Chapter 73
To the left lies the huge shopping center that the Norwegians love. They come over to make the most of the exchange rate and differing taxation, spending thousands of kronor on cheap food and drink. There is also a gigantic candy store where the customers use buckets as bags.
“That must be the mountain hotel,” Hanna says, pointing to a dark-red building part way up the slope.
Daniel drives toward it. He has never been inside, although he has been here with Ida a few times to go cross-country skiing. He parks outside the entrance, which is in a whitewashed annex.
The whole place looks undeniably dead and abandoned.
Haunted, just like Raffe said.
“Isn’t it strange that so many dreams and turbulent emotions are linked to this hotel?” Hanna says from the passenger seat.
Daniel contemplates the building in front of them. It exudes an unexpected air of melancholy, with an unmistakable aura of its long-gone glory days. It doesn’t look as if it is waiting to be woken from its slumbers like Sleeping Beauty, but more as if it will never come back to life.
“It’s hard to believe this was a renowned establishment back in the day,” he says. “It’s not even particularly impressive.”
“I guess it used to sparkle and shine.” Hanna undoes her seatbelt. “But now it’s kind of depressing.”
She has put Daniel’s feelings into words. “Not much glamour left,” he says.
“And yet people are furious at the idea that it might disappear. Charlotte definitely stirred up a hornets’ nest when she decided she wanted to pull it down.”
“Mmm.”
Daniel screws up his eyes against the sun. All he can see is a barricaded structure of steel and wood. But two women are dead, and there is a great deal to suggest that this place lies at the heart of the investigation.
How could it mean so much that it led to . . . murder?