind her, strangled for breath; coughed again.
What if Viola wasnt really dead? What if she just needed help? Somehow Penelope knew she was having these thoughts to ward off the terrible truth. Viola was dead, but thinking that was unbearable: an empty dark space she refused to comprehend and didnt even want to make the attempt to understand.
They kept climbing up another steep slope between yet more spruce trees, around more huge branches, lingonberry bushes, and craggy rocks. She used her hands to steady herself until she finally reached the crest. Bjorn was right behind her. He tried to tell her something, but instead just gasped for breath. He took her hand to start down the other side, which now sloped toward the western shore. They could see the light of water between the dark trees. It wasnt far.
Penelope slipped and slid over the edge of a small cliff. She fell freely and hit the ground hard. Struggling to get up, she wondered whether shed broken something. Then she realized she was hearing music and laughter. She leaned against the damp cliff side for support so she could stand up. She wiped her lips and studied her bloody hand.
Bjorn reached her and pulled her along. He pointed. There was a party going on somewhere ahead of them. They took each others hands and stumbled shakily to a run. Colored lights, strung on trellises around a wooden patio, twinkled between the dark trunks of trees.
They slowed to a cautious walk, looking carefully around.
People were sitting at a table outside a beautiful summerhouse painted Falun red. Penelope wondered if it was the middle of the night. The sky was still light, but dinner must have ended a while ago. Wineglasses and coffee cups were scattered about along with crumpled napkins and empty potato-chip bowls.
A few partygoers were singing together, while others refilled their glasses from boxes of red wine and chatted. Tendrils of wavy warm air still rose from the grill. Any children must have already been put to bed, snuggled in the house underneath cozy blankets. To Bjorn and Penelope, they seemed like denizens of another planet-a planet where calm, happy people lived safely together under a giant glass dome.
Only one person stood outside of that charmed circle. He lurked at the side, facing the forest as if he expected visitors. Penelope stopped dead and silently gripped Bjorns hand. They dropped to the ground and crept behind a low spruce. Bjorns eyes were scared and uncomprehending, but Penelope was absolutely sure what shed seen. Their pursuer had read their minds and gotten ahead of them. He knew they couldnt resist the lights and the sounds of the party. Like moths to a flame, theyd be drawn here. So hed waited. Hed want to catch them just inside the darkness of the trees. He hadnt worried about any screams. He knew the people at the party wouldnt think to investigate anything so strange until it would be too late.
When Penelope dared look up again, the man was gone. She shook from shock. Perhaps hed changed his mind and believed hed made a mistake. She searched around with her eyes. Maybe hed gone somewhere else.
Hope had just started to creep into her mind. Then she saw him again, closer.
He was a dark form blending into a tree trunk not far from them.
He was calmly unpacking a set of black binoculars with green lenses.
Penelope pressed closer to Bjorn and fought her mindless instinct to leap up and start running again. Instead, she coolly watched the man as he lifted his binoculars to his eyes. He must have night-vision goggles or a heat sensor, she thought.
When the mans back was turned, Penelope pressed Bjorns hand and, bent double, she pulled him away from the house and the music and back deep into the forest. After a while, she felt safe enough to straighten up. They began to run diagonally across a slope, a gently rounded reminder of the ancient glaciers that once ground northern Europe under ice. They kept going-through tangled bushes, behind a huge boulder, over a rocky crest. Bjorn grabbed a thick branch and hurried as carefully as he could down the slope. Penelopes heart thudded in her chest and her thigh muscles screamed. She tried to breathe quietly, but could not. She slid down a rocky cliff, pulling damp moss with her, and landed on the ground next to the deep shade of a spruce. She looked at Bjorn. All he had on were his knee-length swimming trunks. His body was a pale blur and his lips almost disappeared in his white face.
15
It sounds as if someone is bouncing a ball against the wall beneath Chief Medical Officer Nils Ahlens window. The Needle is waiting with Joona Linna for Claudia Fernandez. They dont have much to say, so they keep quiet. Claudia Fernandez had been asked to appear at the department of forensic medicine early that Sunday morning to identify the body of a dead woman.