The Boy in the Headlights

by Samuel Bjork

  New arm movements.

  One masked soldier swapping places with another.

  Two men at the door now, the others covering separate windows.

  A cabin.

  Deep in the forest.

  Ivan Horowitz.

  It would soon be over.

  At last.

  ‘GO!’

  And the scene in front of him exploded. Smoke grenades. The door splintering. Glass breaking. The first soldier ran inside the cabin, his camera, now with a light, looking around desperately. Another one entered through the window. Smoke. Chaos. They could no longer see what was going on until the radio silence was suddenly breached and the smoke began to settle.

  ‘We have him.’

  ‘Oh, fuck.’

  A glove through the air towards a lifeless body hanging from the ceiling.

  ‘One, three, we have him. But he has been here a long time.’

  ‘Three, one, ID?’

  Same glove reaching for the throat of the badly decomposed body. A military dog tag appeared.

  ‘One, three, this is our man. Horowitz. But, as you can see, there’s no way he could have done any of this. He’s been dead a long time.’

  The camera pointed at the floor; the smell of the dead body hanging inside the cabin had caused the soldier to throw up.

  ‘This is Eagle,’ Edvardsen said gravely.

  ‘Eagle, come in.’

  ‘Are we sure?’

  ‘Repeat, Eagle?’

  ‘Are you sure the dead man is Horowitz?’ Edvardsen said, clearly stressed now.

  ‘Two, one, double-check ID.’

  Another soldier pinched his nose and walked up to the body to check the tag around its neck.

  ‘Horowitz,’ the soldier said.

  ‘Eagle, we have the right man. But he’s not your killer.’

  ‘Damn it,’ Edvardsen said, his face going bright red as he turned to the other people in the room.

  ‘So do you think we can have our mobiles back now?’ Munch grunted irritably then got up and left.

  Chapter 73

  ‘I didn’t think you would ever wake up,’ the smiling face said. ‘I’ve been waiting for so long and now, finally, the day has arrived. Aren’t you happy?’

  Mia couldn’t get the images on her retina to make any sense.

  Alexander?

  Her neighbour?

  What the hell …?

  The blond young man got up to fetch something from a small table.

  ‘There you go.’

  A hand behind her head. A glass of water held to her lips. Half of it went down her throat, the rest all over her jumper, but what she managed to swallow tasted heavenly.

  ‘Why …?’ Mia croaked, but her voice faltered.

  ‘I’m sure you’ve been wondering about this a lot, and I’ve been waiting so long to tell you,’ the big, smiling eyes said. ‘So let’s start at the beginning, shall we? We don’t have much time before we need to leave.’

  Alexander caressed her cheek softly. Mia flinched instinctively and felt the pain in her wrist as the knot tightened.

  ‘Or would you rather guess? You worked it out, you did, but perhaps you don’t realize why?’

  ‘You killed all those people just because of … me?’

  Her voice sounded as if it were coming from another planet.

  ‘The pictures in your album. Elegant, wasn’t it?’

  Alexander grinned and raised the glass to her lips again.

  Mia scanned the room.

  A door. Open. Leading to a room.

  Noises in there. Crackling.

  A radio. No, a police radio. No, several.

  But no voices on any of the channels.

  Shit.

  They were far away from civilization.

  Really far away.

  ‘Watching you has been fun.’ The young man smiled. ‘Very exciting. I started bugging your phone a long time ago. You look so sweet when you’re asleep, did you know that?’

  He got up eagerly, left the room and returned with her lozenges. Pushed one of them in between her lips.

  ‘There you go – some salt; that will help. Poor old you. Are you starting to feel a little better?’

  He trailed a finger down her cheek and let it linger over her lips for a moment.

  ‘It’s fate. How many years have we known one another, Mia? And then suddenly I see it one day. The flat right next to yours is … for sale. The chance to be your neighbour? Have you any idea how happy it made me? But then …’

  He shook his head sadly.

  ‘Barely a hello. I mean, after all these years? Disappointing, Mia. Very selfish of you. If it hadn’t been the two of us for ever, I would almost have said that it was …’

  The young man smiled to himself and placed a cold flannel on her forehead.

  ‘You went into my flat?’ Mia spluttered.

  She scanned the room again but saw only shadows now. Her eyes began to close but he nudged her.

  ‘Oh, no. Wakey, wakey, darling. Remember, we don’t have very much time left.’

  He took her gently by her jaw and shook her.

  ‘The great investigator Mia Krüger!’ the young man shouted, and stood up. ‘Does she notice her true love when he’s standing right in front of her? No! So how will this poor rejected lover ever win her favour? What does she really care about, this great investigator? There’s only one thing!’

  He stuck a finger into the air and grinned from ear to ear. Mia felt like she was witnessing some sort of sick circus act.

  His eyes.

  His smile.

  He wasn’t really here.

  This young man was somewhere completely different.

  ‘Well, you’ve noticed me now, haven’t you, Mia?’

  Alexander smiled and flung out his arms.

  ‘I’m not invisible any longer, am I? What? No? Yes? You can see me now, can’t you?’

  He burst out laughing.

  ‘Genius, isn’t it? You have to admit it. Oh yes. I’ve read everything. Seen everything. I know everything about you, Mia. The pictures. Your diary. Isn’t it strange how beautiful such things can be?’

  He grinned again and returned to the bed. Put his hand on her cheek once more.

  ‘And isn’t it amazing how well you can get to know another person, even though you never speak to them?’

  ‘Why …?’ Mia mumbled as the darkness slipped over her eyes again.

  ‘You saved my life,’ the young man said, and suddenly grew serious. ‘Well, not in that sense, but yes, I would say so. Because you caught him, didn’t you? Salem? The arsonist.’

  Mia shook her head, or maybe she nodded. She was no longer sure. She couldn’t feel her arms or her legs.

  ‘The house was full of smoke.’ The young man got up again.

  The circus act resumed, only this time the mood was sombre.

  ‘There was smoke in my room. That’s the last thing I remember. When I woke up again, they were dead. My dad. Kyrre, my brother. Both of them. Eaten by the flames, as was our house in Fredrikstad. And if that wasn’t bad enough, then my mum thought I had done it. Me, Mia? She thought I was to blame.’

  A fire.

  The Brothers Lionheart.

  A dead big brother.

  She had been right.

  ‘I had been playing with matches, Mia, hadn’t I?’

  The young man tilted his head, a smile on his lips, but his eyes were elsewhere.

  Mia wanted to say something but she was unable to.

  ‘After that,’ Alexander continued eagerly, as if this were a rehearsed speech which he had waited a long time to deliver. ‘She didn’t want anything to do with me. As if I had the mark of Cain on my forehead. As if I were the spawn of the devil. Didn’t want to look at me. Shut me in the basement. She let me out so that I could go to school, but that was all. A television and an old video recorder. With one movie. Over and over again. Bambi. Just me. And this movie. What do you think that does to a child, Mia
?’

  A serious gaze now above the thin lips, but his eyes were no longer looking at her; he was far away.

  ‘But then, one day, Mia, “Would you like to go to the cabin, Alexander?” she said. Have you any idea, Mia, how happy it made me? To go somewhere with my mum? I remember how nice it was, sitting in the car listening to the radio. A log fire. The smell of food from the kitchen. It was the middle of winter. Then my mum took something from the wall and tied it round my head. Antlers. She pointed to the frozen lake outside. The glossy ice. Bambi is down there. That was what she said, Mia. Bambi is down there, Alexander, and if you walk out on the ice with the antlers on your head, you’ll get to see him for yourself …’

  Mia pulled her foot slowly towards her and felt some leeway. If only she could free her arm …

  ‘Are you listening, Mia?’ the wistful eyes said.

  ‘I’m listening,’ Mia croaked and attempted a smile. ‘You went out on the ice to see—’

  ‘Bambi,’ the young man smiled. ‘I was ten years old and I was going to see Bambi, do you understand? Because I loved Bambi. So I sat on the ice. For hours. Until I turned blue. But Bambi never came. And when I finally gave up and fought my way through the snow back to the cabin, there was no one there.’

  ‘What?’ Mia mumbled.

  ‘My mum. She was gone.’

  The young man fell silent for a moment.

  ‘But then you came. Mia Krüger. Out of nowhere. It was an arsonist, Mum. It wasn’t me. It was an arsonist. Oh, Mia, you should have seen the look on her face in the hospital bed when I showed her the newspapers all those years later. Do you remember? The front pages?’

  A vague memory.

  VG and Dagbladet.

  Right after she had caught him.

  ‘She understood, Mia. She looked at me with such love in her eyes, Mia, do you understand? Right before she died. Her eyes. She stroked my hand, Mia. I could see she was sorry for all the hurt, for neglecting me, for letting me be raised in care while she served her time in jail. For leaving me out there, for not being a mother to me. She finally understood. Now do you see?’

  The young man smiled and stroked his cheek.

  ‘Mum …’

  Mia had begun to carefully retract her foot again when Alexander became mentally present in the room once more.

  ‘And that was when it happened, of course it was. Mia Krüger. Fate. My true love. You and me for ever. It was no coincidence, was it, Mia? That you saved me?’

  ‘Thank you,’ Mia said, finally managing to produce something that looked like a smile.

  ‘And now we’ll travel together,’ the young man said. He seemed calmer now. ‘But first …’

  He ran out of the room and returned with something a moment later.

  A … wedding dress?

  ‘Do you think it’ll fit you? You and me, darling? Before we go.’

  He held up the wedding dress so that she could see it and smiled again.

  ‘Where … are we going?’ Mia asked with a hesitant smile.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Alexander sounded rather surprised.

  ‘You said “travel”? Where are we …?’

  He looked at her strangely.

  ‘To join Kyrre, of course. And Sigrid. Isn’t that what you want? To put all this behind you? For you and me to go to Nangiyala?’

  Nangiyala.

  The Brothers Lionheart.

  In the story, it was the magic land.

  She finally realized what he was talking about and her thoughts became instantly lucid. Her diaries in the boxes. The notes she had made after those endless sessions with the psychologists.

  Her suicidal thoughts.

  Her twin sister walking slowly through a field of yellow wheat.

  Come, Mia, come.

  ‘Oh, I almost forgot.’ The young man smiled and clapped his hands.

  He ran eagerly back out into the living room and returned with his hands behind his back.

  ‘Look.’ He smiled again, holding up a shiny piece of jewellery in front of her face.

  She could see the initial but her brain refused to take it in.

  M.

  M for Mia.

  It was … Sigrid’s bracelet?

  What the …?

  ‘For you, darling.’ Alexander, still smiling, carefully placed the bracelet next to her on the bed.

  Chapter 74

  ‘Clear. No one here.’

  Curry returned to the land of the living as someone pulled off his hood. The light grew even brighter now and stung his eyes.

  Stampeding boots across the floor.

  ‘Clear. It’s empty. They’re gone.’

  A hand under his chin, pulling up his head.

  ‘My name is John Wold. Are you Larsen? Curry?’

  He could barely open his mouth.

  ‘Dahl? The lawyer? Lorentzen? Were they here?’

  Curry nodded slowly.

  ‘Did they leave a long time ago?’

  A police radio crackled somewhere.

  ‘I …’ Curry began, but his voice failed.

  ‘They’re gone,’ said the voice belonging to Wold as he turned to someone Curry couldn’t see. ‘Issue a wanted notice. They can’t have got far.’

  Dear God.

  He was still trembling. He couldn’t stop.

  ‘Untie him,’ another voice said.

  Hands on his legs. Arms. He felt the blood return to his hands.

  ‘No one here?’

  ‘No one except this guy.’

  More boots across the hard floor.

  ‘Shit. OK.’

  More voices outside, further away this time.

  ‘Get the message out. Close everything.’

  Then Wold again, far away in the fog.

  ‘Are you OK? Are you able to stand up?’

  Hands helping him, his legs refusing to carry him.

  And then Curry passed out.

  Chapter 75

  Mia resurfaced once more, this time in front of a mirror. She must have passed out again. He had moved her. Was he still drugging her? A chair. In the living room. Handcuffs now. Nothing round her legs.

  ‘It’s a great fit, don’t you think, darling?’

  A smile in the mirror as she felt something in her hair.

  A hairbrush.

  He was brushing her hair.

  Her face.

  He had put make-up on her face.

  Something around her finger.

  A gold ring.

  And a strange garment on her body.

  A wedding dress.

  He had dressed her.

  Applied make-up.

  Fuck.

  Mia felt an instinctive urge to get up and rid herself of it all, but she was unable to move. His face in the mirror came into focus as her brain slowly grew more lucid.

  ‘How do you want your hair, darling?’

  She felt his disgusting fingers in her hair.

  ‘Up?’

  Alexander smiled and moved his face close to hers in the mirror.

  ‘Or down? I think you look best with it down, but perhaps I should put it up, given that today is a special day? What do you think?’

  Play for time.

  Finally, she managed to think straight.

  ‘Up, perhaps,’ she mumbled, plastering what she hoped was a smile across her face.

  ‘Yes, I agree, I do.’ The young man took a step back.

  Get him to talk about something.

  ‘How?’ her dry mouth began.

  ‘What, darling?’

  Another finger across her cheek.

  ‘The bracelet? How did you get it?’

  ‘Oh, by chance. It was meant for you. A friend of your sister. Cisse. She left it on the door to our building, but you didn’t find it. I did. She hung around our neighbourhood quite a lot. She was spying on you.’

  He laughed a little and let the brush glide through her hair again.

  ‘You were right, by the way.’

  His v
oice was now suddenly very close to her ear.

  ‘Markus Skog. The guy you shot? He did kill Sigrid. I invited Cisse in. You know what junkies are like. Gave her some money so that she could get herself a fix. She told me everything that happened.’

  ‘Why …?’

  Mia could feel herself fading away again.

  ‘Oh, it was the same old story, as far as I could work out. Sigrid was a drug mule, bringing in heroin, then she went to rehab and wanted out.’

  Mia could no longer speak.

  ‘Oh yes, she cleaned up her act. She was ready to start a new life. I think she even hinted that, unless they left her alone, she would tell everything. Markus Skog and some lawyer decided they couldn’t let her do that, now could they?’

  Darkness coming over her.

  ‘But this junkie overheard them – Cisse. She was shooting up on a sofa, yet she seems to have been paying attention nevertheless. An overdose, and Sigrid was gone. They carried her body to a basement nearby. Another dead junkie – who would suspect anything was amiss?’

  The young man smiled and pressed his cheek against Mia’s once more.

  ‘Are you sure you like it up? Why don’t we just leave it loose? It’s more natural.’

  Mia was close to fainting.

  No.

  Please, no.

  She pulled herself together again.

  ‘How?’ she mumbled. ‘Ivan … Horowitz?’

  With her last strength Mia raised her head and managed to fix Alexander’s eyes in the mirror.

  ‘Oh, yes, that was clever, wasn’t it?’

  Alexander put down the hairbrush.

  ‘We were at Blakstad together. Six months. We got to know one another quite well. He had been to war. He was a total wreck. And I was – well, I’m me, aren’t I?’

  He laughed briefly.

  ‘I couldn’t have all these people getting in our way, now could I? It was just going to be you and me, that was the whole point. It was a brilliant plan, wasn’t it? Send them all on a wild-goose chase? A kill list? Fifty random people?’

  Alexander laughed out loud, cocked his head and picked up the hairbrush again.

  ‘No, I think up, don’t you? I mean, it’s a big day today.’

  The little strength Mia had managed to summon disappeared once more. She could barely keep her head upright.

  Sigrid?